Trinseo | API and ICM Unveil Joint Development to Manufacture Sustainable High-Performance Textile Solutions

June 05, 2018

API and ICM Unveil Joint Development to Manufacture Sustainable High-Performance Textile Solutions

API, an Italian company specialized in the production of thermoplastic elastomeric compounds and bioplastics, which was acquired by global materials company Trinseo in July 2017, and ICM (Industria Chimica Mediterranea), a key player in the footwear and leather goods industry, today announced their joint development in innovative and sustainable technical fabrics.

The joint development facilitates the design, manufacture and marketing of high-performance and environmentally sustainable textile solutions for the fashion and footwear industries. The development’s textile products will be produced in a solvent-free and plasticizer-free manufacturing process.

“Joining forces enables us to accelerate technical innovation time to market and to reduce our product’s environmental footprint,” said API’s Business Unit Manager Giancarlo Busa. “Our partnership is the outcome both of an important research and development program and a substantial technological investment.”

“We have had great success in building this partnership,” says ICM’s General Manager Roberto Palmieri. “It enables us to pair decades of technical knowledge in the plastics, leather goods & footwear industry.”

ICM and API will provide a first glimpse of their new textile solutions at the 2018 Pitti Immagine Uomo international fashion fair from June 12-15 in Florence, Italy. VIP buyers at the trade fair, as well as a selection of VIP press members, will receive an exclusive shopping bag made of the partnership’s new fabrics.

Designer Sergio Colantuoni together with Pitti Immagine conceptualized the bag’s exclusive pattern and texture, supported in the final product by PROTER, a company specializing in the research and development of digital printing. The bag’s design was inspired by this year’s event theme – P.O.P. PITTI OPTICAL POWER, a visual and virtual celebration, presenting a pop vision and full color graphic world.