Japanese bio-venture Spiber Inc. announces strategic partnerships with Marzotto, Filatura Papi Fabio, and RD Gruppo Florence

Products from these long-term partnerships available for purchase from AW2024

TSURUOKA, Japan, July 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Spiber Inc., a pioneering Japanese bio-venture known for its revolutionary Brewed Protein fiber produced through cutting-edge fermentation technology, is proud to announce a series of significant supply chain partnerships and innovative projects with renowned and leading Italian mills Marzotto, RD Gruppo Florence, and Filatura Papi Fabio.

These collaborations mark a major milestone in the advancement of sustainable luxury materials and showcase the potential of Brewed Protein fibers in various high-end applications.

Marzotto x Spiber

Marzotto Wool Manufacturing S.r.l., established in 1836 and renowned for its high-quality worsted wool, has collaborated with Spiber to unveil a fabric blending 30% Spiber’s Brewed Protein fibers with 70% wool for the first time after approximately two years of joint development. The fabric, suitable for suiting, is now available, and both companies are eager to extend their collaboration into the future.

Product line
Twill 2/2 (Batavia) fabric
30% Brewed Protein fiber
70% Wool

“We are proud of this ambitious partnership that confirms Marzotto’s attitude and commitment to sustainability: the real, tangible and certified kind. We have always focused on natural and precious materials such as wool, but we have found it interesting to embrace this project by Spiber Inc. which, from an element as simple and preserved in nature as sugar, has allowed us to create a fabric that maintains its absolute biodegradability while maintaining the functionality required by the textile market, for a new beauty that is kind to nature to be touched and to be worn. A further step forward combining tradition and textile art with technological research, in order to narrate an ancient art in a modern but especially in a sustainable way.” – Giorgio Todesco, CEO of Marzotto Wool Manufacturing S.r.l.

Filatura Papi Fabio x Spiber

Filatura Papi Fabio S.p.A., established in 1890, is a renowned Italian spinning mill with over 130 years of experience in producing high-quality woolen and worsted yarns. After collaborative development, Papi Fabio and Spiber have unveiled their first yarn products, featuring blends of Spiber’s Brewed Protein fibers and RWS Ultrafine wool. The yarns, suitable for knitting and weaving applications, are now available for purchase, and both companies anticipate expanding their collection of Brewed Protein blended yarns in the near future.

Product line
Wool-blended woolen yarn
30% Brewed Protein fiber
70% Wool (RWS certified, Ultrafine 17.5µm)
Nm: 2/27 N/m

Wool-blended worsted yarn
30% Brewed Protein fiber
70% Wool (RWS certified, Ultrafine 17.5µm)
Nm: 2/60 N/m

“We are really pleased about this cooperation between Spiber and our Company. We need to be prepositive in a complete sustainable direction and offer to global luxury brands new yarns. Technically we made important research in terms of dyeing and spinning this new fibre and the yarns obtained allow for very elegant and soft knitted garments and fabrics.” – Papi Fabio, CEO of Filatura Papi Fabio S.p.A.

RD Gruppo Florence x Spiber

RD Gruppo Florence and Spiber have begun collaborating on synergic technical research with the aim of giving concrete form to sustainable luxury fashion, unveiling their first women’s and men’s prototypes at Pitti Filati made by some of the Group’s companies: Mely’s Maglieria, Antica Valserchio and Ideal Blue.

The womenswear prototype is knitted by Mely’s Maglieria with Brewed Protein yarns, developed in synergy with VIMAR1991. Brewed Protein fibers, wool, polyamide, and cashmere-blended fancy yarns have been custom developed to enhance the aesthetic features of the material, opening new possibilities in the personalization of garments and their components.

The menswear prototype is woven by Antica Valserchio, with Brewed Protein yarns. The prototypes are manufactured by Ideal Blue. The jacquard fabric is produced with the technique of “Graphic Mapping”, considering the actual placements of the graphics on patterns in order to minimize waste and evolve the production process, elevating the engineering content from a product point of view. 

The fabrics and yarns used in these prototypes are now available for custom development. Both companies anticipate further collaborations and upcoming technical solution launches in the near future.

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Spiber Inc.
Established in September 2007, Spiber is a biotech venture company based in Yamagata, Japan dedicated to creating innovative solutions such as “Brewed Protein”, a new material platform utilizing microbial fermentation technology inspired by nature’s diversity and circularity.

Brewed Protein Fiber
Brewed Protein fiber, the only commercially-available offering within the emerging protein fiber category, is a unique product from Spiber’s revolutionary material platform. Produced through a precision fermentation process using plant-based ingredients, these innovative fibers deliver luxurious textiles with a distinct texture, while offering the potential to significantly reduce the environmental and ethical concerns associated with traditional animal-derived fibers like cashmere and silk.

Marzotto Wool Manufacturing S.r.l.
Tailored by a tireless passion for excellence, Marzotto’s textile art expresses a continuous dialogue between tradition and innovation in order to create fabrics able to tune their functionality and beauty to new lifestyles. Craftsmanship, entrepreneurial sensibility, creativity, avant-garde and an eye always turned to the preservation of the environment, of people, of the Planet: thanks to these values, in its almost 190 years of history Marzotto has become a real reference point in the production of fine wool fabrics all over the world.

Gruppo Florence S.p.A.
Gruppo Florence is an ever-evolving industrial project that promotes Italian manufacturing excellence in the luxury sector globally and product innovation through its central RD unit: an experimental room forging new paths in the supply chain thanks to a community of innovators who work daily to provide partners and stakeholders with tangible outbreaking outputs.

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2455964/Twill_Batavia_Spiber.jpg 

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2455965/Womenswear_Spiber.jpg 

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2455992/SpiberLogo_BK_H_Logo.jpg