The fashion industry has long grappled with a gap between its sustainability ambition and commercial execution. Materials account for 91% of the fashion industry’s total emissions and 30% of a product’s cost of goods sold, making them the single most consequential lever for both climate impact and long-term competitiveness. However, brands struggle to commit without proven supply, and innovators can’t scale without committed demand.

The Altag® Fiber Club, launched in June 2025 through a strategic partnership between Fashion for Good and Altmat, was built to break this dilemma: by pooling resources and minimum order commitments, it aims to distribute risk and create the conditions for real commercial scale for Altag®. Altag® is a natural fibre developed by Altmat that upcycles agricultural waste from food, medicinal, and non-textile crops, ie., residues that would otherwise go unvalued or be burned in the field. The result is a versatile, renewable fibre, offering an alternative to conventional materials without requiring dedicated land or water use. This collaborative model, which builds on Fashion for Good’s successful first Fiber Club with textile-to-textile recycler Circ in 2024, in collaboration with Canopy, aims to overcome key barriers to adoption such as scalability, processing compatibility, and cost competitiveness.

Today, that ambition has found its bridge: C&A and Zalando, through its private labels, have now confirmed their participation as founding brand signatories. The two brands, among Europe’s most established fashion retailers, have committed to producing their first styles featuring Altag® fibre, bringing fashion made from upcycled agricultural residue into mainstream retail, at scale.

But founding membership goes beyond a purchasing commitment: it is a two-way relationship. C&A and Zalando bring the real-world demands of high-volume retail: technical requirements, consumer expectations, and manufacturing realities that are directly shaping the ongoing development of Altag® fibre. In return, they gain early influence over a next-generation material at the moment it is being built for commercial scale, ensuring it works for their supply chains, their products, and their customers, making Altag® fibre stronger, faster.

Katrin Ley, Managing Director at Fashion for Good, emphasised the importance of early commitments from major brands: “Next-gen materials will only deliver on their promise if they reach volume. That requires brands with the scale and conviction to commit early, and that is exactly what Zalando and C&A bring to the Altag® Fiber Club. This is the kind of partnership that changes the trajectory of an innovation.”

Shikha Shah, Founder & CEO at Altmat, highlighted the requirements for bringing alternative materials into mainstream fashion: “Fashion’s impact on the environment underscores the urgent need to shift to better materials. But for these next-generation materials to succeed, they must do more than be responsibly made; they must match the aesthetics and performance that brands and consumers expect, while integrating seamlessly across global supply chains. Altag® has been relentlessly built to tick all boxes. We’re excited to welcome C&A and Zalando on this journey as we work together to bring better materials to more wardrobes and help shape the future of fashion.”

Pascal Brun, VP Sustainability at Zalando, underlined the importance of collaboration across the value chain: “Scaling next-gen materials requires the whole value chain to move together. The Altag® Fiber Club gives us a concrete chance to co-develop the material and test its adoption with customers across all Europe. This is a very important step to build an infrastructure that the whole industry can benefit from.”

Brands ready to move from ambition to action are invited to join the Altag® Fiber Club now. As a signatory, you will gain access to an established supply chain consortium, a proven collaborative framework, and the opportunity to shape the commercial future of next-generation materials alongside some of Europe’s leading retailers.

Find out more about the Fiber Club and register your interest.

If you are a brand interested in Altmat, please reach out directly to their team at admin@altmat.in.