Wrangler promotes sustainability with new foam-dyeing denim process

By

Gabriella Lacombe

Published
Sep 20, 2018

American denim brand Wrangler announced on Tuesday that it will release a line of denim made using a new eco-friendly foam-dyeing process in 2019. The technique, developed at Texas Tech University, is said to eliminate 99 percent of the water typically used in indigo-dyeing.

Wrangler, along with the Walmart Foundation and fellow denim brand Lee, invested in the development of the new dyeing process at Texas Tech in 2017. With the new technique, raw denim is dyed with foam instead of water. 

“While we have been able to reduce 3 billion liters 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. “Foam technology reduces water consumption and pollution further upstream, helping our fabric suppliers to dramatically minimize the impacts of making denim fabric blue.”

Spanish fabric mill Tejidos Royo will be the first to apply the foam-dye process, which it calls Dry Indigo. The mill is set to receive the dyeing equipment in October and begin supplying Wrangler with finished denim before the end of the year.

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

Wrangler has previously reinforced its image as an environmentally-conscious brand by funding ongoing work in U.S. sustainable cotton, and publicly committing to reducing water usage in its denim production by five billion liters by 2020.