Product

Recycling cotton in the textiles and apparel industry is a challenging process, as cotton garments are commonly mechanically shredded to lengths too short or uneven for high-quality garments. This is why recycled cotton garments are often downcycled into products like rags or cotton pads.

Esquel, however, is uniquely positioned to be able to produce a range of quality tees, from 100% recycled cotton through to various recycled cotton and recycled polyester blends. Our recycled polyester comes from certified post-consumer waste. 

Although recycled cotton products rarely reach high quality standards due to the aforementioned indiscriminate mechanical shredding, Esquel’s vertically integrated supply chain lets us collect pre-consumer or post-industrial waste from in-house fabric scraps and residual yarn, and make informed choices when shredding. This allows us to retain decently long and even lengths for our recycled cotton fibers. By sorting dyed scraps we even recycle colors, not just fibers, saving water. We can offer a consistent range of delightful heather colors and more, given the scope of our production.  

The 100% recycled tees we make are soft, breathable and high-quality, all while being fully sustainable products. It goes to show that closing the loop doesn’t have to compromise quality, and showcases our strengths as a vertically integrated manufacturer.

Broadening our scope of specialty blends, we combine yak down with super soft Tencel™ – fibers produced from sustainably sourced wood – to produce the machine-washable and eco-friendly Extra Tender Yak blend. 

Yaks are low carbon-emission animals tended to by semi-nomadic herders, preventing overgrazing and desertification that animal fiber industries have been known to cause. Only 200 grams of yak down is shed per yak annually by yaks from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau – one of the finest animal fibers in the world.  

Extra Tender Yak feels like being wrapped in a warm cloud; its fineness is comparable to cashmere while being breathable, lightweight and durable. As its natural colors, ranging from dark chocolate to creamy white, do not necessitate bleaching or dyeing, using yak down can also reduce chemical and water consumption.  
While cotton remains our core expertise, we are unafraid to push our engineering beyond our comfort zone and explore other specialty luxury blends, discovering ways to maximize its value with added sustainability and convenience. 

A fashion supply chain typically consists of very complex business processes. Thousands of suppliers and logistics induced to labor-intensive, poor inventory accuracy, low on-shelf availability and frequent shipping discrepancy issues. 

Esquel, with its over 40-year manufacturing experience, has innovated an award-winning Summation system together with RFID hangtag to solve the above obstacles. Every garment can be tagged with a unique ID number that could be fully utilized from factory, warehouse and store. In the warehouse, ASN accuracy could be improved by 68% and inventory accuracy could be increased by 32%. When the garment is shipped to the store, it is 50% less likely that the products will be out-of-stocks with the Summation system. An efficient solution could also be eco-friendly; Summation's RFID is made by recycled/FSC paper that could minimize environmental impact.

Esquel Group launched the RMB 15 million project on October 1, 2011 with a view to conduct the world’s first genome sequencing for Sea Island cotton, putting the group at the forefront of advanced cotton biotechnology. It is a collaboration with the Shanghai Institute for Biological Sciences of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese National Human Genome Center at Shanghai and the Nanjing Agricultural University. 

Sea Island cotton, also known as “Giza” in Egypt and “Pima” in the United States, is called extra-long staple cotton in China. With its ultrafine fiber, silky appearance and superior strength, Sea Island cotton is regarded as the world’s best cotton in terms of fiber quality. It is also an important raw material for high-end and special textile products around the world. 

As of now, a high-quality draft whole genome map of the Sea Island cotton’ has been outlined. The completion of the project will propel cotton plantation research in China and the world forward, and improve the efficiency and accuracy of cotton seed breeding. Along with its outstanding fiber formation & development related genes and disease-resistance genes of the Sea Island cotton, will bring about new opportunities for modification of other cotton species. This is expected to have lasting impact on the development of our cotton-based apparel, as well as the cotton production in China.

At Esquel, we proactively push for sustainable solutions across sourcing, production and packaging with our clients and retail brands. We set our sights on changing industry norms for the better. Why should packaging a shirt routinely require thick shirt boards, endless clips and reams of plastic?  

Our innovatively redesigned shirt boards and packaging eliminate clips and slims down designs for reduced paper and plastic consumption. We use recycled polyester clips and paper in our shirt board packaging and cardboard tag labels, as well as recycled polybags. We also offer biodegradable plastic bag alternatives to bring down the post-consumer burden on the environment.  

Over the past year, we’ve seen a notable rise in the adoption of our sustainable packaging solutions with our customers. The demand for our eco-friendly polybag packaging alone between 2019 to 2020 saw a jump from around a sixth of our total orders to a third. Through continued research, we aim to discover more sustainable ways to ship our shirts in pristine condition and keep striking a positive change in our industry.  

A striking, crimson-red dye doesn’t have to come from chemical dyestuffs: it can also be made by extracting carminic acid from the cochineal insect. Other natural dyes include a rusty red obtained from pomegranate rind, a calming green from green tea extracts, and a bold indigo from Indigofera plants. The great thing about natural dye is that it uses less water and chemicals compared to conventional synthetic dyes, and keeps cultural traditions alive.

To use natural dye on a commercial scale, we must further develop its stability against the usual elements. One of the latest and most exciting breakthroughs in our R&D has shown that our natural dye meets the industrial standards for color fastness and stability against washing, dry cleaning and light exposure, among other elements.

Since 2008, Esquel has been collaborating with the Kunming Institute of Botany (KIB) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) to revitalize the plant-based dyes and industrialize its production. Together with botanical experts, we aim to build the country’s very first natural dye botanic garden, dedicated to related R&D with the goal of producing high-quality natural dyes at a large scale. 

Our efforts to promote sustainability across our production are propelled by continuous research and innovation. Traditionally, fabric finishing is a very thirsty process at the mills. Innovation is at the heart of our R&D for greater sustainability across all stages of production, leading to our multi-patented foam finishing technology.

By using foam instead of water as the chemical carrier during the finishing process, we drastically minimize the use of water and energy. Given that foam is comprised of 90% air, far less moisture actually remains in the fabric when they come out of the lines. Up to 44% less water is used per ton of fabric through our foam technology. Having less residual moisture means less heat is required to dry the fabric, saving 25% in energy consumption per ton of fabric.  

The fact that we apply foam finishing to several of Esquel’s key products, including our Wrinkle Free shirts, recycled cotton and natural dye collection and more, is indicative of the high standards our foam finishing technology is able to achieve in finished products. At Esquel, we are always aiming to think out of the box with creative solutions that lower environmental impacts, yet maintain high quality.