Innovation Forum
Since 2018, the Innovation Forum has turned words into action by presenting a curated selection of the world’s most promising solutions covering the entire supply chain.
What is the Innovation Forum?
The Innovation Forum presents a curated community of the world’s leading sustainable solutions and connects them to fashion brands and retailers to drive meaningful transformation. It is part of Global Fashion Agenda’s GFA Academy, providing information, guidance, and inspiration to the fashion industry and its consumers.
Since 2018, the Innovation Forum has turned words into action by presenting a curated selection of the world’s most promising solutions covering the entire supply chain.
This is done through our summit, with physical exhibition spaces. Driving action through connection with our network through matchmaking and activities throughout the year.
If you are interested in exhibiting at the Global Fashion Summit or want to get in touch, contact us below.
Cycle Platform is the first ever transversal platform to join the textile industry’s prime and secondary markets by following a product along its entire lifecycle. Cycle integrates two solutions: Cycle Platform.com, the front-end e-commerce that pioneers a novel consumer purchase/repurchase model, and Cycle Platform.tech, the back-end technological platform dedicated to aiding the fashion industry in the individualized identification of each garment along the entire product lifecycle, following the ESPR and DPP regulation guidelines.
See more from Cycle Platform here.
ESO RECYCLING is an innovative start-up company that deals with waste treatment from the worlds of fashion, sport and industry. Sports waste – shoes, tennis and padel balls, bicycle tyres and inner tubes – unsold clothing and shoe stock, production residues from fashion companies become a new resource. How? Through a recycling process, using new technologies for waste treatment with efficient and competitive machinery. The objective is to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill, choosing the path of enhancement and recycling as well as creating secondary raw material for realising new projects.
See more from Eco Recycling here.
The Evoco vision is a world in which businesses and people always choose materials and products they know are safe for themselves, families, and the natural world. In their vision, by recognising the enormous power of plants to create sophisticated, high-performance materials, businesses will be more successful. In their vision, we have overcome the threat of a planet living beyond its means and we have created a fossil-free world that will be even better for future generations.
See more from Evoco here.
Green Whisper® is a French company that produces 100% sustainable textiles made from waste banana stem fibres, in turn giving second life to agricultural waste and supporting local farming communities. The company aims to use banana stem fibres to solve the issue of agricultural waste burning and dumping and to provide sustainable fabric alternatives to cotton and oil and plastic based synthetic fibres. Green Whisper® gives a second life to the tree trunks by converting the fibres into yarns which provide an additional revenue to farmers and create local employment.
See more from Green Whisper® here.
Hakio is on a mission to radically change demand forecasting in the fashion and apparel industry. Through their AI-powered platform they help companies make more accurate predictions about their future sales to optimise inventory levels. Drawing upon 20 years of expertise in supply chain optimisation, they’ve developed cutting-edge algorithms that enable leaders and planners in the fashion industry to make informed decisions about stock levels, optimising their inventory for maximum efficiency and profitability. But their impact extends beyond the bottom line. Reducing excess stock means less waste in the end – a win-win for both businesses and the planet.
See more from Hakio here.
Made2Flow, a German data company, empowers fashion brands and manufacturers to decarbonise their supply chains by bridging the gap between supply chain management, production (textile, leather, footwear, hard goods, etc), human relationships, and environmental sciences. The company’s proprietary technology automates data gathering and validation across the value chain, identifies the impact levers, and provides personalised GHG reduction recommendations to manufacturers across tiers 1-3, considering their location, specific processes, sustainability maturity, budget, and more. Made2Flow has gathered data from more than 7,600 suppliers globally and helped over 40 brands initiate and implement decarbonisation activities. The company has an extensive partner network and a robust third-party data-sharing mechanism.
See more from Made2Flow here.
Modern Meadow is a climate-tech pioneer creating the future of materials through innovations in biology and material science. Their bio-materials technology platform with nature-inspired protein solutions delivers better performance, sustainability, scalability, and cost while reducing reliance on petrochemical and animal-based inputs. Modern Meadow offers “plug and play” technologies that can be dropped into existing global manufacturing environments, allowing partners to bring next-gen products to industries such as fashion, footwear, outdoor, automotive but also Beauty.
See more from Modern Meadow here.
