Chinese firm Xtep releases an environmentally friendly polylactic acid t-shirt

The Xtep Group, Chinese footwear, and apparel company has introduced a new environmentally friendly polylactic acid (PLA) t-shirt. Clothes manufactured of PLA fiber have a minimal environmental effect since they decay naturally after one year when buried in a specified environment. PLA is derived from starch-containing crops and spun into fiber.

On June 5, 2020, Xtep released its first PLA windbreaker. PLA accounted for 19% of the trench coat fabric at the time. After a year, the percentage of PLA t-shirts has climbed dramatically to 60%.

The business also wants to boost the PLA content of knitted sweaters slated to be on sale in the second quarter of 2022 by 67%, and 100% pure PLA trench coats will be available in the market in the third quarter of the same year.

According to a press release, Xtep plans to accomplish layers of breakthroughs in the application of PLA goods in the future, with the goal of producing more than one million pieces of PLA goods in a single season by 2023.

On the day of the launch last week, Xtep also showed all of the group’s environmentally friendly items from its environmental protection family. In addition to the ready-made garments made of PLA material, there are also apparel, shoes, and accessories made of Serona, organic cotton, DuPont paper, and other ecologically friendly materials.