“How do you imagine the ultimate functional jacket 4.0?†Sympatex Technologies investigated this question during a two-day design hackathon* together with a group of 20 outdoor bloggers and influencers at Mittenwald Hut recently.
The answer: attractive style and individual colouring as well as numerous design gadgets are combined with functional materials meeting the highest ecological requirements.
David Bacci, extreme mountaineer and Greenpeace activist, as well as Joe Stocker, clothing designer, supported the “closed loop meets textile industry 4.0†project as mentors and experts. Just in time for OutDoor 2017 (18 – 21 June) in Friedrichshafen, the “functional jacket 4.0†will be presented to a broad audience at the Sympatex booth (hall A3, booth 208) as well as at the official outdoor blogger breakfast on 20 June.
End customers can directly purchase the functional jacket on the www.closingtheloop.de landing page from 18 June onwards, which has been especially created for this purpose. They have the opportunity to configure their personal favourite jacket from different colour samples and design elements. All options were jointly developed at the Sympatex design hackathon.
The material basis of the jacket is a 100 per cent recycled laminate from the current Sympatex portfolio. The membrane whose production waste is completely reused via the Sympatex pre-consumer recycling consists of 100 per cent polyether-ester and is produced in a completely climate neutral way just like the textiles as well. The 100 per cent recycled outer fabrics and linings consist of polyester fibres certified by GRS (global recycled standard) and bluesign®. Compared to 1 kg of oil-based polyester fibres, the production of 1 kg of recycled polyester fibres guarantees an excellent life cycle assessment: 32 per cent CO2 reduction, 60 per cent energy savings and 94 per cent less water consumption. Instead of 60 litres, only about 3 litres of this rare resource are needed here.
Due to the colouring by means of digital print, no traditional wet colouring is required, i.e. Sympatex achieves reduced water consumption  with at the same time sheer unlimited opportunities for individual design. And the functional jacket is 100% recyclable and can thus be spun out to new fibres at the end of its wear time with the help of an upcycling procedure. For this reason, you will find an integrated return print with the Sympatex company address inside of the jacket. It is directly sent to a plastic recycler which allows for spinning out the PES fibres and consequently closing the loop with a constant reusable material level at the same time.
“Our closed loop meets textile industry 4.0 lighthouse project deals with the development of a customizable, recycled and in turn recyclable functional jacket 4.0. We are not going to produce an own collection in the future, but we want to give an example of all already available opportunities that can be implemented already today in terms of ecologyâ€Â, explains Dr. Rüdiger Fox, CEO of Sympatex Technologies. “This project combines highest clothing performance and fashion style with at the same time optimised sustainability and we invite the entire industry to replicate these technological opportunities unscrupulously that are available already todayâ€Â, adds Fox.
*Hackathon = neologism from“hack†and “marathonâ€Â, the term originally stems from software development. The goal of a hackathon is to jointly produce useful, creative or entertaining (software) products during this event.