Workwear will get smarter—and potentially save more lives—through a partnership between W. L. Gore & Associates Inc. and wearable technology company LifeBooster.

While the Grand Palais, Paris’ historic exhibition hall and museum complex, is closed for a multi-year restoration project, a membrane-wrapped temporary venue installed on the Champ de Mars in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower is taking its place.

Newlight Technologies Inc., Huntington Beach, Calif., is partnering with Nike to explore the use of AirCarbon, a carbon-negative biomaterial produced by microorganisms from the ocean. AirCarbon is currently used in fashion applications as a carbon-negative substitute for leather and plastic in products including eyewear, wallets and bags. Nike will explore the use of AirCarbon in a variety of applications, with the goal of advancing the company’s mission to create products that are better for athletes and the planet.

Less than two years after its launch, Mexico-based vegan cactus leather creator Desserto® has garnered eight international awards. 

With the introduction of its new no-dye collection, footwear brand adidas is betting that at least some of its fans are more concerned with the environment than the color of their shoes. 

A new type of shape-shifting technology modeled on ancient chainmail armor has been developed by scientists at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University and the California Institute of Technology in the U.S., as reported by the two universities. Described by the researchers as a type of “wearable structured fabric,” the material quickly changes from flexible to stiff due to carefully arranged interlocking particles. The team set out to develop a fabric that can easily transition from soft and foldable to rigid and load bearing by first investigating how structured but hollow particles could be interlocked to form a fabric with stiffness that could be altered on command. “We used plastic hollow particles that are interlocked to enhance our tunable fabric’s stiffness,” says study author assistant professor Wang Yifan. “To further increase the material’s stiffness and strength, we are now working on fabrics made from metals including aluminum, which could be used for larger-scale industrial applications requiring higher load capacity, such as bridges or buildings.” Photo: Nanyang Technological University.

Customized, biomedically applicable materials based on tropoelastin, a human protein, are being developed in Halle, Germany, in a joint project by Skinomics GmbH, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and the Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems. The material combines biocompatibility, durability, biodegradability and favorable mechanical properties similar to those of skin. Preclinical tests have confirmed that it is suitable as a wound dressing material used in the treatment of chronic and complex wounds, such as venous ulcers, leg ulcers or foot ulcers. The researchers succeeded in developing a biotechnological process for modifying tropoelastin, which was processed in an electrospinning procedure to produce ultrathin nanofibers. The resulting nonwovens were further crosslinked to stabilize them for the respective application. Photo: © Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems.

Finnish material innovation company Dassiet and Westminster, Colo.-based pet orthosis manufacturer OrthoPets are collaborating to create sustainable, safe and user-friendly pet health care products. According to information provided by the companies, they will first address the issues in veterinary casting, splints and bandages to provide vets, pets and pet owners safe and sustainable orthopedic treatment options. The new line of fracture and wound care products, called UPETS™, utilizes Dassiet’s remoldable, nontoxic and lightweight Woodcast® material and a newly patented, breathable, self-cohesive fabric. The companies say the new products are fast to apply, made from eco-friendly materials and focus on patient comfort and safety. The products are in clinical tests and will be launched by the end of 2021. Photo: Dassiet & OrthoPets Collaboration.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) News Service reports that engineers at MIT and Shanghai Jiao Tong University have designed a soft, lightweight and potentially low-cost neuroprosthetic hand that can give an amputee the ability to perform daily activities with dexterity. Additionally, the researchers found the prosthetic, designed with a system for tactile feedback, restored some primitive sensation in a volunteer’s residual limb. The smart hand is soft and elastic, extremely durable and weighs about half a pound. Its components total about $500, a fraction of the material cost of more rigid smart limbs. “This is not a product yet, but the performance is already similar or superior to existing neuroprosthetics,” says Xuanhe Zhao, professor of mechanical engineering and civil and environmental engineering at MIT. Zhao and his colleagues have published their work in Nature Biomedical Engineering. Photo: MIT/the researchers. 

London, U.K.-based company Vollebak has introduced a new sweater made from materials retrieved from landfill refuse. Built from old bulletproof vests and firefighter suits that were no longer usable, the Garbage Sweater is not only rugged, comfortable and attractive—it’s fireproof as well. Made in France from 70 percent recycled meta-aramid and 30 percent para-aramid, the sweater is machine washable in cold water. The normal life span of a firefighter suit or a bulletproof vest is just five years. While the original garment may not be strong enough or safe enough to function as protective gear after that point, its fabric may have lost only a fraction of its original properties, the company says. The sweater is not bulletproof, however. Photo: Vollebak.