Portuguese textile manufacturer Casa da Malha and sportswear brand Lacatoni have succeeded in producing a prototype sports shirt using PEF (polyethylene furanoate), a plant-based, high-performance polymer known as releaf®. releaf is a brand of the Dutch company Avantium, which is a leader in renewable and circular polymer materials innovations.
releaf® opened huge potential for the global sports and activewear industry when the prototype sports shirt was showcased at the Milano Unica textile trade fair in Milan last week.
The success came from a project merging Avantium’s renewable polymer technology with Casa da Malha’s expertise in advanced circular knitted fabrics, and Lacatoni’s extensive experience in sportswear design and technical apparel.
Filipa Costa, Innovation & Sustainability Director at Casa da Malha, noted that the project enables them to work with a novel polymer and translate its properties into knitted fabric constructions that meet rigorous brand standards.
Belisa Rodrigues, CEO at Lacatoni, emphasized that customers increasingly look for sportswear combining performance with responsible material choices, allowing them to evaluate next-generation materials like PEF in real apparel.
Avantium Business Development Manager Laleh Maleki highlighted that cross-value-chain collaborations accelerate the development of high-performance applications for renewable materials, bringing them closer to commercial adoption.
Avantium utilized its YXY® Technology and catalytically converted plant-based sugars into FDCA (furandicarboxylic acid), the essential building block for PEF. The company is also now preparing to start production at the world’s first commercial FDCA plant in Delfzijl, the Netherlands. Partnerships with textile experts like Casa da Malha and Lacatoni provide crucial real-world insights into the future of plant-based technical textiles.
