Story
Leather is the most environmentally harmful textile to produce. Turning skin into leather uses dangerous chemicals, including a toxic tanning process, causing negative impacts on the environment and workers’ health safety. Additionally, millions of wild animals are killed solely for their skin every year to produce exotic leather. On the other hand, we have the alternative - synthetic vegan leather. Unfortunately, they are made out of plastic and take hundreds of years to degrade. Nowadays, customers are far more concerned about brands’ social and environmental responsibility. Therefore, sustainable materials such as leather alternatives became significantly in demand among big brands and designers. By 2028, the vegan leather market will be worth 57 billion dollars, growing 18% annually.
At TômTex, we see our opportunity in food waste. The food industry generates 8 million tons of seashell waste. With our patent-pending technology, we use seafood shell waste and mushrooms to produce our leather-like material. Unlike animal leather, there is no toxic tanning process involved in our production. Also, we don't use plastics and backing fabric, which are included in the production of faux leather. At the end of life, TômTex products can be recycled into TômTex production or fully biodegradable in a natural environment. In addition to being eco-friendly, our biomaterial does not compromise in quality. TômTex biomaterial is as strong as leather but half the price. It's also durable, holding up to industrial sewing and fabrication. We've created a near-endless array of colors and finishes using 100% natural substance. Besides that, we also developed a method to precisely replicate exotic skin textures to address the exotic-animal skin demand.
