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March 4, 2021 |

#3 Allbirds invests in Illinois plant-based leather start-up

In San Francisco, popular sustainability-focused shoe brand Allbirds has invested $2 million in Natural Fiber Welding to advance development of plant-based leather alternatives.

Founded by Luke Haverhals, Illinois-based Natural Fiber Welding’s first product is Mirum, a leather alternative made from minerals and natural plant-sourced materials such as cork and coconut coir fiber. “Humanity’s dependence on plastic and other petroleum-based products has created a scarcity mind-set that is unsustainable both for everyone’s quality of life and the future of this planet. A new era, one of abundance, will come from the creation of technologies based on sustainable and regenerative methods,” says Haverhals.

Joey Zwillinger, cofounder and co-DEO of Allbirds, says the company is careful to invest in viable solutions. “Our view is that sustainable solutions are only effective if they can reach a mass scale, and many of the experimental alternative “leathers” we surveyed required scientific miracles, and many were too expensive to use commercially at large scale,” he adds.

More on the story, here.

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