Polartec Drives Sustainable Material Innovation with Eco

Jun 05, 2023

There are material engineers, and then there are material eco-engineers. Polartec is the latter. While the American brand, premium provider of innovative and sustainable textile solutions, has been developing performance fabrics for the past 40 years, it recently kicked its sustainability mission into even higher gear.

Polartec was always a leader in turning recycled inputs into textile, and indeed, the company proved itself an early adopter of fashion recycling at scale when it constructed yarn from post-consumer recycled bottles (to date, Polartec has recycled more than 2 billion PET bottles). Since then, Polartec has been steadily expanding its eco-engineering innovations.

"We led the industry by transitioning 100 percent of our products with durable water resistance (DWR) out of fluorochemicals a few years back," said Ramesh Kesh, Ph.D., SVP & Business Manager, Milliken & Company, Polartec's parent company. Today, Polartec has set its sights on reducing the carbon impacts of its inputs to support its Science Based Target initiative (SBTi) approved net-zero targets.

"By focusing on reducing our carbon footprint in every feedstock, we will enable greater circularity," said Kesh. "We know that we need to reduce our dependency on fossil fuel-based inputs. We are proud to have already introduced our first bio-based product in weather protection for the outdoor market with expedition grade performance, and you can expect more innovation from Polartec in the outdoor market in the coming months and years."

Polartec's eco-engineering mission hits all touchpoints of a garment's lifecycle, from production to end of life. The pillars of this philosophy include: creating more durable fabrics that don't need to be replaced as often; preventing micro-shedding and other waste during manufacturing processes; preventing micro-shedding during consumer washing and wear; sourcing responsibly; and continuing to advance recycled yarn techniques and recycled content.

Lately, there has been heightened attention at both the industry and consumer level to the environmental and health dangers of fragment shedding and microfibers, but misconceptions exist and Polartec is working hard to get to the root of the problem.

"We just can't put a Band-Aid solution on microfiber pollution by switching to all-natural fibers and calling it a day," said Kesh. "We must fix the sources of shedding, be that in the laundry, or during wear and use. At Polartec, we are not just focusing on what happens when we wash our fabric, instead we are taking a scientific approach to addressing the multiple root causes."

That scientific approach has led to two products along those lines. PowerAir—a patented construction-based approach launched in 2017 that reduces microfiber shedding by more than 80 percent—and a new textile innovation called ShedLess, which advances this innovation and mitigates textile fiber fragment shedding in fleece type construction by an average of 85 percent.

"When tested in rigorous laundry cycles using detergent (this is key because we don't wash textiles without detergent in our homes, do we?) ShedLess technology lost an average of 0.0073 percent of its original weight. Miniscule. But then again, we are talking about microparticles," said Kesh. "ShedLess is a progression of how our teams are driven by curiosity to unlock solutions of reducing microfiber fragment shedding to near zero on all our performance fabrics."

Sustainability and performance innovations don't compromise durability either, which was crucial, as Polartec consumers rank both sustainability and durability in the top three attributes for the products.

Power Shield weather protection fabric features DWR that is not based on fluorochemicals and uses inputs that are non-GMO and non-human food consumption feed stocks. This results in a "substantially lower" carbon footprint than market alternatives, plus, end users don't need to replenish the DWR finish because Polartec doesn't rely entirely on chemistry to stop water from getting through, nor does it rely on other oleophobic coatings.

To message such innovations to consumers, Polartec certifies claims through third-party accredited laboratories globally, always relying on established test methods and standards. "We communicate with data, not opinions," says Kesh. "Identifying meaningful data to support this process can be a challenge, as traditional ESG ratings often mask underlying risks and vary across providers. However, we are a material science company with depth in science, and our message will always be driven by facts and supported by data."

To learn more about Polartec and its material innovations, click here.

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