Alpine Group, whose brand partners include The North Face, American Eagle Outfitters and Under Armour, said it plans to play a leading role in fostering innovation and the partnership will enable them to work together in a collaborative approach “exploring, validating, and supporting the commercialisation of innovative technologies that reduce environmental impact”. Lewis Shuler, Head of Innovation at Alpine Group, said: “This is a really meaningful partnership… whereby we will be contributing the group’s vast R&D resources to help identify, support, and commercialise innovations with a focus on reducing impact and improving circularity.”

Fashion for Good supports innovators through its “robust industry network, scaling activities, and validation projects, driving pilots and supply chain implementation with partner organisations”. The partnership builds on work to date including the ‘Black Pigment Pilot’, launched in early 2022, which saw Alpine Group’s dedicated innovation hub, Paradise Textiles, partner with Fashion for Good and other industry leaders including Birla Cellulose, Kering and Bestseller.The project aims to validate and scale black pigments derived from waste feedstocks such as industrial carbon, algae and wood that could replace synthetic dyes. Participating innovators such as Graviky Labs, Nature Coating and Living Ink, that produce black pigment from industrial carbon emissions and waste algae, will have their technologies validated and performance of their technical features assessed.