Wrangler leading the way for sustainable denim with ‘Dry Indigo’

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American denim brand Wrangler, part of the VF Corporation, is pushing
forward with its sustainable denim strategy after confirming it will be the
first brand to embrace the new innovative ‘Dry Indigo’ denim fabric for a
range of jeans later this year.

‘Dry Indigo’ is a new foam-dyeing process that eliminates 99 percent of
the water typically used in indigo-dyeing, and a sustainable fabric that is
expected to transform the denim industry.

“While we have been able to reduce 3 billion litres of water in product
finishing during the past 10 years, we know that more needs to be done
across the entire supply chain,” said Wrangler president, Tom Waldron in a
press statement. “Foam technology reduces water consumption and pollution
further upstream, helping our fabric suppliers to dramatically minimise the
impacts of making denim fabric blue.”

The innovation follows Wrangler and the Walmart Foundation provided
Texas Tech University with early-stage funding for the development of the
foam-dying process, and Tejidos Royo, a Spanish fabric mill with a
reputation for prioritising environmental performance, will be the first to
integrate the foam-dye process.

Waldron added: “We invested in the development of this innovation,
because we believe it can drastically change the denim industry for the
better. We’re grateful to have an industry-leading partner in Royo, with
whom we are taking this revolutionary step towards more sustainable denim.”

Wrangler will be the first to adopt sustainable ‘Dry Indigo’ denim

Tejidos Royo is scheduled to receive the foam-dye equipment in October
and expects to begin supplying Wrangler with denim before the end of the
year, which will be incorporated into the first foam-dyed denim line of
jeans launching in 2019.

Jose Royo, Tejidos Royo sales director, commented: “We’re excited
Wrangler is dedicating an entire line of jeans to this innovation. Our Dry
Indigo process nearly erases the environmental impact of denim dyeing and
represents the next generation of denim production.”

The first line of foam-dyed jeans will be Wrangler’s most recent action
to minimise environmental impact as the denim brand has a number of
on-going sustainability activities in the US including using sustainable
cotton and reducing water usage by five billion litres by 2020.

According to Royo, applying indigo dye to raw denim with foam instead of
water will eliminate the need for the tens of millions of gallons of water
typically consumed by conventional wet-dye systems.

Images: courtesy of Wrangler