Material Innovation

Materials innovation not only happens in the furniture industry, it also happens in various industries like the fashion industry. Nike officially launched its circular design initiative named ‘Circular Innovation’ in 2018. The initiative builds on Nike’s Move to Zero Campaign which aims to establish a closed-loop system where resources are recycled or reused after their useful lives. 

More innovative materials are being developed, from the rough idea of the material til it actually can be produced in the industry and finally present in the market is a long process. The possess can be summarized as 6 steps. First of all is research and development, after brainstorming the idea of what innovative material to try to make, and research of the new material based on its application requirement will be conducted. After the research to prove the feasibility of the idea, the process will move to the next step, prototype making.  In the second step, the new material prototype will be developed and will move to the third step of testing. In the third step, all sorts of testing will be performed on the prototype sample. Such as durability tests, strength tests, toxicity tests, and safety tests, to make sure the new material meets the initial requirements and prove the validation of it. But before the material can be used to make a product, the protection of ownership of this material is very important. Then, we move to the fourth step, intellectual property protection. Patents, trademarks, and copyright are needed to protect the new material before it releases into the market. After all these, the material can be used to manufacture, the fifth step is large-scale production. After testing all the properties of the material that meets the requirements, and its ownership has been protected, the material can be produced in a large scale and released to the market with the consistency of the same standard quality. The last step is to make sure the new material has its own market, which involve marketing and sale strategies. Market strategy is very important to achieve the success of the product. Target customer study and strategy study need to be conducted and put in use. 

Materials innovation not only happens in the furniture industry, it also happens in various industries like the fashion industry. Nike officially launched its circular design initiative named ‘Circular Innovation’ in 2018. The initiative builds on Nike’s Move to Zero Campaign which aims to establish a closed-loop system where resources are recycled or reused after their useful lives. Nike’s sustainable innovative materials include Nike Flyknit, which is lightweight fabric made from recycled platic bottle that only produce 40% of the waste that a traditional material would produced. And Nike Fly leather, which is binding with at least 50% recycled leather and synthetic fiber using a clean water-power process to reduce the climate impact. They also have famous Nike Air, which its recycle and reusable rate reach more than 90%. Nike also use recycled polyester, sustainable cotton, and recycled nylon. They just announced their new material called Nike Forward on Sep 15th, 2022, it is made from ultra-thin needle-punched layers. It reduced the carbon footprint of 75% compared with the traditional knit fleece. A lot of sports brand are dedicated to the research of new sustainable materials. Adidas have partnerships with different startup companies to develop new materials, like Spinnova, they have developed natural-based materials that with no harmful chemicals. Adidas also teamed up with Infinited Fiber Company to develope cellulose-based materials that with a lower carbon footprint. Their partnership with Danish startup Pond developed new recycled materials derived from plant waste. The innovation is still going strong in different industries, a more sustainable future needs everybody to contributes, especially companies with big influence.