FABRIC: POLYBION
Regions: Mexico
Fabric Name:
Polybion-Celium™ Vegan Leather
Origin:
Fruit waste
Who made our fabric:
Polybion™
Natural history and ecology:
Brother duo Axel and Alexis Gómez Ortigoza with Bárbara González Rolón developed a production model that is not linear but a loop, simultaneously alleviating three major environmental problems: livestock, food waste, and plastic. Polybion™ represents a paradigm shift from centuries of resource-mining practices to the regenerative cultivation of resources.
Polybion™ uses locally produced agro-industrial fruit waste as raw material to craft a sustainable leather alternative. By manufacturing with the building blocks of life and circularizing supply chains, Polybion™ produce a superior material while prioritizing our planet.
What makes this so special:
Celium is a radical new vegan leather alternative out of Mexico made by Polybion™. The material is grown by bacterial microbes that are fed on locally produced agro-industrial fruit waste. Once the cell-based membrane is grown, it undergoes a long-term stabilizing proprietary procedure to obtain its unique, high-performance properties.
At Polybion™, they create revolutionary biomaterials for forward thinkers.
“The promise of biology as technology is its versatility, both in inputs as well as in outputs. We (through our microbial partners) can process different waste streams to ‘grow’ different products, from leather to food.”
— Axel Gómez-Ortigoza/ Polybion™
Axel Gómez-Ortigoza
Meet Axel Gómez-Ortigoza, Co-Founder & CEO of Polybion. Polybion is a rapidly expanding premium, next-generation material designed with nature and manufactured with biology. It was founded in 2015 by brothers Axel & Alexis Gómez-Ortigoza along with materials Ph.D., Bárbara González Rolón, who developed the tools and technology for cultivating high-performance bio-assembled materials from agroindustrial waste and living organisms such as bacteria and fungi. Their mission is to empower 21st-century designers and material engineers by bringing performance and innovation. Polybion grows premium, next-generation biomaterials using waste as a raw material, thereby promoting sustainability and driving the circular economy. Their flagship product, Celium™, is a bacterial cellulose-based, high-performance leather substitute. By nourishing bacteria with agro-industrial fruit waste, Celium is cultivated.