At the first textile show of 2023, Heimtextil held in Frankfurt, Germany, from January 9-12, there was tremendous interest in the Swiss start-up company OceanSafe.

It has developed a new synthetic polymer that is already being turned into fibres, filaments and yarns with all the favourable processing and performance properties of polyester, while at the same time being circular, biodegradable, and toxin-free.

OceanSafe’s naNea materials are also the first and only synthetic textile materials which have achieved the extremely stringent Cradle to Cradle (C2C) Certified Gold standard and certification for the biological cycle to date – for the entire product supply chains of various manufacturing partners.

Innovation in Textiles: OceanSafe was founded in 2019 – can you tell us about the background of the company?

Matthias Fuchs: Our company was founded by Manuel Schweizer, today our CEO, who has been in textiles for over 30 years and has played a fundamental part in recent innovations from the Swiss textile industry. He was the first to establish a Cradle-to-Cradle interior fabrics line worldwide almost ten years ago, so was one of the pioneers, having been involved from very early on in the implementation of the C2C standards for certification into new products.

By 2019 Manuel had become aware that circularity was building a lot of traction and saw a business model for C2C textiles in the marketplace, initially distributing contract home textiles Europe-wide.

The intent was to develop fabrics which are safe for the oceans – hence the name OceanSafe – by working with companies who have the power to bring these materials into the home textiles residential and contract market for interior designers, specifiers and retailers.

Read the full interview on Innovation in Textiles