Archroma-Stony Creek collab readies IndiGold for market
22/04/2022
The two companies said that the dyestuff will be offered at 20% concentration in soluble liquid form, which they described as capable of achieving similar performance to comparable synthetic indigo dyes already available.
IndiGold, which has been validated by Stony Creek Colors over a two-year period, is extracted from the firm’s proprietary Indigofera shrub varieties, reportedly grown as a regenerative rotational crop in collaboration with family farms.
Having sold its US-grown indigo to denim mills since the year 2015, the Tennessee-based producer was named to Fashion for Good’s innovation accelerator programme last spring. This resulted in a tie-up with Levi’s, which has itself been piloting IndiGold since December.
Archroma’s own history with more sustainable indigo meant that it immediately recognised the value in IndiGold's potential, both parties said, which led to numerous pilot-scale manufacturing trials and collaborations with its denim machinery manufacturing network, beginning in 2020. These partners were then able to test initial samples in industrial conditions, ultimately finding them to achieve “excellent” colouration and “typical” or synthetic-like wash down properties.
Moving forward, the Swiss enterprise will continue to offer manufacturing and logistic support, plus product advice, including the creation of the first commercial batches of IndiGold at its Salvatierra facility in Mexico, as well as other suitable locations which were not disclosed.
Chief executive at Archroma, Heike van de Kerkhof, commented: “We share the same vision [as Stony Creek Colors] that plant-based, pre-reduced indigo can be scaled up and colour the nature-friendly collections that denim brands and retailers have been dreaming of, and we are pleased to help bring it to market.”
Read more about Stony Creek Colors’ story in Inside Denim here.
Indigofera plants grown in the US by Stony Creek Colors. Credit: Stony Creek Colors
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