Textile Insight

textiles and textile technolo- gies. We will offer webinars, whitepapers and product pre- sentations so that we can share our expertise. As we strive to professionally expand our presence on social media, in- cluding LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook, the goal is to share expert knowledge, in- formation about textiles and textile technologies, news, events, partnerships, and our sustainability plans. Schoeller has structured itself internally in such a way that we now have the opportunity to exchange ideas individually and to be closer to our customers. Schoeller.store (launched in 2022) has been very well received by our customers. The special thing about the Schoeller.store is that we are able to also serve independent designers, private individuals, students and DIY customers or startups within Switzerland. Outside of Switzerland, we only sell to companies so far. Our online store is part of our sustainability and digital branding strategy. On the one hand, we want to sell every meter of fabric we produce. On the other hand, we want to establish a digital sales channel. In order to establish a more efficient collaboration with our customers in the future, we are working on the digitalization of existing processes. e Schoeller.store was the first milestone in this context. Currently, we sell discontinued fabrics on our webshop. In the future, NOS items will also be available." CORDURA ADVANCED FABRICS Cindy McNaull New Business Development "When working towards long term customer relationships and brand buy-ins, listening to the voice of the customer is key. CORDURA re/cor RN66 got off to a strong start because of this. We initially partnered with San Francisco-based bag company Black Ember when launching CORDURA re/cor RN66, and swily followed by product in- troductions from Supreme and Mystery Ranch. is accelerated go to market approach is a rela- tively new approach for a new fiber introduction, and an exciting way that we can collaborate with key brand partners by giving them access to something new. The future of innovation is collaboration. Two great exam- ples where Cordura leveraged strategic partnerships are collab- orative approaches and two-way communication with Sapphire Finishing Mills Limited and Dovetail. This Fall, Cordura and Sapphire Finishing Mills Ltd., announced their collabo- ration with Dovetail Workwear to produce the new Ready Set Cargo Pant. This evolution of Women's Workwear into Global EMT, Tactical and Wilderness Apparel was built upon collective voice of customer feedback and close preferred partner working relationship between Dovetail, Sapphire Finishing Mills Ltd., and Cordura. is type of continuous evolu- tion of end-use apparel generates demand for ingredient brands to diversify possible applications in end use products. e way ahead is through closer collaboration — by collaborating to innovate, we can work ever more closely with brands and mill partners to maximize on strengths and develop the next generation of sustainable solutions." COVATIONBIO Michael Saltzberg CEO Earlier this year CovationBio became the new name for DuPont Biomaterials but its product port- folio — Sorona, Susterra and Zemea — remain. "CovationBio recently enrolled in Truterra, a program that cer- tifies farms using regenerative agriculture practices and works to help members be more sustain- able. ere is a lot of excitement about biobased materials, but also a lot of questions, too. We've heard concerns all the way through the value chain from brands and people asking to be assured that the feedstock is not harming the environment. at's the driver behind our commitment to Truterra; we take responsibility from the very beginning as a ma- terials supplier regarding where we get our feedstock. But it's new for ingredient brands to go that far back in the supply chain. If you want to say you are a bio- materials company, and provide solutions, you have to be in touch with farmers and at the same time be consumer facing and on top of the latest fashion trends. at's what the job is. We're going into new markets. In workwear, our value propo- sition works great – durability matters. Products using Sorona are more sustainable and comfortable and last longer. Now we're getting the word out and selling more. It's a brand awareness story. With footwear it is more of a product development story. Both Sorona and Susterra, our brand of PDO for industrial applications, are used in footwear. Sorona is used in knit and woven uppers while Susterra is used in polyure- thane. We provide a way to bring a significant amount of bio content to your footwear product. 25 brands, including Puma, Allbirds and Vans feature our products. We are also getting into staple fiber. We've only been in filament, so there's a whole other world out there for us to explore. CovationBio is only 15 years old. We're in our adolescence and have a lot of energy, and are open to new ideas." n textileinsight.com November/December 2022 ~ Textile Insight • 29

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