Leather Alternatives

KIDS SANDALS Zara Pinatex

© PIÑATEX

Piñatex Continues to Create Impact at Scale With New ZARA Collaboration

London-based B-Corp Ananas Anam announces a new collaboration with fast-fashion giant ZARA featuring a range of sneakers, sandals, and accessories made from the company’s next-gen pineapple leather PIÑATEX® . Ananas Anam is convinced that “anything can be achieved as long as all actors in the fashion industry work together towards the same goal.” By providing what it claims to be the most sustainable plant-based alternative to leather commercially available at …

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Leukeather

© Leukeather

Leukeather: Animal-Free Exotic Leather Made From Upcycled River Tamarind Pods

Leukeather is a vegan alternative to exotic leather, developed by UAE-based Egyptian architect Nuhayr Zein. The material is made from the dried pods of Leucaena, also known as river tamarind. Leucaena is a tree native to northern Central America and southern Mexico. It is fast-growing, requires little water, and is already present on many farms. To make the leather, farmers gather dried pods and supply them to Leukeather. The company …

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MycoWorks / Nick Fouquet

©MycoWorks / Nick Fouquet

MycoWorks Commercializes “World’s First” Plastic-Free Mycelium Alt Leather with Hatmaker Nick Fouquet 

Biomaterials innovator MycoWorks has announced the commercial launch of the first fashion items made with its flagship mycelium material, Reishi. The Reishi Collection by luxury hatmaker Nick Fouquet includes the Reishi Boletus, Coprinus, and Morchella hats, now available in limited runs on NickFouquet.com. Claiming to unlock new design possibilities for brands, MycoWorks’ biotechnology engineers mycelium – the infinitely renewable root structure of mushrooms – as it grows to designers’ exact …

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Natural Fiber Welding collaborates with Veshin

© Veshin

Veshin Announces Partnership With Natural Fiber Welding

Veshin – a Chinese factory that produces fashion accessories for sustainable brands around the world, announces a partnership with Natural Fiber Welding (NFW) to create products made with the company’s leather alternative, Mirum. As part of the partnership, a team of expert designers and craftspeople with decades of experience will help brands source, design, scale, and launch products made with Mirum. The leather alternative is a high-performance, plastic-free material which …

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© GANNI

Denmark’s GANNI Launches Accessories Made With Mylo Mushroom Leather

Denmark’s GANNI has launched a range of saddlebags and wallets made with Bolt Threads’ Mylo™ mushroom leather. The launch is part of GANNI’s commitment to phase out virgin animal leather by 2023. Previously, GANNI had struggled to find a leather alternative that was plastic-free and did not compromise on quality. But following rigorous testing, the company has determined that Mylo meets its standards for performance and durability. The new products …

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lovr-team Montgomery Wagner, Lucas Fuhrmann and Julian Mushövel Image LOVR Revoltech

Montgomery Wagner, Lucas Fuhrmann and Julian Mushövel. Image: LOVR / Revoltech

Revoltech Closes Seed Round for LOVR Alt Leather Made of Upcycled Hemp Waste Materials

German startup Revoltech announces it has closed a seven-figure seed round for leather substitute LOVR, made of hemp fibres from the leftover residues of CBD products. The funds will bring the 100% biodegradable, plastic-free and climate-neutral material to market. LOVR stands for “leather-like-without plastic-vegan-residue-based” and was developed with the goal of transforming the leather industry by introducing a truly sustainable material made from agricultural waste. Its production is based on …

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tote bag CORKonLINEN

CORKonLINEN tote bag ©Bag Affair

Introducing CORKonLINEN: a Unique and Compostable Leather Alternative

The patented French material CORKonLINEN was produced after more than a year and a half of research and development by RTFACT BRANDS, composed of only three elements: Portuguese cork, French linen and a water-based glue. “We started in 2019 with the idea of replacing the cotton used in our bags and fabrics with linen. As you may know, we always need a textile under the cork to produce a fabric …

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©Gucci

VitroLabs Cultivated Leather Raises $46M from Fashion Giant Kering & Leonardo DiCaprio 

