Next-gen lunar boots R&D

March 1, 2026  |  Swatches

A boot that’s part of a NASA lunar surface spacesuit prototype is readied for testing inside a thermal vacuum chamber at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. The thick aluminum plate at right represents the frigid surface of the lunar South Pole, where Artemis III astronauts will conf…
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TCU students develop protective seams for spacesuits

March 1, 2026  |  Swatches

Four Texas Christian University (TCU) undergraduate students won the 2025 Best Innovation Award at the Technology Collaboration Center Wearables Workshop and University Challenge for their project, “Optimized Suit Environmental Protection Garment Seams.”
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Automated garment deconstruction for recycling used clothing

March 1, 2026  |  Swatches

A major pain point in recycling used clothing is the disassembly of items, such as removing zippers, fasteners and screen-printed areas, which is largely a manual process. A research team at the Rochester (N.Y.) Institute of Technology is developing an automated system to identify and disassemble ga…
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Biodegradable fiber electronics for smart textiles

March 1, 2026  |  Swatches

As wearable electronics proliferate, so potentially will e-waste associated with them. A research team at Seoul National University has developed a fully biodegradable conductive fiber for wearable electronics, especially medical applications.
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Photopolymerization: A room-temperature PFAS-free process

March 1, 2026  |  Swatches

One of the green R&D focuses of the EcoTextile Research Chair at CTT Group in Saint-Hyacinthe, Que., Canada, is energy reduction. At Advanced Textiles Expo last November, researcher/chemist Ahmad Ibrahim, the holder of that position, spoke about work on photopolymerization and how it could be an…
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Circular furniture designs

February 13, 2026  |  Swatches

Modus Furniture, based in the U.K., produces furniture with sustainability in mind, offering a take-back program to ensure pieces have multiple life cycles.
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Stretchy sweat-activated yarn batteries developed for smart fabrics

February 9, 2026  |  Industry News, Swatches

Incorporating sweat-activated batteries into smart fabrics for athletic use may have jumped another hurdle. Researchers at the School of Materials & Energy, Southwest University in China developed a fiber wrapping technique to create these types of batteries in yarns, enabling them to be stretch…
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Company provides prototyping, R&D for e-textile products

February 2, 2026  |  Swatches

German engineering company 3E Smart Solutions provides prototyping, product development and consulting services to companies in or exploring the e-textile industry.
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Automated textile manufacturing without sewing

February 1, 2026  |  Features, Swatches

Could on-demand automated no-sew apparel production bring some manufacturing back to the United States? CreateMe’s automated system integrates robotics and adhesives to enable fast, local and highly customizable production
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Bacterial cellulose meets interior design

February 1, 2026  |  Features, Swatches

Last fall, Polybion™, in conjunction with design studio Natural Urbano, released a set of translucent sculptural hanging lamps, the biomaterials company’s first foray into interior design with its Celium™ material.
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