Making of the Mask

Thanks to our friends at SwatchOn, we have a handy guide to masks and an easy how-to!

What You Can Make

Head here for all the necessary materials and instructions to make:

Surgical Mask

This is an easy way to make a cotton mask with 1 or 2 soft trims and cotton fabric.

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Antibacterial /Waterproof Mask

Another simple way to make masks with the perfect antibacterial waterproof fabric.

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Innovative Textiles

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Learn more about Fabric from some of our partners over at Find Sourcing (footwear) in Portugal.

Fabric

Econyl - Fabric: Ocean plastic regeneration into Econyl nylon.

Repreve - Fabric: PET Bottle regeneration into various filaments, shapes or granulates

Waste 2 Wear - Fabric: Blockchain technology to trace the creation of their fabric. They also make various products from their fabrics.

Tencel (Lenzing) - Various: With their Refibra project they are recycling textile to blend in the Tencel.

Agraloop – Technology: Turning crop residues into fiber and fabric. This is a technology from the company Circular Systems which can be used in a variety of different products.

Bark Tex – Fabric: A tree bark fleece from a Uganda/Germany company using bark as the main compound harvested from the East African fig tree Mutaba. It´s harvested without cutting down the trees.

Ultrasuede – Faux suede/nubuck: Part of the offer is made from plant based polymers processed from biodegradable waste.

Dinamica – Faux suede: Made entirely from recycled polyester from T-shirts, fibers or from PET bottles etc. Made in Italy and fully recyclable.

Sympatex – Membrane: Producer of Sympatex membrane, 100% recyclable material made from combination of polyester and polyester molecules.

Yarn

EcoTec - Traceable Yarn: WIth full traceability in the cotton supply chain using recycled dyes the EcoTec yarn is spun to be used in different applications.

Bionic Yarn - Ocean plastic yarn: Gathering ocean plastic and upcycles this to yarn and fabric.

Seaqual - Ocean plastic yarn: Gathering ocean plastic and upcycles this to yarn and fabric.

Orbital Hybrid Yarns – Circular yarn: yarn technology capable of producing high quality + high performance yarns using organic and recycled fibers.

Flocus Yarn – Kapok fiber yarn: Kapok is a natural celloluse fiber found in dried fruits of the kapok tree. It can be made to make a variety of different products like fabric, stuffing or yarn.

Leather

Tärnjsö Garveri - Leather: One of few tanneries with full traceability only using hides from 100% organically bred cows.

Rhabarberleder – Leather: Using a tanning agent extracted from rhubarb roots and only using hides from Germany where everything is sourced within 500 km from the tannery. They are part of Association of Natural Leathers (IVN).

Wet Green – Tanning agent: Cradle-to-Cradle certified the patented wet-green is a tanning agent using by products form the olive industry to tan leathers.

Leather Substitute

Mylo (Bolt Threads) - Leather Substitute Using mycelium (mushroom roots) this material is grown to a leather like structure. Bolt Threads is also known for Microsilk, using silk fibers from spiders.

Mycoworks - Leather Substitute: Using mycelium (mushroom roots) this material is grown to a leather like structure.

MuSkin - Leather Substitute: Using mycelium (mushroom roots) this material is grown to a leather like structure.

Amadou Leather - Leather Substitute: Using mycelium (mushroom roots) this material is grown to a leather like structure.

Piñatex (Ananas Anam) - Leather Substitute: A non-woven material made from Pineapple leafs.

Fruitleather - Leather Substitute: From different kind of leftover fruits create leather like material sheets.

Frumat – Leather Substitute: A material made from Apple Skin is a bio-based leather alternative derived from the apple industry food waste. They don´t have a website at the moment but you can reach them at info@frumat.it

Malai – Leather substitute: A biocomposite material made from entirely organic and sustainable bacterial cellulose, grown on agricultural waste sourced from the coconut industry in Southern India.

Desserto – Leather substitute: Made from the Nopal cactus Desserto is a breathable and entirely plant based alternative to leather.

Soles

Lactae Hevea – Outsole: Made from hevea milk tapped from rubber (hevea) trees grown in Asia. It´s made by manually tapping into the tree creating a channel for draining the hevea milk. It´s used to create the soles by pouring the milk into molds.

EcoTPU – Outsole: Made by Resimol EcoTPU is made from 60% renewable plant materials with focus on creating a light sole. It can be made in one or two colors.

Packaging

SCOBY (MakeGrowLab) - Packaging: 100% compostable material which can be used for packaging.

Others

QMilk - Felt material: Made from a combination of milk polymer and wool of any kind creates a unique material.

Bloom foam (Algix) - Solid Foam: turns algae combined with EVA into biofoam. Useable for insoles and similar products.

Re-Down – Recycled down and feathers material: Recycle feathers and down from post consumer goods. Normally used as filling material.

Recork – Recycled Cork: Collects and recycles corks to turn them into a variety of different products including insoles.

Grasplast – Grass buckles: Trims and details made from 50% agricultural waste grass and 50% recycled buckles creates an ecoplastic.

Milk Plastic – Buttons and eyelets from mild: Casein, a milk protein, can be used to create a plastic and then applied to various different products.

Soy Ink – Print with Soy: A development to use ecological soy as the base for ink in different colors to screen print. Possible to print on both synthetic and natural materials.

Fibers Galore

Learn more at Fibre2Fashion, our partners in technical textiles.

Fibre2Fashion takes a look at the evolution, future and reasons for the growth of protective clothing market.

