The world of denim has been eagerly awaiting that eco-friendly dyeing technology that should mark a big jump towards eliminating, or at least minimising to a great extent, water consumption.
The commercialisation of the high-profile tech collaboration between fashion-forward Italy’s PureDenim and alpha geek Israel’s Sonovia to minimise use of water and enhance dye durability is expected to see the light of day in the second half of the coming year.
The agreement that was announced earlier this year, had generated keen interest in the denim industry. The traditional methods of indigo dyeing used by the global denim industry—which is expected to touch $76.1 billion by 2026—are known for their excessive use of water and energy, as also low resistance of the dyes to washes. This collaboration is a step to solve all these issues with the help of disruptive technology, and hence the keen interest.
With this, Sonovia, an alumnus of the Fashion for Good accelerator, specialising in ecofriendly ultrasonic textile technology, had marked its entry into the dyeing industry. The size of the annual indigo colours market is estimated at $1.3 billion a year. Sonovia's antimicrobial ultrasonic fabric treatments have been used in products such as Sonomask, a popular facemask during the epidemic.
A publicly traded company at the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange since December 2020, Sonovia has been known known for its antimicrobial ultrasonic finishes.
Talking about the dyeing technology, Roy Hirsch, the CBO at Sonovia tells texfash.com: “As of the data that we have now, we are able to eliminate the scouring, reduction and oxidation processes, and all hazardous chemistries that are involved with these processes, and to then reduce the amount of dye baths from what is used today (8–12 dye baths) to only two dye baths, while using very pure and clean chemistry. This means a reduction of >70% in water, energy, chemistry.”
The dye chemistry, he continues, is proprietary to Sonovia. “In terms of durability, in some cases we need to enable the wash effect post dyeing, and we can control how durable or less durable we wish the dyeing to be.”
