Despite the current geopolitical volatility and concerns over the future of sustainability initiatives, there is plenty to remain optimistic about in the long run, according to Eileen Fisher’s Inka Apter.
“There are certain things that transcend the aisle,” said Apter, who is the sustainable women’s fashion brand’s senior director of materials and circularity, at the Sourcing Journal Sustainability Summit. “The soil health doesn’t care what administration is in charge. It’s going to need our help. Certain issues around climate change—how it affects our industry and how our industry extracts raw materials—are going to be there in the long run.”
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Both Eileen Fisher and one of its materials collaborators, Naia from Eastman, have no plans to slow down their innovation pace.
Eileen Fisher already offers garments comprised of 100 percent organic cotton, but the company is taking another step by moving to regenerative organic cotton, as well as sourcing regenerative wool.
For Naia, the sustainable textiles innovator develops its Naia Renew cellulosic fiber at its Kingsport, Tenn. production facility via molecular recycling technologies, which use chemicals, extreme heat and pressure to break down plastic and recycled waste into polymers to create new materials.
Dnyanada Satam, global market segment manager at Naia from Eastman, told Sourcing Journal editor in chief Peter Sadera that the company plans to use the process to recycle about 250 million pounds of waste by end of 2025. By 2030, Naia has goals to double this number to 500 million pounds.
The Naia Renew fiber was first introduced in 2020, and is comprised of 60 percent sustainably sourced wood pulp and 40 percent certified recycled waste.
Although innovations are continuing to flow through the Apter understands that there are industrywide challenges to apparel’s ability to adapt new fibers.
“As we think of circularity, the challenge that we’re facing right now is how to displace current materials and fibers with circular recycled fibers. You want to use all the tools in your toolbox,” Apter said. “You don’t want to set up these artificial challenges, or that every fiber has to earn its spot in your fiber portfolio. But we do have to accept that currently, only 2 percent of [the industry’s] fibers come from recycled sourcing, so that’s a challenge for us.”
Eileen Fisher is a majority-natural fiber company, with synthetics making up 6 percent of its portfolio, Apter said. But Satam observed that most apparel companies are still in the stage of using the fibers only for special cases.
“From a fiber manufacturer standpoint, we do see brands with big advancements in adopting sustainable and circular fibers, but they’re mostly in those capsule collections,” Satam said. “It is all the more important right now that we can work together and bring bring these fibers into more core collections, because that’s what’s going to help us move the needle in the right direction.”
This year, Eileen Fisher is launching a collection of products with Naia Renew as part of its full 2025 line.
“We feel that Naia Renew has certain attributes, there’s sustainability for sure, there’s circularity for sure, but then it also has certain qualities that our designers love, that Eileen fell in love with,” Apter said. “We’re really happy to give it a more exposure, and not to be a one off or a capsule, but really incorporate it into our collection. Hopefully it will become one of those best-loves that our customers will hold on for 30-plus years.”
According to Satam, working with Eileen Fisher to develop the collection was easier for Naia than the start of most brand partnerships based on the brand’s prior knowledge of areas including molecular recycling technology and Global Recycled Standard (GRS) certifications.
“It was just an easy conversation to have, and that just helps us with bringing such products with speed to market,” said Satam. “With some brands, it may take us a couple of years, but with Inka and her team, it was just a year.”
With the 2025 Eileen Fisher/Naia collection expected for later in the year, both parties are collaborating on messaging for the release.
“With the new materials and next-gen materials, we have to champion them for what they are,” said Apter. “Let’s celebrate them for what they are and what they’re bringing to our portfolio of fibers when the story is good, when the science is good and when the impact is good.”