Luxury giant Kering has backed VitroLabs, a San Francisco startup developing cell-cultivated leather. The French fashion company, whose brands include Gucci and Saint Laurent, has participated in a $46 million funding round to accelerate VitroLabs’ commercialization. The Series A funding was led by Agronomics, the UK cellular agriculture investment group headed by billionaire philanthropist Jim Mellon, and also received funding from environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio amongst others. VitroLabs is a Bay-Area-based …

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Bag made with Mylo

© Stella McCartney

Stella McCartney to Launch “First Ever” Commercial Luxury Bag Made With Mylo Mushroom Leather

Fashion house Stella McCartney has announced that the Frayme Mylo, said to be the first ever luxury bag made with Mylo mushroom leather, will launch commercially later this year. The bag was first showcased last October at Paris Fashion Week, and is based on the design of Stella McCartney’s classic Falabella bag. The material used, Mylo, is a leather alternative made by material solutions company Bolt Threads using mycelium (the …

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NOIRANCA Brown Leather Handbag

©NOIRANCA

Introducing NOIRANCA: Vegan Luxury Handbags That Outperform Animal-Based Leather

As the world of vegan leather and biomaterials continues to expand and flourish, there is ongoing debate as to whether these fabrics truly compare to animal leather in quality and how they impact the environment.   NOIRANCA is a new handbag and accessories brand determined to settle this controversy by bringing unrivaled excellence and eco-transparency to vegan leather. Encouraging consumers to “buy less and enjoy longer”, the brand uses PETA-approved fabric …

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Founders Natalie Deana and Rebecca Joy © Frida Rome

Frida Rome: “Not All Vegans Are Saintly in Every Aspect Of Their Lives, We Certainly Are Not”

UK based vegan fashion brand Frida Rome found recent fame in the UK series Dragons’ Den (known as Shark Tank in the US) with founders Natalie Deana and Rebecca Joy carving out a new niche, creating luxury handbags for “bad girls who do good things”. Frida Rome’s debut luxury accessory is a crossbody handbag called The WEEK/END, which contains an erotic story about a weekend romance. The ladies behind the …

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Vegan-Boots-Puma-KING-21 ©Puma

©Puma

Puma Presents Its First Vegan Football Boots, Commits to Using Vegan Materials in Future Products

Puma has announced a new PUMA KING model made exclusively from animal-free materials, the King Plantinum 21 Vegan. The new boot maintains the signature style, feel and comfort of the King model, but adds a special twist to the football icon, according to the brand. The KING Plantinum 21 Vegan is aimed at players looking for animal-free products and features KINGForm technology, a structure that fuses with the vegan leather …

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leather-sustainable

The Weekend bag by ©Frida Rome available at www.ImmaculateVegan.com  

Portugal Bans ‘Vegan Leather’, Industry Insiders Speak Out

A ban on the term ‘vegan leather’ and other plant-based prefixes has been announced in Portugal. Alt leather companies now using prefixes such as ‘vegan’, ‘plant-based’, or ‘pineapple’ or even “synthetic” along with the word “leather” in their product marketing may face fines and criminal proceedings.  Portugal has a thriving fashion and textiles industry, with companies like B_Boheme producing sustainable shoes from vegan leather in the country. Founder Alicia Lai …

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Modern Meadow's Bioleather1

© Modern Meadow

Study Shows Modern Meadow’s Bioleather1 Produces 80% Fewer Emissions Than Bovine Leather

A peer-reviewed life cycle assessment of Modern Meadow’s Bioleather1 material family has compared its environmental impact to that of conventional leather. The paper found that Bioleather1 produces 80% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than bovine leather and 20% fewer than PU-based synthetic leather alternatives. Additionally, the bio-based leather reduces blue water use, land use, and eutrophication by 95% compared to conventional leather. However, Bioleather1 has a slightly greater ecosystem impact than …

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Forager mushroom ecovative

©Forager

Ecovative Leading Fungi Food and Biomaterial Revolution with Mycelium Technologies 

Materials science company Ecovative has recently announced Forager – a division focused on designing, marketing, and manufacturing vegan materials for the fashion and automotive industries. With Ecovative leading the mycelium revolution in food and biomaterials, vegconomist takes a look at the growing business network of the company with Eben Bayer at the helm. Forager Mycelium pioneer Ecovative has set up Forager to advance next-generation biomaterials such as plastic-free, leather-like materials …

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