Tencel Is So Hot This Autumn. The Brand Of Environmental Friendly Fashion Fabric Also Goes To The Front Desk.

You may never have heard of Tencel, which is an environmentally-friendly fabric brand, and its products are from renewable wood sources. Users include J. Crew, Allbirds, Levi s and so on. If its manufacturers can get what they want, Tencel will join Gore-tex and Lycra (Lycra) in the selection of cultural dictionaries.

Consumers' attention to climate change is better than before. Patagonia, Reformation and other brands are successful in achieving business globalization by publicizing their respective achievements in sustainable development, such as saving water resources and using environmentally friendly materials. Now, some high-tech fabric producers are also planning to make a profit with this trend.

But for some companies, it is easier said than done, for example, Lenzing AG, a Austria fiber producer with a history of more than 80 years. The company's fiber products made from chemical retreated wood pulp have been an important textile material in the past decades. Marketing before Lenzing aims at company customers. But last year, the company began to concentrate on turning the target to consumers. It upgraded its Tencel brand to create a household name and brand that can be endorsed for sustainability.

Robert Van de Kerkhof, the company's chief business officer, said: "we have repositioned the brand and crossed the fiber boundaries. We have made ambitious plans to build an innovative brand of sustainable consumer recognition.

As environmental issues continue to be put on the political and social agenda, this is the best time to act.

Historically, although the fashion industry has not faced censorship and criticism like oil and mining industries, it still ranks among the most polluting industries in the world. The environmental lethality of cloth and raw materials is particularly troublesome. Stefan Doboczky, chief executive of Lenzing, said that the ecological footprint of the textile industry is "the same as that of the automotive industry, because it is too dispersed and no one really cares."

These companies want to become green brands like Lycra.

However, as the public is increasingly aware of the negative impact of fashion industry on the environment and society, fashion brands are also looking for and promoting more environmentally friendly solutions to consumers. Retailers began to add details of origin, fabric and so on to clothing labels and websites. Many brands are actively adjusting their business, eager to launch products containing feasible solutions. Fabric and fiber producers therefore have a chance to change the rules of the industry and develop independent new brands.

Nina Marenzi, founder and director of The Sustainable Angle, a non-profit organization for sustainable textiles, said: "these companies want to become green brands like Lycra, a well-known sustainable brand."

Stacy Flynn, chief executive of Evrnu, said: "we are spreading seeds and trying to cultivate the market so that the market can understand what we are doing and why we do so. Our goal is to win a "built in" market, provided that consumers respond well to the brand and recognize us from the bottom of our hearts.

Lenzing stands at the absolute C level. When it was founded in 1938, it was only a viscose fiber factory, but since 1970s it has been committed to improving environmental performance. The standard production process of viscose fiber or rayon has been criticized for its two "original sin". First, the irritant chemicals used in production pollute the environment. Two, some producers are over cutting down endangered species.

Today, Lenzing uses timber from sustainable management forests and plantations. All fiber products of the company, such as flagship brand Tencel series, are produced from a closed system. During the whole production process, water and chemical solutions are continuously recycled. Although it is not 100% environmental protection, it is cleaner than many textile production processes.

After upgrading the Tencel brand in 2018, Lenzing has cooperated with several fashion companies to promote the brand. Reformation, headquartered in Losangeles and based on sustainable development, has called the Tencel brand the "Holy Grail" of the textile fiber industry on its official website. In the first half of this year, the number of products containing Tencel fiber ingredients reached about 91 million, an increase of 100% over the same period last year. The public began to be interested in the brand: the search for Tencel on Google almost doubled in the past year.

Doboczky told analysts in August: "brand promotion is very important."

As a result of efforts, fiber producers have won special power in a highly competitive market. For example, Italy Aquafil SpA asked the brand side to obtain the license for its Econyl regenerated nylon product through application.

Since February this year, New York designer Jonathan Cohen has completed the application. According to the requirement, the brand side should submit a publicity material on how to use Econyl nylon cloth, including the draft, the implementation details, and the expected production volume of the designated garments.

Cohen is making a crystal inlaid dress and windbreaker with Econyl. He said, "it's very special, unlike the nylon we imagine."

The existing users of Econyl include big brands such as Prada and Burberry. Among them, Prada chose this green fiber when making use of recyclable materials to make its brand nylon bag.

Brand building can also help new companies and new fabrics break the strong resistance of fashion industry to change. However, on the one hand, developing more sustainable materials will take a lot of time and money. On the other hand, despite the promise of sustainable development by fashion giants, it is still difficult to persuade them to use these environmentally friendly fabrics.

It's very special... It's different from the nylon we imagined.

New products are risky and prudent to use. Because the quality, touch and sag of new materials are unknown, designers can only imagine the best use plan, and factories and manufacturers will encounter similar difficulties in how to use new fiber spinning.

Morten Lehmann, the chief sustainability officer of Global Fashion Agenda, a nonprofit group, said that before the brand "produced new fashions, they hoped that the fabric used had been tested, proved, and could be purchased in large quantities."

Doboczky said that Leisel (Lyocell, Lenzing registered it as Tencel brand) is still regarded as a new type of fiber after 30 years, and it will take 10 years for a new fabric to maximize its potential.

"This is a fairly conservative and complex industry," he said.

As an industry magnate with a high degree of recognition, Lenzing has more advantages than its new competitors, and its brand strategy also intends to maintain this advantage.

Marenzi said: "so many companies are trying to promote environmental protection, so many competitors want to enter the market. Of course, you want to confirm that consumers know where your special place is. The public's attention has suddenly changed, and these companies are on the move. They are in a fairly advantageous position. "