MANUFACTURING & MATERIALS INNOVATION
WF
22
T
here are times when good business decisions are born
as much from instinct as from intelligent reasoning.
Such was the case when Cindy Stangl, general
manager of Faytex, the producer of DriLex moisture
management shoe linings, first started to investigate a new
fibre from DuPont that had just been given its own FTC (US
Federal Trade Commission) classification. It is called Triexta
and it represents a new generic fibre subclass in the PTT
(polytrimethylene terephthalate) category. At the time, it was
the first new extension the FTC had approved for textiles in
five years but that, was not the reason Triexta or, to use its
brand name, Sorona intrigued her.
The year was 2009 and Faytex was well into its fourth
year of developing environmentally friendly fabrics for
footwear manufacturers around the world. Under its brand
name of Dri-Lex, the company had already created more than
a dozen fabrics using recycled polyester, wool, organic
cotton and rayon extracted from bamboo. But many of those
same customers were looking for something new, something
made from sustainable materials with benefits consumers
could see, feel and easily understand. Instinctively, Ms Stangl
felt Sorona might well be it.
When the FTC issued its ruling on March 20 of that year,
Sorona was well on its way to being a commercial success in
a totally unrelated business: carpeting. SmartStrand carpeting
by Mohawk with DuPont Sorona fibres was first introduced to
consumers in 2004. As the FTC was delivering its ruling, the
company’s web site asserted that its new carpets represented
A NEW SUSTAINABLE FIBRE