The impact of the fashion industry continues to be detrimental to the future of our environment. Microplastics have managed to continually invade the products we use and rely on in our everyday lives, and fashion brands seldom spring to search for innovative ways to lower their environmental footprint. von Holzhausen is a science-driven and research-backed material innovation company that creates sustainable, vegan leather alternatives. Leveraging an innovation lab in Los Angeles, CA, von Holzhausen's focus is to harness the power of plants, recycled fibers, and biodegradable materials to craft some of the most durable and sustainable materials to ever exist at scale, without compromising on performance or style.
Von Holzhausen has identified one of the most pervasive issues in the vegan and synthetic leather industries: the used of plastic and petroleum-based materials, namely in the form of topcoats. Leather is a $116B industry with catastrophic effects on climate change. Livestock production causes tremendous pollution while leather tanning contaminates soil and waterways with toxic chemicals. Synthetic leather, a $78B industry, might seem like the answer, except both industries rely on plastic topcoats, a trillion dollar industry to make them durable and long-lasting. For every square meter of petroleum-based PU/PVC synthetic leather, the topcoat plastic used is equal to roughly 15-22 water bottles. These coatings perpetuate our reliance on petroleum, stay in landfills for centuries and break down into harmful micro plastics. The project to complete von Holzhausen's Liquidplant™ topcoat technology has been 2.5 years in the making, but has created a first-of-its-kind solution.
As a part of their core mission, von Holzhausen continuously iterates on its innovations to create remarkable materials with less carbon emissions than any other materials currently on the market. With sustainability and durability at the forefront of operations, the company puts every single material through rigorous testing, both in the lab and tactically out in the world, to ensure each product has unmatched performance and durability long-term. Through von Holzhausen's two-pronged business model, the company can experiment with its brand of vegan accessories, while ultimately providing viable solutions for enterprise companies.
von Holzhausen is committed to innovating materials and technologies that have a world-changing environmental impact across industries, all while remaining luxurious and durable. The project was led by von Holzhausen's Founder and CEO Vicki von Holzhausen. Vicki is a trained automotive designer with 15+ years of experience at top companies such as GM, Mercedes, and Audi. Having grown the business into a scalable resource for startups and enterprise companies alike, she is passionate about helping lower environmental footprints and unlocking the potential of sustainable materials. von Holzhausen is excited to explore additional partnerships that can further bring Liquidpant and its possibilities to life. The ultimate goal is to disrupt the sustainable approach to materials as we know it.
Link to the full article