Closed Loop Fashion (CLF)
What Do We Do?
We recycle clothing waste into new premium textile goods and clothing. It is a circular and closed-loop process.Our process has very minimal carbon emission, and creates no pollution and waste.
Our technology is solving the enormous water and energy resources usage, the generation of tons of carbon emission, waste, and pollution problems created by the fashion industry.
Our Story
Both founders of 4tify have had more than 15-20 years of experience working in the textile and fashion industry. They met at Y Combinator StartUp School 2018, and during that time they were both in different ventures to solve the problems plaguing the fashion industry.
They soon realized that they both had this feeling deep down about how the fashion and textile industry create so much waste, carbon emission, and pollution.
They then joined forces and focused on working in sustainable fashion supply, that could provide cost-saving solutions as well as functional textile for the fashion industry. They were thinking of making sustainable fashion more appealing to consumers.
While the founders try to work on their startup at the end of 2018, and spent time talking to users and building products while launching the company, 4tify was born.
With the help of chemistry, material science, biotechnology, and engineering, they came up with a radical solution: the development of using waste clothing to be recycled into new textile soft goods, materials, and clothing, and doing it all in a modular concept machine that only takes up a very small footprint. Within 4tify, they have also started integrating customized chemistry and material design solutions, and working with fashion brands alongside sustainable material formulation, made-to-order, to supply garment and fabrics for clothing brands and buyers.
The founders spent almost a year working in 2019 on sustainable textile offering and when it was just about to gain some traction, with new orders from key customers such as Target and Nike, Covid hit.
It was a major blow for 4tify in 2020, when Covid hit. The company revenue was dropping drastically for some months even with zero sales and the company is burning cash fast, with not much runway time left.
The impact of Covid has forced both founders to try to understand why does the pandemic happen, how the advancement of society has created pollutants and waste, which inevitably forced wild habitats to get closer to human settlements, causing the transmission of this type of virus from the wild to the modern society.
And in the very industry that the founders are in, despite the sustainable sourcing and development effort, it seems, the pace of the sustainability of textile still is far behind the damage it caused.
Closed Loop Fashion Idea
The founders then realized, that in order to reduce fashion waste tremendously, especially carbon emission, pollution, as well as resource usage by this very polluting textile industry, the whole supply chain needs to be reinvented.
Not only does a new process of making clothes needs to be established, but the method must also address the amount of fashion waste already generated by the textile industry and consumers.
4tify’s Closed Loop Fashion system generates footprint that’s equivalent to 3 washing machines.
The Technology
Creation of biomaterials.
4tify’s fabric technology focuses on the recycling of waste fabric and garments for a closed-loop, zero-waste system. The waste garment and fabric are disintegrated and re-spun again into new fabric and garment, and the cycle can be repeated infinitely without generating waste.
Soon after, the founders gathered their team of experts to work on this idea and after spending two years of lockdown, the team finally achieved a breakthrough to make fabric and garments using waste textile on a lab scale, and moving towards pilot scale at the end of 2021.
What Problems Are We Solving?
-90%
Carbon Emissions
-95%
Water Usage
-95%
Waste Production
Using this method, the whole supply chain of textile production will be bypassed and carbon emission will be reduced to more than 90%, and water and waste generation will be reduced to more than 95%. This is the solution that the founder realized will be the game-changer for textile production. Not only is the process circular, but the whole process of textile production can also now be carried out anywhere, even on Mars.
Creation of biomaterials.
4tify’s technology is solving the problem of conventional textile and garment processes that creates tons of waste, water pollution, and carbon emission. The approach adopts a small footprint of unit operation that will greatly reduce waste, and provide a clean and greener process.
4tify closed-loop recycling is currently patent pending.
What are the Application Areas of the Technology?
Our technology has a wide application in the fashion industry, be it shoes, clothes, headgear, etc. Anything that you can dream of, we can make them, sustainably.
4tify’s modular, closed-loop system of using textile waste to recycle and spin out new garments is also great for eco-conscious fashion designers and consumers as the system only generate a small footprint, and can be infinitely recycled. The textile waste can be pre and post-consumer textile waste.
The sky’s the limit with our Closed Loop Fashion(CLF) technology.
The Key Team Members
STAN KAM
Stan always thought it is not enough just to have a job, that is how he ended up working in the field of environmental engineering after graduating. After spending almost 8 years in the industry, he realized that the waste issue was alarming and endless, especially in the textile and garment industry.
He realized rather than solving the problem at the end of the pipeline, there must be something that can be done upfront. Being entrepreneurial, he then started to provide performance and functional chemistry to help optimize resources, and reduce waste. It all pays off as the company grows from the size of operating from a room in his apartment to a full-scale reformulation facility.
Stan then started a new venture, 4tify, a company focused on providing sustainable solutions for the textile and apparel industry using biotechnology and chemistry.
LAURA KINCAID
Laura , Co-founder and COO from Los Angeles holds a BFA in Fashion Design. Prior to joining 4tify, she worked for 10 years in apparel manufacturing with experience in design, product development, and textiles for companies including BCBG Max Azria and Guess.
In her early 20’s, Laura produced an amateur fashion show with the “anti-fashion” theme (as in anti-waste/ anti-consumerism) and 90% of the materials were repurposed. She wanted to highlight the fact that there is a lot of waste in the fashion industry and wanted to change it.
Fast forward a decade after working in different departments - first in fabric and color, then in development and design – Laura started to formulate ideas about how she could build something that could be a part of the solution; and that’s how she met Stan, the founder of 4tify.
EMMA TAN
As a bioprocess and chemical engineer focusing on the development of recycling and biofibers, Emma has a passion for the preservation of natural resources and animals. Fashion for Emma, is not only about design and style, but something that can be expressed in a more feasible way while preserving the environment.
At 4tify, her mission is to create solutions to convert textile wastes, especially those petroleum-based textiles into new garments that are wearable and endlessly recyclable. She truly believes what 4tify is doing now will become a promising trend in the near future, especially Closed-Loop Fashion.
AISHU PRABA
Aishu completed her degree in Biotechnology, and she is keen on working in the R&D of sustainable fiber production. She has experience isolating microorganisms from environmental samples and working on the production of biodegradable fibers.
Aishu has vast experience working with experts and very experienced researchers for an ongoing strain development project. She will continue to work on new material and fiber projects; as well as develop biodegradable fibers from microorganisms, starting from the identification of the best isolate to commercially produce the fiber on a large scale.