The future of clothing is functional. And protective apparel are the best functional clothes known so far. Everyone loves the advanced functionalities of protective wear. Brands, retailers, consumers, industries, and even governments, all are embracing protective wear like never before. As today's generation is more conscious of safety and wellness, protective wear is gradually becoming a priority.

Protective clothes were invented to protect people and products from any environmental hazard or uncertainty. Most industrial wear are protective, and in some industries protective wear is a necessity. Industries like food, oil and gas, construction and manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, firefighting, and law enforcement and military have made protectivewear mandatory. The materials used to make protective gears include aramid and blends, polyolefin and blends, polybenzimidazole, laminated polyesters and cotton fibre.

In recent years, an immense growth in the global protective clothing market has been witnessed. The market value of protective clothing in 2015 was $8,003 million and is expected to reach $10,211 million by 2022. Allied Market Research projects a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.6 per cent for the sub-sector between 2016 and 2022 and estimates that the aramid and blends segment would generate the highest revenue throughout the forecast period.

Let's discuss the factors driving the growth of the protective wear market.

Growing Industrialisation

Million Insights, a research firm, said that an improvement in the global economic climate along with an industrialisation boom is leading to a growth in the protective clothing market.

Industries are embracing protective textile to keep their workers safe. At the workplace, work-related injuries were becoming the next casual thing. According to the US Bureau of Labor, work-related injuries and illness in the US are down to 2.8 incidents per 100 in 2019 from 10.9 incidents per 100 workers in 1972 thanks to protective gears!

Protective gears are assisting industries to keep their employee safe in a hostile environment. In the double-trouble situation, workers wearing protective gears are more confident to bravely face it.

The most common industrial protective gears are helmets, hardhats, respirators, dusk masks, safety gloves eyewear, ear protection, face shields, goggles, fall arrest systems, safety gloves, welding gloves, welding jackets, footwear and clothing.

These protectivewear are made of the following Dupont fabrics performing particular functions:

•     Nomex fibres are inherently flame-resistant, lighter in weight and provide sound breathability. Innovative Nomex fabrics are good at dissipating sweat through the fabric making wearer feel dry and more comfortable.

•     Tychem protects the wearer against corrosive gases, vapours and liquid chemicals. Tychem gas-tight suits have a limited life with self-contained breathing apparatus.

•     Kevlar aramid is a heat-resistant fabric that helps to fight against high temperature. It is the ideal protective fabric for thermal, cut, and abrasion protection with a comfort fit.

•     Tyvek is used for general industrial protection. The fabric offers an ideal balance of comfort, protection and durability to employees in industrial applications and contamination control environments, including in the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, automotive and utilities sectors.

•     ProShield garments are designed to protect against non-hazardous light liquid splashes and dry particulates. These are comfortable, affordable and disposable.

Evolution of socio-psychological comfort

Cultural, sociological and psychological comforts are the main drivers of protective clothing.

Sociological and psychological theories have always provided meaning to human clothing. Our environmental conditions provide purpose to clothing. Attire evolves from two poles-the physical environment and social conditions. Hence, the basic requirement of any clothing is its comfort in various environmental situations that describe its physiological behaviour.

Clothing has been used for protection since time immemorial, shielding the human body from social, physical and emotional threats. The term protective clothing defines everything used for physical protection of the body.

Today, the array of physical threats is endless and so is the availability of protective wear. It can be worn in any situation to provide protection and make the wearer stand against any hazardous condition. Many individuals with injuries or handicaps use protective clothing to prevent further possible damage.

Clothing psychology and comfort has changed the way people look at protective clothing. Consumers are embracing protectivewear to participate in sports and adventurous activities. They are ready to risk their life trusting advanced protective wear. On the other hand, protective wear are building trust by boosting the consumer's performance.

Regulation

In the last two decades, the world has witnessed many changes in workplace practices, with an abundance of innovative technology paving the way for new methods of production, both in machinery and in employee work wear. This has led to the popularity of personal protective equipment (PPE).

In the beginning, many organisations questioned protectivewear. But governments understood its utility and cultivated standards for PPE. Most countries now have PPE rules, which cover the essential health safety requirements of PPE, providing instructions in cooperation with the national authorities, labelling requirements, technical documentation and sample testing.

Before protective wear is legalised, the clothes go through three stages of evolution: examination of garment element, wear-test and the final tests for durability, utility, ergonomic and protective performance, liner system integrity, etc.

Increasing stringent government regulations in the Middle East and the Asia Pacific have made it mandatory for manufacturers to take precautions for worker safety to restrict workplace mishaps.

PPE are broadly classified into three segments that determine the necessity of the work wear:

Simple design: Workers assess the level of basic protection needed against minimal risks. This could include the use of garden gloves, ski goggles, masks and shoes.

Neither simple nor complex: This is the next-level protection clothing needed at the time of moderate risk. It includes dry and wet suits.

Complex design: The clothing required during an extremely hazardous environment falls under this category. Called advanced protective clothing, these are capable of protecting workers against mortal dangers and any irreversible harm that may impact a worker's health.

Regulations set out to make protective wear compulsory is one of the major factors driving the growth of this sector.

Future-proofing: Along with the reasons discussed above, several other factors favour protective clothing as well. These include the fusion of technology and clothing, safety-awareness, increasing pollution and infection, growing trends and the growing demand for industrial protective wear.

The future demands light-weight, comfortable, higher heat wear and tear-resistant protective clothing. Increasing trends for multi-functional and durable clothing with high chemical and mechanical resistance is expected to drive the growth of protective wear in the coming years.