Sweden’s Prossioni recently launched a solution aimed at eliminating odors in bed sheets.
The Stockholm-based luxury home lifestyle brand developed bedding treated with NordShield Crisp, a new ultra-thin surface treatment from Finland that repels bacteria and fights off odors. The technology previously was used mainly in outdoor gear, according to Prossioni founder and CEO Fredrik Kempe, who said that a shirt that has been perspired in takes on the wearer’s bacteria of the wearer. That bacteria quickly reproduces, magnifying the odor with each multiplication.
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“So this application, just like silver, reduces this,” Kempe told Sourcing Journal. “It hinders the growth of the bacteria, which essentially reduces all the odor.”
Beyond those benefits, Kempe said, Prossioni’s $165-$325 sheet sheets, and forthcoming towels and bathrobes, offer water-saving upsides because owners can wash them less frequently.
“There’s a lot of chemicals and terrible things going on in the textile industry, in general, but that’s the beauty here is that we’re not using anything that’s bad for the environment, from coloring to chemicals,” Kempe said.
Concocted from wood extractives, NordShield is biodegradable and free from heavy metals, earning it the EPA’s 12-discipline Green Chemistry designation.
Kempe has even found a way to reduce the product’s eco impact by rolling the sheets into a tube when shipping, rather than putting them in a bigger box.
“If you have a square box, you will have wasted space,” Kempe said. “Either you go by weight or you go by volume and that’s kind of the main reason here is that a kilo is a kilo, so there is the volumetric angle that kind of made sense here.”
The cardboard tubes are made of biodegradable craft paper and the labeling of 100 percent vegetable ink.
Kempe said all of his cotton is certified organic and free trade, and all of it sourced and manufactured at the Emperor Textiles factory in India’s Tamil Nadu. Kempe’s father started a textile business in India back in the 1960s and when Kempe was a teenager he would tag along, forming relationships in the India textile sector that benefit him today.
“Just like three-star chefs rely on great farmers for their ingredients, the magic of this business is that I have a rockstar factory owner, Karthikeyan Palaniswamy, alongside me,” Kempe said.
Prossioni operates on a made-to-order basis, further reducing its impact by reducing overproduction and textile waste.
“If the consumer triggers the purchase, that is the trigger of our value chain; I don’t sit on any stock,” Kempe said. “Orders are produced within two days and then they’re picked and packed and UPS will come and deliver to you within nine days.”
Just weeks into its existence as an e-commerce-only seller, Prossioni is focusing exclusively on the U.S. market. One reason is the ease and simplicity with which it can ship tubes of bedding into the U.S. as opposed to other countries. But the other reason, Kempe said, is that people in the U.S. sleep differently than consumers in Europe.
“The way you in the U.S. dress your bed vs. here in Sweden [is] completely different, even the sizing,” Kempe said.
Beyond bedding, towels and robes, Kempe envisions using the NordShield Crisp technology for any apparel worn close to the skin, excluding outdoor wear or streetwear.
“We will be going more into fashion than home [textiles],” Kempe said. “We are really proud of the fabrics—textiles is the essence of the brand.”
