Elastane
Elastane is a fast-drying material that provides significant strength and elasticity. Using recycled Elastane offers the same stretch and quality while diverting waste from landfills.
Why
Elastane is a critical material in our products. Also known as Elastanee or LYCRA®, Elastane is an elastic polymer (a type of plastic derived from petroleum) that makes garments and trims stretchy, which allows them to be formfitting and enables freedom of movement. Unfortunately, extracting and refining the petroleum used to make virgin Elastane pollutes land, air and water, and contributes to climate change. Making the yarn is problematic, too. All Elastane, both recycled and virgin, has to be dissolved in either dimethylacetamide (DMAc) or dimethylformamide (DMF) to create new yarn. Because DMAc has been linked to liver and reproductive toxicity and deemed a “Substance of Very High Concern” by the European Union, we use as little Elastane as possible in our products.
We started experimenting with pre-consumer recycled versions in recent years and first added recycled Elastane into our line in 2020. It has the same stretch properties as virgin Elastane fiber, while allowing us to make use of materials that would otherwise end up in landfills.
Where We Are
On average, Elastane makes up less than 2% of our total fabric and material usage across all our products. Although it provides critical performance, Elastane is one of the least used materials in our products. Think of a jacket with stretch. The Elastane may be 8% or 9% of the total fabric package. Still, we believe this is an opportunity to do more with what we already have—pre-consumer recycled Elastane—instead of further extracting from our planet.
To accomplish that, we use Elastane left over from the manufacturing process. This excess material is collected from production lines and then reincorporated into the raw-material production stage. By using this pre-consumer recycled Elastane, we can divert waste from landfills and reduce our reliance on virgin petroleum.
What’s Next
Our goal is to move away from using virgin petroleum sources, and using recycled Elastane helps us get closer to that. Because recycled Elastane still uses DMAc in the spinning process to create the new yarn, our material innovation team is actively seeking ways to reduce our use of this solvent. They’re also continuing to seek out more environmentally friendly alternatives that can match performance while also being easy to recycle for an end-of-life solution.
