Sportswear brand Puma has teamed up with the BA Fashion course at London-based design school Central Saint Martins to explore more sustainable technologies in textile manufacturing, the results of which can be seen in the new ‘Day Zero’ women’s collection.
The name ‘Day Zero’ is inspired by the water shortages in Cape Town, South Africa, where ongoing droughts forced the local government to set a date, ‘Day Zero’, when the city’s taps would be turned off. To highlight this link, the map of Cape Town can be seen across the collection, which consists of footwear and apparel.
Throughout the collection, Puma has implemented innovative dyeing technologies such as ‘Dope Dye’, which eliminates one step of the dyeing process by using less energy, water and chemicals, and the digital printing of logos directly onto fabric, resulting in reduced use of chemicals and water.
With these initiatives, the sportswear company reduced the water consumption in the Day Zero collection by up to 17.4%, depending on the type of product. After being tested in the collection with Central Saint Martins, Puma will also roll out these technologies in other parts of its product range.
Puma has significantly reduced the water use in producing the raw materials for the collection by using cotton from the Better Cotton Initiative. In 2019, the company reports to have saved more than 13 billion liters of water, the equivalent of 200 million average showers, by using BCI cotton throughout its product range.
Looking beyond the production cycle, Puma has also delved into new ways to make its marketing more sustainable. The campaign images for the Day Zero collection were digitally sampled, using technology of Dutch digital fashion house The Fabricant.
The new women’s collection follows last month’s launch which saw Puma collaborating with First Mile on a collection made from recycled plastic.
The Day Zero’ collection, which includes the AOP Top (R1,099), AOP Leggings (R899), Future Rider Day Zero (R2,199) and RS-X3 Day Zero (R2,199), will be available at Puma stores, Puma.com and selected retailers from 19 March.
