Uncaged Innovations collaborates with indie brands to showcase bio-based leather alternative

American biomaterial company Uncaged Innovations has partnered with 10 indie fashion brands to launch Elevate to bring to market its new bio-based luxury leather alternative, Elevate.

As part of ‘The Uncaged Collective,’ the emerging next-gen leather company, gave 10 brands from nine countries, including the UK, US, Germany, Argentina, Mexico, Africa, India, Australia, and South Africa, access to its bio-based leather to showcase how the material can be used in various applications, including handbags, wallets jewellery and watch straps.

Stephanie Downs, chief executive and co-founder of Uncaged, said in a statement: “Sustainability is now rightfully at the top of businesses and consumers' agendas, and we’re seeing more partnerships between large household names and innovative start-ups to bring sustainable solutions to the consumer. However, even though partnerships are announced, they take time to come to market.

“With ‘The Uncaged Collective,’ our mission is to make Uncaged’s bio-based leather alternative available to smaller brands, who move quickly to bring their products to market. Elevate is designed to help end the environmental devastation of traditional leather, and we believe that these innovative, sustainable solutions should be accessible to all brands.”

Biomaterial company Uncaged showcases leather alternative Elevate with first accessories

As part of the inaugural collective, there is London-based Stow, which makes luxury handbags and accessories from their partner factory in Spain, Italian jewellery label Marco Dal Maso, New York-based vegan leather handbag brand Kaila Katherine, and Humo Estudio, which manufactures leather bags and accessories from Argentina.

Others in the collection include Australian Sans Beast, which creates vegan leather handbags and accessories, US-based accessories and watchband-maker Wear Hadley, handbag maker Melina Butcher from Germany, Indian fashion brand Ethik, Mexico’s Sentient, a premium vegan accessory brand focused on sustainability, and South African luxury pet accessories company Chommies.

Each of the brands within the collective has created products using Elevate, a bio-based sustainable leather alternative that leverages grain proteins and fuses them with other plant-based elements that provide similar scaffolding functions to collagen, the main protein in animal hides.

Uncaged adds that the end product uses 95 percent less greenhouse gases, 93 percent less water, and 72 percent less energy than traditional animal leather.

On being part of the collective, Melina Bucher, founder of Meline Bucher, added: “The leather and fashion industry is notorious for devastating the environment, from the methane emitted in cattle production (which is known to be 80 times more harmful than carbon dioxide) and the energy-intensive chemicals used in the finishing and tanning processes.

“The fashion industry is slowly taking action to embrace innovative solutions and alternatives, but there is a barrier to entry for smaller brands to access and use these materials. We’re excited to partner with Uncaged to use their game-changing leather alternative for good and bring our products to market.”