Stella McCartney, adidas, Lululemon, and Gucci’s parent company Kering have all teamed up to invest in a novel material called Mylo, which is grown from mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms and other fungi.
Each brand, as part of the newly established business consortium, has agreed to donate a seven-figure sum to help with the production capabilities for the inventor of Mylo, California-based biotech company Bolt Threads.
In return for their investment, the luxury and sportswear brands will have exclusive rights to use Bolt Thread’s mycelium-based alternative, with the first products expected to hit shelves next year.
The current goal is to create a supply chain for Mylo so that brands can manufacture the newly developed vegan leather at a commercially viable scale. This means that instead of developing it for one-off items, Mylo will be available to millions of people to wear and use every day. The aim will also be for smaller companies to be able to afford this new eco-friendly alternative.
According to Bolt Threads, Mylo can replicate the look and feel of real leather across a range of colours and textures and can be made into everything from shoes to bags and jackets.
In order to create Mylo leather, mycelium cells are fed with sawdust and other organic material and then placed to grow where it then turns into a sheet of material that resembles cork. After being harvested, the vegan leather is then tanned and dyed by the same tanneries that work with animal leathers.
Bolt Threads states it only works with tanneries that have been awarded global sustainability certifications. The company also shares that Mylo is free of highly hazardous chemicals and substances such as DMF (dimethylformamide) and chromium, which are some of the most noxious chemicals used in animal and synthetic leather.
Additionally, no petroleum-based plastics such as polyurethane or PVC, which emit carbon as they are produced and will take hundreds of years to break down in landfills, is used in the creation of Mylo.
The fashion world’s turn to Mylo follows in the footsteps of entire Fashion Weeks going fur-free. Animal leather emits tons of greenhouse gases and consumes finite natural resources through the rearing of livestock, in addition to creating environmental pollution and wasting water through the tanning and dying process.
“The consortium unites four iconic and forward-thinking companies…who collectively represent hundreds of millions of square feet of potential demand for Mylo. Most importantly, this is an ongoing commitment to develop materials and products for a more sustainable future,” said Dan Widmaier, the CEO of Bolt Threads.
The first Mylo products will be available for purchase in stores and online starting in 2021 through its consortium partners. Stella McCartney has already created a special edition Falabella bag made from Mylo leather. However, it was never made available to the public.
All images in this article are courtesy of Bolt Threads.
