#Yarn & Fiber

2021-01-28

Hyosung TNC to supply eco-friendly fiber (Regen Jeju) to the North Face

Hyosung TNC has inked a contract to supply Regen Jeju (regen®jeju), an eco-friendly fiber, to global outdoor brand The North Face.

Signed an MOU on Return for Rebirth on 18 January with the Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, Jeju Samdasoo (Jeju Development Corporation), and the North Face

On 19 January, Hyosung TNC Co., Ltd. signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, Jeju Samdasoo (Jeju Development Corporation), and the North Face (Youngone Outdoor Corporation) to promote an eco-friendly project called Return for Rebirth.

This agreement is aimed at raising consumer awareness of recycling and revitalizing the eco-friendly product market by applying Hyosung TNC´s eco-friendly fiber Regen Jeju made from PET bottles collected in Jeju Province to the North Face´s clothes and shoes.

The North Face is planning to launch a variety of eco-friendly products made of Regen Jeju including jackets, T-shirts, and shoes with a total of 100 tons of transparent PET bottles by the end of 2021.

Returning for Rebirth is an eco-friendly project that the Jeju Special Self-Governing Province has been promoting since 2020 in partnership with Jeju Samdasoo (Jeju Development Corporation) and Hyosung TNC as part of Jeju´s resource circulation system.

The Jeju Special Self-Governing Province and Jeju Samdasoo (Jeju Development Corporation) collect discarded transparent PET bottles in Jeju City, and Hyosung TNC produces eco-friendly fiber called Regen Jeju after turning the bottles into recyclable chips so that the North Face can use Regen Jeju to produce clothes and shoes.

Eco-friendly Textile Regen Drawing Attention as a Trend of Ethical Value Consumption

In 2020, Hyosung TNC`s eco-friendly fiber Regen® grew by more than 20% year-on-year.

It was largely due to the growing interest in ethical value consumption among the MZ generation (a term referring to millennials born in the early 1980s to early 2000s and Generation Z born from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s) who are leading todays consumer trends for eco-friendly brands particularly with their rapidly increasing influence.

Since setting eco-friendliness as its top-priority management goal in the early 2000s, Hyosung TNC has continued to develop recycled fibers including the polyester Regen that it extracted from PET bottles for the first time in Korea in 2008.

Notably, the company signed an MOU with the Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, etc. and established a system to recycle domestic PET bottles in 2020.

Hyosung TNC established a system tailored for producing high-quality fibers by adding and reinforcing the impurity cleaning process and launched Regen Jeju, a recycled fiber using Jeju waste PET bottles, for the first time in Korea.

Regen Jeju is superior in quality compared to general recycled fibers due to its better dyeing properties and more vivid color development, among others.

Hyosung TNC plans to continue with its sustainable management practices based on its strong commitment to various projects designed to expand the eco-friendly textile market at home and abroad.

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