The BioDesign Newsletter

Issue #025

Catching up on Next-Gen Industry Updates 

Whilst we have focused the last few weeks on plastics and packaging, there have been a few notable events in the materials and textiles sector of Next-Gen materials. 

Keel Labs Partners With Outerknown For First Commercial Release 

Outerknown, an environmentally conscious apparel brand has partnered with Keel Labs.

Known for its seaweed-derived Kelsun™ fiber, Keel Labs has announced its first commercial product. The biotechnology company and Outerknown have created a cotton and Kelsun™ fiber blend to produce a limited collection of the brand’s staple, Blanket Shirts. 

With the shirts due to go on sale on 24 September, Adele Peters explores the story behind this collaboration.

Is Fashion Leaving its Best Bet On the Rack?

Unfortunately there just aren’t enough of these committed collaborators and innovators are getting fed up. 

Next-Gen materials were conceptualised on the dream of revolutionising the fashion industry to reroute it from its dark environmental impact. However, as innovators look to scale and progress with speed, they have become apprehensive of relying on the fashion sector to catalyse this progress and are turning to the furniture and automotive industry.  

This article from Rachel Cernansky, digs into this shift in direction and the danger this poses to the fashion industry with the looming EU regulations. 

Material Innovation Initiative Announces their Sunset

Despite the apprehension from the fashion sector, the very fact that there’s news, legislation and topics to discuss and debate explains the retirement of the industry’s biggest cheerleader. 

Material Innovation Initiative (MII), has announced that the organisation will close their operations. The initiative was founded in 2019 with the mission to catapult the development of high-quality and sustainable materials and has since become a staple organisation for the industry having inspired over $2.31B (£1.74B) in investments into Next-Gen materials and facilitating partnerships between brands and innovators. The decision to close this chapter was based on the belief that the industry is now able to thrive and self-propel without the MII.

The letter from the Board of Directors can be found on their website.

How Does A Designer Approach Sustainable Product Design?

At BioDesign we align with MII’s belief that the community must stay engaged to strengthen and build upon the budding foundations. 

Our Behind The Breakthroughs series is our way of encouraging the distribution of knowledge across industries. And in the next issue of Behind The Breakthroughs we will be following the process of a designer as she creates biodegradable products, how she considers Next-Gen materials and how she tackles the obstacles on this path. 

Who do you think it is?

Stay tuned on socials and, of course, The BioDesign Newsletter for when the new issue hits our site.

If you have any questions or requests regarding our content, let us know on socials or just reply to this newsletter and our team will be in touch. 

Best wishes, 

The BioDesign UK Team

The BioDesign Newsletter is a free publication.

To support our work, consider subscribing to get the latest publications and sharing with someone who you think would find our content insightful.