In 2013, artists Philip Ross and Sophia Wang formed MycoWorks, a biotechnology dedicated to growing the future of materials. MycoWorks’ patented Fine Mycelium™ platform engineers mycelium as it grows, crafting biomaterials of unparalleled beauty, strength, durability, and hand-feel. Thirty years of savoir-faire have led to Reishi™ – a new category that offers designers an unprecedented level of control over a natural material. Reishi™ is ushering in a new era of sustainable design for next-generation artists.
See more from MycoWorks here.
OEKO-TEX® has been offering standardized solutions that companies in the textile and leather industry can use to transparently and sustainably optimize their manufacturing processes for 30 years. Based on scientific principles, OEKO-TEX® contributes to bringing high-quality, safe and sustainable products onto the market. 21,000 manufacturers, brands and trading companies in more than 100 countries are currently working with OEKO-TEX®. OEKO-TEX® has been offering standardised solutions that companies in the textile and leather industry can use to transparently and sustainably optimise their manufacturing processes for 30 years.
See more from OEKO-TEX® here.
ONCEMORE® produces high-quality dissolving pulp made of blended textile waste and wood from sustainably managed Swedish forests. OnceMore® is a part of Södra, Sweden’s largest forest owners’ association, which has a world leading industry that processes forest raw material into renewable products.
See more from OnceMore® here.
PurewayBio is dedicated to providing material solutions for a better future by seeking synergy between nature, biology, and technology. Inspired by fungal mycelium, they use cutting-edge technology, combined with manufacturing expertise, to create next-generation materials that blend performance and aesthetics. They have established their own fungus library and use gene editing, precision fermentation, and data-driven technologies to achieve scaled production and customisation.
See more from PurewayBio here.
QUIFACTUM is a SaaS that unburdens (fashion) brands through automatic creation of digital product passports (DPP) at item level and generation of unique QR codes. Through connections with ERP, PLM and LCA’s and their proprietary software to capture data, the DPP’s are automatically populated with all relevant and mandatory data. Everything runs in the background so Quifactum customers don’t have to do anything at all. The front-end pages can be customized to be coherent with the branding and the attractive storytelling can be used for marketing and sales purposes.
See more from Quifactum here.
RePack delivers sustainable and reusable packaging solutions, tailored to the unique needs of brands, retailers, and logistics enterprises. With a focus on e-commerce, we offer practical, turnkey solutions alongside custom-branded packages to enhance customer experiences. Our services also include innovative design solutions for a range of product needs. Join us in embracing the circular era of packaging.
See more from RePack here.
Sci-Lume Labs develops Bylon, the truly circular apparel fiber without compromise. Bylon is made using highly efficient chemistries to transform agricultural waste into its renewable feedstock. Bylon is a thermoplastic polymer that can drop into existing synthetic fiber manufacturing facilities. At end-of-life, Bylon is 100% recyclable and biodegradable. Finally, Bylon offers familiar performance versatility and seamless integration into conventional downstream yarn and textile processing.
See more from Sci-Lume Labs here.
Seaman Paper is a global leader in the paper industry, focusing on paper-based alternatives to single-use plastic packaging. Vela, created by Seaman Paper, is a paper alternative to single-use plastic poly bags. This proven solution has helped hundreds of brands eliminate plastic poly bags throughout their global supply chains. With worldwide manufacturing and distribution, Seaman Paper work locally with fashion brands as an integrated supplier. Vela contributes towards the Sea the Difference initiative, supporting ocean research and conservation programs. Partner with Vela today in our journey of replacing single-use poly bags.
See more from Seaman Paper here.
SPARXELL creates the next generation of colours and effects. They are doing so by pioneering the world’s first plant-based performant colourants inspired by nature.Their technology platform empowers brands to meet evolving regulations and consumer trends towards sustainable colourants. The innovative products deliver colour vibrancy and effects usually obtained from metals, minerals and dyes often combined with plastics.They transform industries like cosmetics, fashion, packaging, and more, combining biodegradability, non-toxicity and low carbon footprint with the best optical performance.
See more from Sparxell here.
