NEFFA is making it possible to produce apparel out of bio-fabricated materials

New Fashion Factory (NEFFA) is ready to showcase how it brings bio-fabricated materials with MycoTEX to market, following pre-launch events during Biofabricate in New York and at the Global Change Award in Stockholm. NEFFA’s automated manufacturing method makes it possible to produce apparel, footwear and fashion accessories locally and fully in 3D out of bio-fabricated materials such as mycelium or algae.

NEFFA is a holistic solution for the entire fashion supply chain by providing the following features:

Local for Local
Producing fashion locally has not been done at scale due to high labor costs, a lack of skilled workers, and the fact that all supplies generally still need to come from Asia. NEFFA solves this puzzle: raw materials, such as our MycoTEX mycelium material, can be grown locally through fermentation, and its manufacturing method is fully automated, without any weaving or stitching, in an ultra-transparent system that also eliminates the risk of centralizing production in one region only.

Scalable
NEFFA products can be manufactured by adding a few extensions to existing machines already used in the industry. This allows us to scale fast because existing factories can quickly implement our method and could also start new local manufacturing plants without making huge investments.



Custom
Every season, countless pieces of clothing and footwear go to waste because they are not the right size or color. NEFFA can work fully on-demand, making each item custom to size and taste, thus minimizing returns. NEFA can also create shapes and textures that traditional methods could not achieve.

Harmless
Unlike the traditional fashion industry, NEFFA does not need any farmland, pesticides, or hazardous chemicals and uses less water. The materials we make, such as MycoTEX, do not need to be washed in the machine but can just be wiped clean, and after usage, they can be home composted.

The entire process, from growing the material to having the final products, takes only seven days, and no plastics or other harmful chemicals are required. Later this year, NEFFA will present its first robotic manufacturing cell with a well-known German machine building company based on MycoTEX. The cell works with existing robotic systems already used in the fashion industry, so companies do not have to invest heavily in new equipment to implement the method.