How it works
So, you’re probably wondering how plastic bottles turn into super soft leggings and bras?
That’s a fair question - we’ll break it down for ya!
We put a lot into feeling nothing.
After more than 2 years of research and development we made a fabric so light, soft, and stretchy that it feels like it’s barely there. Naked feeling fabric that hugs your curves, stays put, and truly flatters.
Not only is it great, it’s good: made sustainably from recycled plastic bottles in ethical factories. 81% Recycled PET & 19% Spandex.
We’ve found that shopping sustainably can sometimes feel unattainable when it comes to pricing, so we worked hard to make sure that we could offer a premium, sustainable fabric that’s also affordable.
We’re excited to venture further into this journey and continue to give back to the earth as best we can!
What is Reluna™
+ A high density knit with a lightweight yarn so it’s lightweight but squat-proof
+ Brushing treatment for a luxurious peach finish
+ The perfect blend of RPET/Spandex to conform to your body without sliding down
+ Knit & dyed with care for our most consistent stretch across colors (even black)
So, you’re probably wondering how plastic bottles turn into super soft leggings and bras?
That’s a fair question - we’ll break it down for ya!
Shower-time! 💧
Bottles have a lot of different categories based on their material. Six to be precise! Our products are made from plastic type #1 - Polyethylene Terephthalate, which you may know as PET plastic. It’s that #1 code labeled at the bottom of your iced tea bottles, peanut butter containers, and cleaning products!
When they arrive at the facility, they are weighed, logged, and steam washed. This process removes bottle caps and labels. They are then sorted by color - the clear bottles make up your clothes! How cool is that?!
Shred baby shred!
This is when we shred the PET materials into little flakes!
We take a last look for any sneaky foreign materials that may have found their way through.
Then, we wash the flakes with disinfectants and cleaning agents, before rinsing and drying them to get them squeaky-clean!
Now things are really heating up! 🔥
The chips get melted down into long strings (if you’re envisioning what playdough spaghetti looks like in your head right now, that’s pretty accurate). Then they are chipped into little pellets that look like those cute little melt-in-your-mouth mints. (But you can’t eat these!)
Things are getting reel - the yarn is knit. 🧵
The pellets then get reheated and extruded to make silk-thin threads. These threads get spun into our exclusive, super soft yarn (named Reluna™), which is packaged and sent to our knitting facility!
Fun fact: Reluna™ fibers are thinner than traditional nylon AND it’s a double-knit fabric making it super lightweight while still durable and stable.
Another fun fact? OK, you twisted our arm. Our state of the art machine knits enough Reluna™ fabric to make 250 leggings per day. 😲
We want ALL the colors. 🎨
FINALLY! Dyeing can be detrimental to the environment, so we made sure Reluna™ was certified by the Global Recycle Standard AND chose to work with an award winning mill (Best Water Performer by the Sweden Textile Water Initiative).
Some fast facts? You know we love facts.
100% of wastewater is treated on site, just feet away from the machines.
The remainder of the water is purified and reused by the factory for production or local irrigation!
Leftover sludge (😖) and dye mud is compressed and reused for construction materials.
No waste, big wins!
Darker colored fabrics can often be less soft and less stretchy. We worked to minimize this and adjusted our technique to create consistency in softness + stretch across ALL Reluna™ colors (yes, even black). We’re alllll about the comfort.
Work with good people, do good things.
A few things we're proud of.
Our mill is a family owned business with decades of experience working with premium yarns and intricate knitting techniques.
Like all of our production partners, our mill for the Reluna™ fabric is BSCI compliant, meaning it has met or exceeded an exhaustive list of ethical worker treatment and environmental stewardship standards.
Like all our fabrics Reluna™ is certified by OEKO-TEX to be skin friendly.
Reluna™ is certified by the Global Recycle Standard.