Materially Overdeveloped

Here’s something that you might not be thinking about when creating products… We already know that overdevelopment is an issue. But, there is a more detailed way to look at this issue, at least from the POV within the four walls of a retailer or brand. Overdevelopment can be broken down into two buckets: First: […]

Materials Are Everything

Momentum is building rapidly in materials research, discovery, and next-generation innovation. Consider a few signals: AI-native materials startups such as Lila Sciences, CuspAI, and Radical AI have quietly raised more than $1B to build “self-driving labs” that search for new molecules and chemistries. Microsoft is productizing chemistry and materials discovery through Azure Quantum Elements, and […]

Coming in December: The Material Life

Special Announcement: Our next book, The Material Life: Process Innovation for Retailers and Brands, is coming in December 2025. We’re excited for the release of this book and it could very well be the best book written on the topic of process innovation in apparel! The best, market-leading brands across the globe know that process […]

The Vegan’s Nightmare

A trio of companies, The Organoid Company (NL), Lab-Grown Leather Ltd. (UK) and US marketing agency VML issued a press release saying they will produce “the world’s first T. rex leather.” The pitch is to grow luxury-grade leather in bioreactors using fossil Tyrannosaurus rex collagen as the template. According to the press release, this is […]

Not The Only Type of Innovation

If we go back to some old-school Peter Drucker, we find that he has identified 10 areas of innovation. Four examples include: 1 – New Knowledge. This is the domain of next-gen materials. It’s the riskiest path: long lead times, high failure rates, and it attracts all the hype and capital. We can look to […]