Next-gen materials need new infrastructure to scale

In a conversation with Fibre*Fashion, Tasha Lapidus, founder at SophisticaLab and a biomaterials researcher, offered a different view regarding scaling next-gen materials and said that people usually think about next-gen or new materials in the same logic as more traditional materials and are not thinking about the need for a new infrastructure.

She highlighted that, in general, all the existing machines, manufacturing cycles and programmes are designed for cotton and polyester. “So, from this point of view, new generation materials need a new infrastructure, and this infrastructure may not go from the existing production cycle or from the existing manufacturing, but for example, from laboratories, rather than from machines and manufacturing,” Lapidus mentioned.

Lapidus said that the gap between next-generation materials and existing materials, particularly in terms of cost and volume, will continue to exist in five years and probably even in ** years. “But in the perspective of ** or ** years, I strongly believe that we will have another industry. I mean, different fibres and different production cycles,” she said.

The split among next-gen materials