Our MATERIal families
Our material families deliver shockingly sustainable, high performance natural materials at attractive price points. We leverage responsibly-sourced natural polymers that can be infinitely recycled or returned to Nature’s nutrient cycles.
NFW develops new manufacturing routes and material chemistry to unlock new levels of performance for natural materials. We believe that with the right science, anything synthetics can do, plants can do better.
Petroleum products (like plastics and synthetics) have scaled to support a high standard of living for only ~20% of the world’s population. Less than 10% of plastic has ever been recycled. Continuing to scale this linear fossil fuel economy is unsustainable and expensive.
By contrast, regenerative agriculture can produce differentiated raw materials for ~7.5 billion people while sequestering legacy carbon.
Clean energy is not the only factor in transitioning away from fossil fuels. Some of the most intractable challenges in improving sustainability and raising global standards of living come down to materials—materials that we wear, sit and stand on, and live in.
ClaruS®
Discover performance without plastic™
Forget everything you think you know about natural textiles. Our tech gives natural fibers superpowers. Quick-drying, moisture-wicking, warp-knit compatible: our CLARUS® platform makes it possible. Whether you’re working with recycled or virgin natural fibers, CLARUS® is the secret to achieving jaw-dropping sustainability and performance.
Mirum®
Experience the future of Plants, Not Plastic®
You’ve never met a material like MIRUM®. Perfect for accessories, automotive, fashion, footwear, and more, MIRUM® is miraculously customizable and plant-based. At the end of its life, MIRUM® can be recycled into new MIRUM® or ground up and returned to the earth: At last, a climate-friendly, plastic-free solution tailormade for your wildest creations.
INTRODUCING: PLIANT™
All natural outsoles – a plastic-free foundation for footwear
PLIANT™ outsoles are 100% biobased, made with natural rubber cured with NFW’s patented plant-based curative. While most soles are petroleum-derived synthetics, PLIANT™ makes footwear-worthy performance possible and scalable without plastics. Low carbon, nontoxic, and naturally circular, PLIANT™ is the foundation of sustainable footwear.
COMING SOON: TUNERA™
Plastic-free foam that will make you reimagine the possible
TUNERA™ is plastic-free foam -- the planet-friendly answer to EVA and PU. From footwear to yoga mats, TUNERA™ is a bioneutral solution for a broad range of applications. TUNERA™ is coming soon to NFW’s ecosystem of naturally circular material platforms.
Circularity
Material cycles, new beginnings, and no ends
Our muse is Nature’s bounty of plant-based polymers. These polymers serve as the starting point for our material families; they are our feedstocks and raw ingredients. But in the same breath, because our processes keep these polymers free from synthetic chemistries, our materials are free to circulate Nature's biochemical nutrient cycles. The biodegradation of one material is the building block of another.
While we believe in abundance, we understand the importance of material conservation. For MIRUM® this means using agricultural by-products and recycling both our offcuts and end-of-life products. For CLARUS® this means completely reinventing the experience of recycled fibers.
Our history
NFW's Milestones
In 2008, with funding from the U.S. Department of Defense, Dr. Luke Haverhals made the fundamental discovery that would later catalyze the founding of NFW. At the heart of this discovery is the ability to manipulate natural fiber structures at near atomic precision. Today NFW is 200 people strong and has many untold chapters to come.
2015
Natural Fiber Welding, Inc. founded.
2017
CLARUS® moves from lab to pilot scale.
2018
MIRUM® invented; NFW expands to 60K sq. foot facility on Galena Rd.
2019
CLARUS® moves from pilot to demonstration scale.
2020
MIRUM® and CLARUS® land global partners.
2021
NFW opens additional 110K sq. foot production facility on SW Jefferson
2022
MIRUM® and CLARUS® are commercially available.
2023
NFW is ISO 9001:2015,
ISO 45001:2018, and ISO 14001:2015 certified.