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Sugar to Stretch as Geno’s Plant-Based Nylon Hits the Gym

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If you’ve ever sweated through a gym session wearing synthetic fibres, you’ve been wearing oil. But Geno, a San Diego biotech, wants to change that by turning sugar into stretch. In partnership with lululemon, the company has now unveiled what it calls the world’s first plant-based nylon-6, built not from petroleum but from fermented sugars.


This isn’t a lab stunt. Geno’s process replaces fossil carbon with renewable carbon, creating a true “drop-in” substitute for the nylon that dominates activewear. The company’s latest move and a new commercialisation partnership with Japanese trading giant Sojitz, signals a scale-up moment. Pre-commercial plants in Europe are already running, and lululemon has begun retail trials on its “bio-nylon” tops.


Why should food and future-protein watchers care? Because this is the bioeconomy at work, carbon that once fed you now makes your clothes. Geno’s tech links the food chain, the fitness chain, and the fashion chain. The global nylon market tops US$25 billion, and replacing even a sliver of that with bio-based material brings new demand for sugar, starch, and agricultural residues. The next frontier isn’t just eating plants, it’s wearing them.



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