Supply chain collaboration for sustainable shorts and sports shoes

Huafeng, Cyclone and Covestro worked together in producing shorts and sports shoes with sustainability concern for Germany’s Team Sonnenwagen as their official team equipment.

Sustainable rPET and coating system

Fabrics for the garments and shoes are based on Cyclone recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) yarn, which is derived from post-consumer plastic bottles. The shoes’ upper material is made of 100% Cyclone rPET while the shorts are made of 86% Cyclone rPET and 14% Spandex to ensure a comfortable fit.

Fabrics of Team Sonnenwagen’s team shorts are based on rPET yarn.

The designs on shorts and sports shoes feature Huafeng’s newly launched HAPTIC Art textile coating system, which partly contains bio-based Impranil CQ DLS/1 polyurethane (PU) dispersion from Covestro, who is also the main sponsor of Team Sonnenwagen. The coating enables outstanding aesthetics, improves mechanical performance and reduces production-related emissions by around 80g CO2 emission.

The high solids content and thixotropic properties of the system also allows high coating thickness, making it well-suited for creating coatings with detailed images and sophisticated 3D effects on garments and shoes.

The bio-based coating on sports shoes improves mechanical performance as well as saves CO2 emission.

Award-winning ink system

The HAPTIC Art ink system, applied on images and textures, has demonstrated its outstanding properties in flexibility, adhesion and resistance to hydrolysis, washing and abrasion through a series of tests. The results prove that Art ink is particularly suitable for coating on high-performance sports shoes.

The ink coating system also offers exceptional design versatility along with substantial environmental benefits – Team Sonnenwagen’s shoes saves 260g CO2 emission per pair compared to traditional manufactured sports shoes. With its outstanding mechanical properties, the system recently received the ISPO Best Product Award.

The collaboration for Team Sonnenwagen’s outfits changed the scene of sports garment and footwear production, which traditionally rely heavily on virgin raw materials, and proves that a more sustainable approach to sportswear is possible.

Team Sonnenwagen Aachen is a student initiative dedicated to engineering, building, and driving new solar racecars.