In the quest to reduce resource consumption and overall environmental impact, Wrangler’s latest step is a long stride that’s poised to revolutionize the denim industry. They are the first to sign a deal implementing a new foam-dye technology which uses 99% less water compared to traditional indigo-dyeing. But Wrangler has done more than just sign a deal in order to push this breakthrough technology. Both Wrangler and the Walmart Foundation provided Texas Tech University with early-stage funding for the development of the foam-dyeing process which is being called Dry Indigo®.
Wrangler President, Tom Waldron said of the backing, “We invested in the development of this innovation because we believe it can drastically change the denim industry for the better.”
Wrangler has already provided fabric mills with the foam-dye technology and will be introducing a line of jeans with foam-dye denim in 2019. Tejido Royo will be the first to implement the process and will receive the equipment for it in October. They are slated to supply Wrangler with denim before the end of the year.
This new process is expected to save tens of millions of gallons of water, a significant improvement toward Wrangler’s commitment to reduce their water usage by five billion liters by 2020. 1.3 trillion gallons of water is used for fabric dyeing alone every year with another 25 billion gallons used in actual textile production. With 420 billion gallons of that used for the jean industry, the potential effects of Dry Indigo are drastic. It remains to be seen if this innovation to a centuries-old tradition will live up to its environmental potential.
