The material development company, formerly known as ELeather, has a new name and has raised $18 million in new growth funding from the world’s fanciest brands.
Upcycler, now with Generation Phoenix, said new investors include Coach parent company Tapestry, Jaguar Land Rover, Dr. Martens, lead investor Material Impact and previous investor Hermès. increase.
The 15-year-old company is based in Peterborough, UK and has worked with brands such as Nike and Delta. Upcycler intends to use the new cash to expand into “luxury fashion and footwear categories,” Gen Phoenix said in a statement. The company claims he has diverted more than 8,000 tons of leather waste from landfills so far.
“Imagine what happens when waste is no longer wasted,” says Gen Phoenix in an ambitious message on its new website. Upcycler told TechCrunch that “the raw material comes directly from the tannery, and typically about a third of the leather is scrapped.” To turn leather waste into a usable leather-like product, it must be shredded “using only high pressure water” and “entangled” “around a high performance core”.
Gen-Phoenix “recycled leather” is not made entirely of recycled materials. A company spokesperson told TechCrunch that its products feature “up to 86% recycled materials,” including recycled leather and recycled plastic. Still, the company’s final products also contain virgin plastic.
Gen Phoenix Founder and CEO John Kennedy explains the company’s leather-like products. Image credit: Gen Phoenix
Without sharing a specific deadline, a Gen Phoenix spokesperson said the company aims to “completely reduce and eliminate virgin materials from its products.”
Upcycler is also “commercializing bio-based coating systems and bio-based alternatives to synthetic materials used in the process,” the spokesperson added. We hope to see a complete kick-off soon.
Shrinking: Gen Phoenix’s use of plastic is not uncommon, even for a ‘sustainable’ brand. Fossil fuel-based materials are pervasive in the fashion business. polyester? Nylon? Elastane? all plastic.
Even the rise of recycled plastic fabric warrants deep skepticism. As a result, synthetic clothing is rarely recycled, and the microplastics they emit basically go everywhere: oceans, mountain peaks, inside sea creatures, and even our own bodies. Addressing the industry’s climate and wider environmental footprint requires rethinking everything from the way fabrics are dyed to the phasing out of “fast fashion” altogether.
