French Luxury Denim Maker Adopts Israeli Sustainable Tech

Denim exec calls Sonovia’s technology ‘the Tesla of indigo dyeing’ with the potential to revolutionize the jeans industry.

By Abigail Klein Leichman, ISRAEL21c

Israeli green-tech company Sonovia has signed an agreement with French fashion giant Kering to integrate Sonovia’s yarn-dyeing technology into its denim production line for major luxury brands in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent.

The indigo dye market for the jeans industry is estimated at $1.5 billion a year. However, traditional indigo yarn dyeing processes require an average 60,000 liters of water per process and rely on polluting chemicals such as hydrosulfite.

Sonovia’s D(y)ENIM chemical-free indigo yarn dyeing ultrasound technology reduces water usage in the dyeing process by up to 85% and is 100% hydrosulfite free.

This technology enables a radical reduction in water consumption, chemical waste and energy expenditure.

The plug and play module can be implemented easily on any assembly line, making Sonovia’s technology accessible to a wide variety of global and traditional textile outlets.

As ISRAEL21c reported a year ago, Sonovia has been partnering with Italy-based international denim developer PureDenim, which is a partner in the agreement with Kering in development and scale-up of the denim technology.

“Sonovia’s technology is the ultimate step towards near-zero-impact indigo dyeing. Having forward-looking partners like Sonovia and Kering gives us courage to take on challenges that until yesterday seemed unattainable,” said Gigi Caccia, CEO of PureDenim.

Sonovia Chief Business Officer Roy Hirsch said the agreement with Kering “is confirmation that Sonovia’s indigo dyeing technology is the future technology for the textile industry. The agreement will revolutionize the textile industry and increase sustainability in the fashion world.”