On Wednesday, an eco-leather tote bag called Mylo Driver Bag, made by American bio-starter Bolt Threads, was officially launched on the famous online crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. Each base tote bag is priced at $400.

Mylo Driver Bag is a very practical neutral tote bag. The material used to make the tote bag is Mylo. ​​Although the look and feel are very similar to leather, it is made in the laboratory using a mycelial material of the root of a wild mushroom. This is also the world's first use. A bag made of mushroom mycelium.

The bottom of the tote bag is made of canvas, and Bolt Threads designed the look of the Mylo Driver Bag in collaboration with the Oregon-based fashion brand Chester Wallace. Due to the limited raw materials, Bolt Threads has only one hundred tote bags sold this time. In addition to the regular models, Bolt Threads also offers a special edition, priced at $1,000, consumers can choose to embroider their name on this version of the package. After payment, the product will be sent to consumers in January next year. Bolt Threads said it hopes the company's production facilities will be expanded next year to produce more Mylo materials.

The fashion industry is currently the second largest industry in the world, and the pollution, carbon emissions and natural resources consumed by raw material processing are only after the oil and gas industry. In order to protect the ecological environment, Bolt Threads is committed to the development of bio-textiles that have less impact on the ecological environment. They use the proteins found in nature, combined with professional bioengineering techniques to develop sustainable high-performance textile fiber materials and revolutionize the global textile industry. Since its inception, the company has received $213 million in investments, including Fidelity Management and Research Company, Singapore's sovereign fund Temasek, Forming 8/Builders VC and Founders Fund.

In order to develop the new material of Mylo, Bolt Threads has partnered with biomaterials company Ecovative to obtain permission to make eco-leather technology using special wild mushroom mycelium. Jamie Bainbridge, deputy director of product development at Bolt Threads, said that people are increasingly concerned about the environmental impact of the livestock industry and are actively looking for alternatives to leather. Mylo is the same material as real leather, even when it's worn.

On March 10 last year, Bolt Threads launched a limited edition of 50, priced at $ 314, and the tie made of synthetic spider silk sold out within an hour.

In addition to its own products, Bolt Threads has worked with many fashion brands: In 2016, the company entered into a partnership with outdoor sports brand Patagonia for environmentally friendly materials development; British designer brand Stella McCartney is also a long-term partner of Bolt Threads. She used the Mylo material developed by Bolt Threads to make the brand's classic Falabella collection. The handbag is currently on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition “Fashion from Nature”.

Bolt Threads can reproduce artificial silk production process of insects and arachnids, the production machine washable longer life performance than traditional silk silk. Stella McCartney used this high-performance silk to create a one-of-a-kind gold dress. The dress was exhibited at the Design Exhibition "Items: Is Fashion Modern?" held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York on October 1st.

Bio-environmental materials have huge market potential

Due to the market demand for new materials, many companies have begun to develop environmentally friendly materials. Modern Meadow, a biotechnology company dedicated to the development of environmentally friendly leather, is one of them.

Modern Meadow also focuses on developing new materials for the fashion industry. They developed an enzyme that produces collagen when mixed with sugar. After a series of processing and coloring, you can produce bio-leather that has the same feel and look as the leather. The company has also received support from fashion industry veterans, including: Gim Group's former executive Mimma Viglezio, former New York-based designer brand Carolina Herrera's former CEO François Kress, and American designer brand Michael Kors' former shoe accessories director Anna Bakst .

The new ecological materials are very popular with the millennial generation who love environmental protection and innovation, and the market potential is huge. This has attracted the attention of many fashion groups, including the French luxury goods giant LVMH Group and Kering (Kaiyun Group). However, since biomaterial technology is still in the early stage of research and development, the material yield is small and the price is high, and it is not currently mass-produced.