Goldwin Inc., Neste, Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd., and Toray Industries, Inc. have established a supply chain for nylon fiber made from renewable raw materials. The feedstock supplied to the project is Neste RE, a renewable material that enables the production of high-performance nylon fiber and reduces dependence on fossil feedstocks. The nylon fiber produced under this collaboration is scheduled to be used by Goldwin in selected The North Face products from August 2026. Mitsubishi Corporation coordinated the participating companies in establishing this supply chain. According to the companies, this collaboration is Neste’s second supply chain project for The North Face products, following a similar partnership announced in July 2024.
Renewable naphtha, marketed as Neste RE, is made from bio-based raw materials such as used cooking oil and other renewable feedstocks. It is intended to provide a lower greenhouse gas emission alternative to conventional fossil feedstocks. According to the companies, using neat, that is unblended, Neste RE can reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with the raw material by more than 85% compared with the use of virgin fossil feedstocks. Bio-based plastics derived from Neste RE are also stated to offer identical quality to materials made from virgin fossil feedstocks, allowing them to be used for the same products and applications.
Maiju Helin, Director of Polymers and Chemicals at Neste, emphasized the relevance of the solution for products requiring high performance. As she stated, "Renewable materials made from Neste RE meet the performance standards of global brands such as The North Face, operated by Goldwin Inc. This project with Goldwin, Idemitsu, and Toray shows how the fashion industry’s dependence on fossil resources can also be reduced for high-performance products. It demonstrates how our drop-in solutions can rapidly transform complex value chains and help brands work towards their climate targets."
Use of existing infrastructure
The companies state that fossil-based feedstocks such as naphtha can be replaced with Neste RE without changes to polymer and chemical manufacturing infrastructure or processes. This means the use of a drop-in solution that can be implemented with existing facilities. In building the supply chain, the participating companies used current production assets and applied the mass balance approach.
The project concerns nylon fibers intended for use in apparel products. In practice, this means using renewable raw materials within the existing value chain without declared changes in the quality of the final material and without modifications to the core production infrastructure. For the plastics and synthetic fiber industry, a key point here is the combination of a renewable feedstock with an implementation model intended to enable integration with currently operating industrial processes.
Neste RE is produced from ISCC-certified and traceable renewable raw materials, such as waste and residues, for example used cooking oil
