Adidas by Stella McCartney – NuCycl Technology creates new clothes out of trash

Before becoming a hoodie, the material in a new ‘Adidas by Stella McCartney’ top might have had a previous life as part of a T-shirt or a pair of jeans. The limited-edition sweatshirt is the first commercially produced garment to use new technology that purifies and liquifies old cotton to transform it into new material.

According to Stacy Flynn, cofounder and CEO of Evrnu, the company that developed the technology called NuCycl, it essentially turns old clothing into new, high-quality raw materials for the creation of new clothes. “Our goal is to convert garment waste into new fiber, so that we eliminate the context of waste in the supply chain. We’re breaking these materials down to their polymer form and building them back up.” Garment waste is turned into a pulp, liquified, and then pushed out of a 3D-printer-like extruder to form new yarn.