FAQs

Recycled and regenerative nylon can be a great thing for the world. Here are two ways we think it can make a difference: 

• Using recycled nylon is better than fossil fuel extraction. Most clothes still use ‘virgin’ nylon. While nylon has great properties, it is a petrochemical product and in traditional supply chains, new nylon relies on continued fossil fuel extraction. Using recycled nylon reduces our reliance on fossil fuels–which is a good step forward, obviously.
• Regenerative processing helps fashion to become a closed-loop system and can turn waste into valued products. There is plenty of nylon out there. We use a process that can take nylon from a range of sources including pre-consumer waste, post-consumer waste and even discarded fishing nets. We put this nylon through a chemical process, stripping it back to its chemical fundamentals and removing impurities before recompiling a completely new yarn. The new yarn is pristine. It has the same properties as yarn made from virgin materials. All the nylon is retained in this regenerative process, meaning it can be repeated an endless amount of times.
• These are great fundamentals, but there are still some challenges to overcome which are described below.

Polyester is only used in some of our clothes. Where polyester is the main fabric in an item of clothing, the polyester we use comes from recycled sources; namely, plastic bottles. Almost half of the world’s clothing is made from polyester and most of that relies on ‘virgin’ sources (i.e. crude oil). Using recycled polyester lets us keep more plastic bottles out of landfills, oceans, and beaches, and it reduces our reliance on oil and gas extraction in our material supply chain. 

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• We’re proud to make our clothes in Taiwan due to its safety and environmental standards, support of advanced and circular industrial ecosystems, and the transparency it allows into our supply chains. There are many fashion brands shifting to Taiwan and while they’re here for the same reasons, we feel too few tell its story.
• Check out the videos of our factory if you want to look inside. 

• The regenerative process used to create nylon yarn from recycled sources is becoming more popular across the world, but consumers need to read the detail. 
• At BoYan, we’ve made the commitment to use recycled nylon as the main material wherever possible– where we say nylon, it’s almost always recycled nylon.  Unfortunately, too many brands promote their use of recycled nylon (and other sustainable materials) but limit the use those materials in a few specific products out of a much larger catalogue. Consumers often miss this nuance and buy clothes they think are sustainable choices when in fact they’re not.
• Our nylon is certified by our supplier according to the Global Recycled Standard (GRS) which helps us confirm chain of custody and transparency about where our nylon comes from. It’s an emerging standard, but we hope levers like these can help transparency and consistency in the industry.

• Our vision is to try and find ways so we can have great fashion without costing the Earth. The main aim is to make use of what’s out there rather than consuming raw materials.  
• Recycled and regenerative nylon offer lots of promise but challenges remain before we’ll reach a truly circular system. Using recycled nylon is currently more expensive than using virgin nylon, limiting its uptake and impact. There are also challenges and opportunities that need to be improved from design to material processing. Like all things, we’re sure that as time passes and experience grows, we’ll find new efficiencies and improvements. We’ve chosen Taiwan because we believe it has good fundamentals to manage manufacturing industries and we’re continuously working with our partners to ensure onsite production is responsible and efficient. 
• Finally, we don’t want to over-simplify the message. BoYan’s focus will be on making great clothes responsibly. But to really make a difference, we need all of society to contribute: from decarbonising electricity grids to finding efficiencies in manufacturing process and from consuming more responsibly to reducing the impacts of shipping and washing our clothes. There’s plenty of work ahead, so come with us on the journey.