HIGH-TECH MADE FROM SCRAPS

It’s a sustainability topic that is often overlooked by the media: every day, manufacturing facilities around the globe generate tons of fabric leftovers. Around 15–20% of the material are destined for disposal sites like incineration plants. While it is impossible to avoid fabric scraps, it is not impossible to reuse them.

To learn about the process of producing high-tech insulation for functional garments from upcycled leftovers, you have to make your way to northern Italy – or more specifically to Cittadella, a town with a population of 20,000 located near Venice. This is the home of Imbotex, a family business devoted to upcycling waste materials for almost 70 years.

In 1955, the father of the current CEO Stefania embarked on a project to create filling materials for mattresses, utilizing excess textiles from nearby production sites. „Seeing scraps as a valuable resource was ingrained in us from a young age,“ Stefania says.

Further steps followed in the 1990s with the growing awareness of sustainability. Imbotex explored ways to recycle fabrics made from cashmere, yak, and alpaca, resulting in the first renditions of the filling material used today. The founding of the Imbotex Lab in 2019 marked a significant breakthrough with the invention of a new process to achieve insulation that can rival the leading solutions available in terms of breathability, quick-drying and insulating properties. Plus: the process does not involve any chemicals and consumes zero water.

For our 2024 winter collection, Imbotex premiers with a new insulation material under the exclusive Cambium Up brand reusing fabric scraps collected in our manufacturing sites. This is a major step for us, as we have succeeded in upcycling our own leftover material into products and thus closing the loop.