Industry

From rapid production to cutting-edge performance

Materials form the fabric of our lives, bringing the comfort we rely on as we discover the world around us. While we continue to focus on rapid production and luxurious quality to meet ambitious consumer trends, our next-generation solutions will ramp up precision, sustainability, and design freedom to bring cutting-edge performance to manufacturers and consumers.

Challenge: providing comfort and style with a clear conscience

Eight to ten percent of global carbon emissions are attributable to the fashion industry. More and more people are realizing that the fast-fashion trend of the past cannot be a model for the 21st century. They are looking for beautiful, functional, and individualized clothing that goes easy on natural resources and is produced in a socially responsible way. Manufacturers face the challenge of responding to this need while streamlining and digitalizing their production processes. With our high-tech materials, we are helping to make the vision of an inspiring and more sustainable sports and leisure industry a reality.*

Status: future-oriented creativity from head to toe

When choosing their sportswear, consumers expect maximum performance and functionality. Yet, particularly those who enjoy outdoor sports often attach particular importance to doing so with apparel produced with as little harm to our environment as possible. Luckily, our INSQIN® technology combines both characteristics seamlessly. Functional clothing made with INSQIN® is characterized by excellent waterproofness. This is achieved by two layers of coating that are waterborne instead of solvent-based, thus reducing the carbon footprint of the garment. What’s more, manufacturers can easily fine-tune the breathability and water resistance of the coating for the intended purpose, whether it’s for jackets, caps, gloves, backpacks, or other items.
INSQIN® also facilitates the fabrication of more sustainable sports shoes. Apart from using waterborne materials, our portfolio also offers products with up to 56 percent renewable content. Our INSQIN® product range includes a variety of partly bio-based or biodegradable materials, contributing to the reduced consumption of finite resources and the development of a more circular economy. Additionally, waterborne PU synthetics that are made with this unique product line are safer and cleaner for the environment because they have a lower carbon footprint than traditional coating technologies. Furthermore, the materials can be 2D printed onto recycled material, without loss of durability, touch, or feel.
 
In addition to this, shoe manufacturers benefit from Desmomelt® U, our portfolio of hot-melt adhesives for automated application during 2D digital printing. The technology reduces the processing steps and waste production associated with the more labor-intensive, manual application. 
 
But our expertise in fashion is not just limited to high-performance materials for activewear. Our extensive product line also features solutions for particularly delicate clothing items: lingerie designers gain new creative freedom thanks to Desmodur® white. This binder for polyurethane soft foams
provides light fastness, remarkable haptics, breathability, and support for high-class lingerie that remains true-to-color over time – without the additional lining layers that were previously needed. It prolongs the product life cycle, and is thus helping to reduce waste and contributing to a more sustainable lingerie industry.

Key drivers for the Status Next of Sports and Leisure

  • Factoring in the entire life cycle

    Factoring in the entire life cycle

    Manufacturers are searching for material mixes that are easier to recycle, factoring end-of-life into product development from the beginning.

  • Boosting production processes

    Boosting production processes

    Technologies need to deliver on-point precision and state-of-the-art digital methods to reduce both process steps and waste.

  • Understanding your end consumer

    Understanding your end consumer

    It’s not enough to understand your direct customer – successful players monitor the entire value to manage an early response to emerging trends.

Next: greener fashion and high-tech wearables

The transition from fast fashion to green fashion has only just begun. Together with our partners, we are going to further expand our efforts for more sustainable fashion concepts of the future. In addition, we are intensifying our research-and-development activities in the field of novel, high-tech lifestyle components such as wearables and goggles. Not least thanks to functional coatings like antifog and polarization films, these can offer real added value for end consumers around the globe.

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