Swedish forest creates sustainable and trendy clothes

According to the UN trade body Unctad, the clothing industry emits more greenhouse gases than aviation and shipping combined. This means that the clothing industry faces a major challenge when it comes to changing to a more sustainable production. A solution to this could be to produce clothing from residual streams from the Swedish forest.

- Something powerful took hold of me when I read that you can create clothes that are fully traceable from the Swedish forest, and not least from my home region in Ångermanland. After doing research, reading studies and talking to various researchers, it felt obvious to go ahead with the idea, says Niklas Gilmark, founder of Allvar Underwear.

Together with Stefan Söderberg, the work began with developing products of high quality and low climate impact.

In 2016, Allvar Underwear together with Domsjö fabriker carried out an R&D council activity at RISE Processum where they would jointly develop products and test the demand for products based on Swedish forest raw materials.

- In addition to access to important expertise, the R&D Council's belief in the idea gave a strengthened self-confidence to work further with it, says Niklas Gilmark.

Now the fashion giant Gina Tricot is launching a collaboration with Allvar, Allvar/Gina, where a limited collection of underwear made from traceable textiles from the Swedish forest is sold.

- It is fun to see when this type of product reaches the market and can contribute to more sustainable consumption, and it is especially fun that the R&D Council has been involved at an early stage and contributed to Allvar's journey, says Fredrik Östlund, Innovations and process manager at RISE Processum.

Gina Tricot presents the collection in collaboration with Allvar