A while ago, we put up a survey about our website and overall communications. Many thanks to everyone who has replied so far! We also specifically asked if there’s information that you cannot find on the website but would like to see, and received quite a few good questions. These are questions I answer every day.
I will now do my best to answer them publicly. These questions are simple, yet the answers aren’t short, as this is a good chance to explain who we really are and what we’re doing. Hence, this is post 1/2.
How can we order the Spinnova fiber? How do we place an order for a fabric sample?
We appreciate the continuous support and huge interest we get on a daily basis, but you cannot order the fibre, for now. Our products are not commercially available yet. We have just started pilot production in Finland, which means that we are getting proof of concept of something completely new, and beginning to make prototypes of products with the fibre produced in the pilot for testing.
Our strategy is to work with textile industry brands directly, bringing the fibre products to the markets together. This is also why we only provide fibre and fabric test samples to our commercial partners. However, what’s worth mentioning in this context is that we’re not selling a commodity, but the innovation and the technology.
We don’t and will not produce fabric, nor textiles – we are an R&D team. We might not even produce fibre in the future. We develop a disruptive method that will be available to brands and other industrial, strategic partners, who will be producing fibre with the method we provide. That commercially produced fibre will be processed in brand supply chains into thread, fabric and textiles.
We might join in the production ventures, but our main job as scientists is to develop new materials based on our technology innovation. After we’re done with the wood-based cellulose fibre, we have many more raw materials in the pipeline – e.g. waste streams that would otherwise contribute to climate change.
If all goes to plan, a commercial facility producing Spinnova fibre will be running somewhere in the world in 2021. This may sound painstakingly slow, but considering the fact that Spinnova was founded in 2015, and the method was on a laboratory scale, the track from that to an industrial scale pilot facility is very fast.
What clothing brands are already using Spinnova product as a material? Environmentally-friendly consumers want to know which businesses are responsible clothes producers.
Our vision is to absolutely get this material in the shops one day, for all consumers alike. How that will take place is not entirely up to us, but also the brands and other partners involved. The consumer interest that we get is, however, an important message to us about the fact that the demand for our sustainable products is real. No brand is using our fibre as a material yet for the reasons described in the previous answer, but all of the brands we speak to want a sustainable, good quality fibre that’s feasible and available in volume.
Our first and the only disclosed partner we have is Finnish design house Marimekko, who we’re proud to work with and are developing prototypes already. We have many more piloting partners who are renown brands, but they prefer to work behind the scenes until we’re closer to bringing concrete products to the market. Rest assured, concrete sustainability action is being taken in the brand front.
Developing a completely new textile material just takes time, no matter how fast you run – and trust me, we’re running.
In the next post:
Stay sustained <3
Emmi