portance™ merinoTech Vest

The message of the project 

​​They believe the future of sustainable fashion is enabled by innovative materials and textile treatments, as well as advanced digital technologies. They also emphasize the importance of good design, which seamlessly combines minimal, timeless aesthetics with smart functionalities. Therefore, their jacket combines the natural properties of merino wool with the most sustainable anti-odor treatment developed to date. Furthermore, they have designed the jacket to incorporate various features that make it an ideal everyday adventure companion.

Ultimately, they bring the physical product to life in the digital world by integrating innovative, always-on NFC technology into the zipper puller, using YKK TouchLink®. This enables a wide range of use cases and already allows for the seamless integration of a digital product pass, providing consumers with ultimate product transparency and value-added benefits.

The idea behind the project

The fashion industry is known for its lack of transparency, and it contributes significantly to CO2 emissions, especially post-purchase due to constant garment washing and drying. Additionally, synthetic materials are prevalent in the industry.

With merinoTech, they aim to address both the fashion industry's lack of transparency and its carbon footprint by promoting European knitwear production.

The product serves as a best-practice example of how fine knitwear can be developed and produced in the heart of Europe. The integrated FUZE technology acts as an additional protective layer, encouraging consumers to wash their garments less frequently and extend their product lifespan. This, in turn, significantly reduces the product's carbon footprint, by up to 66%.

The FUZE technology represents a novel form of anti-odor technology that uses only non-ionic silver. It remains effective over time, does not wash out, and eliminates biofilm buildup.

The integrated YKK TouchLink provides 100% supply chain transparency and can function as a digital product pass. Multiple consumer-oriented use cases are currently under testing.

What next?

The project's vision is to contribute to making sportswear and fashion smarter and more sustainable for future generations, with a focus on consuming less but better. Its aim is to educate today's consumers about the true cost of sustainably produced fashion.

The project's mission involves actively working on new fabric and digital technologies that lead to a greener and safer future for the fashion industry. It sees digitization as an enabler to make its textiles smarter and more sustainable.