Epic Group partners with CleanKore to advance sustainable denim

Hong Kong-based Epic Group, a leading garment manufacturer for global brands, has partnered with CleanKore, a denim innovation, and patent licensing company. This collaboration aims to scale CleanKore’s unique yarn dyeing method, which offers several sustainability benefits to both denim mills and garment manufacturers.

CleanKore’s unique method changes the chemistry and procedure of dyeing yarns at denim mills by keeping intact the white core of the yarn and only dyeing the surface.

This method decreases water, chemicals, and process time in the denim garment finishing stage dramatically. Handsanding and hand whiskering, spraying of hazardous Potassium Permanganate (PP) (done by professionals wearing heavy safety equipment), and repeated washing cycles are common denim garment finishing techniques.

CleanKore technology combined with lasers enables the removal of the PP spray procedure, considerably increasing the health and well-being of textile employees while also reducing dangerous chemical emissions.

In most types, manual procedures are removed, while others are greatly reduced. CleanKore technology also allows for the decrease of wash cycles, which saves water, chemicals, and process time, enhancing the finished goods’ sustainability credentials.

Epic Group and CleanKore’s current solutions exhibit up to 44% water reductions in garment finishing and up to 60% energy savings in the fabric dyeing stage, as well as the removal of PP spray.

Epic Group and CleanKore want to rapidly grow adoption in collaboration with Epic Group’s client base through their relationship. The partnership intends to convert a substantial chunk of Epic Group’s denim production to CleanKore technology in the first year, with a goal of reaching 15 – 20 million pairs of denim per year in the next three years.

Darryl Costin Jr, president and CEO, CleanKore, said that as a business devoted to sustainability, they could not have asked for a finer partner to expand their ground-breaking technology. Epic Group has a fantastic workforce from top to bottom that is entirely committed to its objectives. Unlike previous technologies, they are excited to give consumers a significantly more sustainable, cost-neutral solution.

Epic Group is working to make the eradication of harmful potassium permanganate spray a manufacturing industry standard.

Ranjan Mahtani, Chairman, Epic Group, said that as a major global denim producer devoted to improving sustainability in product and process, they work with innovative technologies that lessen negative impacts on the world and people. CleanKore technology provides a tremendous value proposition of considerable sustainability advantages to their workers and the environment at no additional expense. Sustainable goods should be scalable, not specialized, and the adoption of this technology will be accelerated.