Music has Spotify, Television has Netflix. The fashion industry revolution? Streamateria have it covered. Focusing on a solution designed with parallels running to the forest, it is a biodesign brand centred around biodegradable materials.
The best things never last. This ethos runs through everything Streamateria x Puma stands for. A collaboration between Puma, Living Colour, and Guringo, the “Design to Fade” collaboration consists of a unisex running kit, a mens’ singlet, and a female tennis skirt, with the aim of investigating prospective sustainable solutions for making and dying textiles. The products are dyed using a couple of different methods: using bacteria, or using degradable materials. Using degradable dying materials has further benefits insofar as they can be manufactured locally and at short notice; giving this option great future potential.
Streamateria itself compares the flow of its garments to composting food. This starts with a circular production chain, which has a zero-waste policy. The garments are a printed mesh-like structure, then coated in a bioplastic to give them a textile-like feel. Everything created is meant to be worn until it’s worn out; it can then be composted and used as raw material, rather than making its way to one of the many overflowing landfill sites across the globe. Further environmental benefits ensue: no need to wash the used items and no end of season over-stock. Streamateria founders Erik Lindvall and Alexander Wolfe base the concept around the circular nature of a forest “the vision is to design a fully sustainable ecosystem for consumption of garments that works much in the same way that we consume food". The clothes are worn, and materials then re-used for a separate purpose, but fundamentally and most importantly pumped back into sustainable use.
The Streamateria material is constructed around a leaf-like structure, with veins spanning the length of the garment and defining its shape. This is 3D printed, and coated with a bioplastic tissue. The bioplastic tissue largely consists of alcohol and fat from the food industry - another string to Streamateria’s sustainability bow. The overall effect of this process is the creation of a garment with the same biogas potential as food; the garment can be added straight to household compost.
This is Puma’s third sustainability project since 2016 - none of which have reached a production phase yet. The technology is clearly here - Streamateria has proven that - and surely as we’re accelerating towards a climate crisis it’s time to road test some of these ideas. With that being said, Puma’s investment into the future of sustainability is great to see. When the technology is this user friendly, and the environmental solution so inclusive, the incisive technology on show here is surely not far away from being available to the general public
It’ll be fascinating to see how Streamateria progress, with explorations into various sectors looking ever more likely. It’s intriguing whether the material itself is specific to sportswear in its qualities, or whether this material can prove itself in a more widescreen sense across different areas of fashion. Promising to work with forward thinking and futuristic brands certainly puts Streamateria at the forefront of an increasingly sustainably minded sector - we can’t wait to see how they develop.
Words by: Jordan Bramley
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