TEXAID is an experienced global solution provider in professional collecting, sorting, repair, reselling, and recycling of textiles and footwear. With more 45 years of experience, TEXAID processes more than 280M items annually. Their operational presence spans Europe and North America, with more than 1,200 employees contributing daily to saving millions of textiles from landfill or incineration. TEXAID’s Unit Retail Solutions is designed to address the textile industry’s growing needs for sustainable end-of-use solutions and provides custom-made concepts to keep pre-and post-consumer textiles and footwear in the circle.
See more from TEXAID here.
Founded in 2018, TextileGenesis, a Lectra company, provides a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform that enables fashion brands and sustainable textile manufacturers to ensure a reliable, secure and fully digital mapping of their textiles, from the fiber to the consumer, and thereby guarantee their authenticity and origins.
The platform provides traceability for textiles, leather and footwear, employing fiber forwards traceability for sustainable and certified materials and Supply Chain discovery approach to traceability for conventional materials.
See more from Textile Genesis here.
The ID Factory is a supply chain traceability platform (SaaS) that, through the creation of a digital ID, allows fashion companies to gain end-to-end transparency over their global supply chain. They digitise operations like quality control, compliance, extended procurement and traceability through a dynamic database integrated with any management system. A digital product passport enabled by a physical and digital traceability at scale. Because Transparency doesn’t need trust.
See more from The ID Factory here.
Thermore, based in Milan – Italy, is specialized in research, development, production and marketing of high quality thermal insulation for apparel. Through its global sales network and its productions in the Far East and in Europe, Thermore caters to the best brands in the outerwear industry. Thermore was the first company to launch a sustainable insulation in the 80s and is now highly concentrated on eco-friendly innovation, mostly using polyester fibers recycled from PET bottles.
See more from Thermore here.
traceless® is part of a novel generation of plastic-free biomaterials. Even though it looks and feels like plastic, the material is fully bio-circular, certified plastic- and microplastic-free – designed to leave no trace. It’s made from plant residues from the agricultural industry, supporting the shift from fossil to renewable materials without competing with food sources. traceless® is naturally compostable, for example in home compost settings, and offers a toxic-free alternative throughout its entire product lifecycle, unlike conventional plastics.
See more from traceless here.
Founded in 2016, TrusTrace offers a market-leading platform for supply chain traceability and compliance, enabling brands and suppliers around the world to standardise how supply chain and material traceability data is captured, digitised and shared. Through providing access to validated supply chain data, TrusTrace empowers brands to identify, understand and improve the impact of their supply chain. The data can be used for risk management, compliance, product claims and footprint calculations, offering the ability to share data confidently and easily about product origin, impact, and much more.
See more from TrusTrace here.
Launched in 2020, the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol is the voluntary sustainability program for U.S. cotton growers, and traceability platform for all US cotton. It is the only program to offer quantifiable, verifiable goals and measurement in six key sustainability metrics and the first sustainable cotton fiber program to offer article-level supply chain transparency for members.
The program has welcomed over 40 companies and their brands including global brand and retailer members such as Levi Strauss & Co., Ralph Lauren, Gap Inc. and its collection of purpose-led lifestyle brands Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic and Athleta, as well as UK retailers Next Plc. and Tesco. Plus, with 1.7m cotton acres enrolled, the program now represents almost a quarter (23%) of the entire cotton-growing area of the United States.
See more from the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol here.
YKK, has since the company’s founding in Tokyo in 1934 continuously set industry standards for quality, service, value, and innovation in the production of zippers, plastic hardware, hook and loop fasteners, webbing tapes, and snap and buttons. At the core of their corporate activities is the philosophy of YKK® founder Tadao Yoshida, the “Cycle of Goodness”. The idea that ‘no one prospers without rendering benefit to others’ expresses the YKK Group’s corporate spirit of continuing to prosper with society, customers, related industries, and employees.
See more from YKK here.
Matchmaking
Alongside the Summit, the Innovation Forum presents a curated exhibition of the world’s leading sustainable solutions. The Innovation Forum is designed to open minds to new opportunities and spur action. The Matchmaking programme enables small and large fashion businesses to advance their sustainability journey, by providing the unique opportunity to be matched with relevant solution providers. Each scheduled business meeting will be set up based on a careful screening process using data provided by participating brands and solution providers.
Contact us
Learn more about how you can be part of the Innovation Forum by exhibiting at Global Fashion Summit or getting matched with a Solution Provider.