International Dyer Vol. 4 - 2015

CO2 Dyeing company DyeCoo has received a lot of attention recently thanks to promotion of its technology by sporting giant Nike, which has just launched its new collection of polo shirts, dyed without water. DyeCoo’s dyeing process has also been promoted by Adidas and IKEA; however the company told International Dyer that this is more than just a marketing tool – DyeCoo is a commercial reality.

Melanie Wijnands, marketing and communications manager at DyeCoo, said: “Our focus at the moment is not the brands; our focus now is really working together with textile manufacturers. However, seeing that brands are looking towards our technology, recognising the potential of it, and also recognising the marketing potential of it, is a good confirmation to have. It’s a confirmation that the world and consumers and brands are actually waiting for a technology like ours.

“Of course it’s a very powerful marketing tool if a company like Nike promote your technology. It’s actually interesting that Nike never before promoted the manufacturing method. It’s the first time they’re ever showing a piece of equipment on their corporate website. So for us that’s a huge Dyeing without Water endorsement and it helps with our marketing.” Business development manager Olaf Lohle, sales director at DyeCoo, added: “We want to show that we’re not a fairy-tale anymore, that we are real – not only for people who want to be sustainable, but we can also compete with our operational costs, so it’s not just sustainability; we definitely have a competitive edge. “We don’t just want to be a marketing tool, we want to be doing real business, showing that companies can be more profitable using our equipment.”

Whilst this unique dyeing technology has been around for some years, it wasn’t possible to scale it to an industrial size. Ms Wijnands said that the founders of DyeCoo recognised the potential of the technology and that, if it could be industrialised, it could have huge environmental benefits and also economic benefits for the textile industry.

In terms of environmental benefits, were the whole textile industry to use the waterless dyeing process, enough water would be saved each year to provide every person on Earth with an extra 1,000 litres of water each. DyeCoo uses reclaimed CO2 so that it is already making use of a waste product. Under a certain pressure and temperature the CO2 becomes supercritical, a phase between a liquid and a gas, and in that phase, dyes dissolve very easily, even more so than in water.

For the full article click here: DyeCoo in International Dyer 2015