Textile Insight

Opening the Door to the Future of High-Performance Plant-Based Leather. By Emily Walzer atural Fiber Welding (NFW), located in Peoria, IL, is opening a new factory with the capability to produce millions of square feet of its high-performance, plant-based leather product Mirum. The 110,000 square feet of new manufacturing space provides the capability to produce millions of square feet of Mirum per month and bring it to market with a significant number of fashion, footwear and automotive brands. No other company in the plant-based or bio- based materials world has reached this level of scale, according to NFW founder and CEO, Dr. Luke Haverhals. "By developing plant-based materials that truly scale, we plan to eliminate the need for plastics in the shoes we wear, the upholstery we sit on, and the materials that surround us in our everyday life," says Haverhals. Haverhals explains that NFW has raised roughly $25M in funding, which includes the factory, advancing the company's technology, growing the corporate team, and more. "We have room to add capacity in phases and to support ever larger product launches," he adds. Mirum features in a new plant-based pouch line by Bellroy launched earlier this month and the company is pursuing activewear and fitness as potential mar- kets for Mirum, as well as other NWF products. "We're excited to share more on this front in the latter half of 2021 and early 2022," shares Haverhals, who founded the company in 2005. He states that to date, NFW competitors production maxes out at 80,000 square feet of material per year. "We are eclipsing competitors' like MycoWorks and Bolt Threads annual output by more than 12x in a single month." Plant-based Leather Potential Last year, Infinium Global Research published a report that found that the vegan leather market is projected to reach $89.6 Billion by 2025. The report said that this demand is driven by consumers who are concerned about the impact of traditional leather on the environment. "Unfortunately, vegan leather continues to fail con- sumers when it comes to environmental impact. That's because every vegan leather (except for Mirum) on the market today uses plastic at some point in its manu- facturing process, whether that be as a key ingredient or a coating — and an increasing reliance on plastic is only causing further harm to the environment. Plastic pollution kills wildlife, gets into our waterways, and generally clogs up the earth." Haverhals continues, "It's clear that consumers want an alternative to the traditional leather market, and yet it's also clear that we need to look in a different direction. Plant-based leathers provide the path forward to capture this incredible demand for a material that doesn't harm the environment across any vector." l N IN THE MARKET | MADE IN AMERICA NFW Expands Production Capacity textileinsight.com January/February 2021 ~ Textile Insight • 13 NFW's new factory will allow it to bring Mirum, its high-performance plant-based leather, to the masses. Favorable Factory Activity A c cording to recent data, as reported earlier this month by the Institute for Sup- ply Management (ISM), U.S. factory activity accelerated to its highest level in nearly 2-1/2 years in December, suggesting that the pandemic is prioritizing demand for goods rather than services. However, it's notable that as Covid continues to spike, so do supply chain holdups. The ISM said the virus was "limit- ing manufacturing growth potential" because of absenteeism and short- term shutdowns to sanitize facilities at factories and their suppliers. Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody's Analytics in West Chester, PA, was quoted in a Reuters article as stating, "U.S. manufacturing should fare reasonably well this winter as businesses need to restock inven- tories and the shift in consumer spending away from services to goods helps manufacturers." The ISM's index of national fac- tory activity increased to a reading of 60.7 last month. That was the highest level since August 2018 and followed a reading of 57.5 in November. A reading above 50 indicates expansion in manu- facturing, which accounts for 11.9 per- cent of the U.S. economy. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the index would slip to 56.6 in December. Of the 18 manufacturing industries, 16 reported growth in December, in the following order: Apparel, Leather & Allied Products; Furniture & Related Products; Wood Products; Fabricated Metal Products; Machinery; Computer & Electronic Products; Transporta- tion Equipment; Plastics & Rubber Products; Paper Products; Chemical Products; Petroleum & Coal Products; Primary Metals; Textile Mills; Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Compo- nents; Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products; and Miscellaneous Manu- facturing. The two industries reporting contraction in December are: Printing & Related Support Activities; and Nonmetallic Mineral Products.

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