Nano Textile Solutions – Smart sustainable textiles suit everyone
Do you remember the classic science fiction movies ”Back to the Future” with Michael J Fox? That’s where Sam Issa, from Linköping, got inspiration when he, cunning as a fox, invented a nanotechnology solution for the textile industry – which recently won Sweden’s biggest innovation award.
With a revolutionary technology, Nano Textile Solutions helps design and textile manufacturing companies meet market demand – with the least possible negative environmental impact.
The technology challenges traditional production methods and enables a single product to be compatible with several different sizes.
– It is a dynamic, adaptive textile technology, where components are sewn into size-adjusting points on each garment. We work much like a tailor – with the difference that this is done digitally for an industrialized process on a large scale, where all it takes is a push of a button. Each garment can be easily adjusted between three different sizes – for example Small, Medium and Large. Consumers can therefore adapt to the exact body size for longer product use. In this way, our technology promotes new circular business models, says founder and owner Sam Issa.
Something that also attracted a lot of attention – when he received the SKAPA award, Sweden’s biggest innovation award.
– It is really a great honor and confirmation that we have performed something well. I have put my whole soul and heart into it with thousands of hours of work and am both happy and proud of this reward, emphasizes Sam.
Since the technology did not exist anywhere else in the world, Nano Textile applied for and received a patent for it in Sweden.
– Now we have also applied for an international patent, so that we can scale up and build the company globally. The major markets are in Europe, Asia and the USA. Our goal is to become a so-called unicorn – that is, valued at a billion dollars.
Sam grew up in a family of tailors, with a mother working as a seamstress in Linköping and an uncle who runs a tailor shop in central Stockholm.
– I have worked a lot with my uncle and learned a lot about tailoring – and have also been first a salesperson and then a store manager in a clothing store. I then studied fashion and clothing design in Milan, Italy for two years. There I learned the entire value chain, how to build a collection, about different fiber materials and how to sew up.
But he is also not least an entrepreneur – after his studies, Sam got a position as brand manager for Italian clothing brands throughout the Nordics. He also studied business administration at home in Linköping.
– Through all my experiences, where I discovered how much clothing partly has to be re-sewn at a tailor because they don’t fit and partly only used for a short time, I came up with the idea to optimize the products with a new technology. When it comes to just pressing a button that quickly changes size, I took inspiration from the classic science fiction movies ”Back to the Future”. I remember thinking it was really cool growing up and it was fun to be able to use that idea.
The target groups are not only manufacturing companies and design brands in clothing – but also the shoe industry.
There, the company has entered into a collaboration with Hööks – Scandinavia’s leading company in equestrian sports with a large range for riders, horses and dogs.
– We are in the process of developing a riding boot, with the possibility to adjust the calf shaft on each size. After all, there can be a lot of difference between different people. Hööks will initially own the market for this in the Nordics. But we will be going to the world’s biggest equestrian fair in February, which takes place in Cologne, Germany, to showcase the product to international brand manufacturers.
Nano Textile is also working on a collaboration with PVH in Amsterdam, Netherlands – which owns, among others, Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger in terms of fashion clothing and Canadian True Hockey, which manufactures ice skates.
– When it comes to skates, we have developed a concept that is primarily aimed at children, who cannot tie the laces on their skates themselves. There you can set a perfect fit and then open and close with a zipper instead.
With the help of LEAD, Sam started to build his business from scratch in 2017/18 and has been helped with funding by investors. Currently, they have a total of six employees in Linköping and Borås (where the textile university is located).
– The interest is great. In our first investment round, we aimed to bring in five million kroner from investors, but there we were oversubscribed, concludes Sam Issa with a smile.
This is Nano Textile Solutions AB
Started: 2019 in Linköping.
Product/industry: Has created a nanotechnology solution for a sustainable and circular textile industry. Through smart textiles, sizes can be adjusted to the user to provide the perfect fit.
Number of employees: 6 – in Linköping and in Borås (where the textile university is located).
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