What is Mushroom Leather?

                                                              What is Mushroom Leather?

MycoWorks has developed a new type of sustainable material Reishi by using biotechnology ™， Its performance, texture and feel are similar to cow leather, providing a sustainable and environmentally friendly production scheme for shoes, bags, leather clothes, etc. in the fashion industry.

In January this year, MycoWorks completed the C-round financing of 187 million US dollars, led by Prime Movers Lab, followed by DCVC Bio, Novo Holding, SK Networks, Mirabaud Lifestyle Impact&Innovation Fund, etc. The funds will be used to establish MycoWorks's first comprehensive "Fine Mycelium" (high-quality mycelium) production plant to meet the demand for material production.

MycoWorks's artificial leather technology has applied for a patent, and its core product is Reishi - artificial leather produced from "Fine Mycelium" (high-quality mycelium).

In general, the mycelia will naturally produce a porous structure during the growth process, which can be transformed into a leather like material by compression technology for the manufacture of "mushroom leather".

But MycoWorks said that the performance of this "mushroom leather" is not as good as that of animal leather or traditional synthetic leather.

The technical core of MycoWorks is to change the gene expression process of mycelia by means of genetic engineering, and cultivate high-quality mycelia patented by MycoWorks.

These high-quality mycelia will secrete tight and firm microporous structure during the growth process, which is comparable to the stable triple helix structure of collagen protein. As a result, the resulting leather has higher strength and is more durable.

Source | Mycelium structure produced by FineMycelium on the official website of MycoWorks

The artificial leather of MycoWorks is comfortable to touch, good in texture, durable and beautiful. It is not only possible to replace traditional animal leather in performance, but also provides more possibilities for fashion design.

Some embossing processes that are difficult to use on traditional leather will have the opportunity to be realized on artificial leather.

MycoWorks has now launched two different types of leather, "Natural Brown" and "Embossed Black". Among them, the embossed black fabric has pebble grain and ebony luster, which is more suitable for complex and gorgeous fashion requirements.

Source | Two kinds of leather currently launched by MycoWorks, the official website of MycoWorks

MycoWorks hopes to further improve the production technology of artificial leather and provide a variety of leather types in hardness, thickness, texture, sag, flexibility, ductility, shape, etc.

At present, MycoWorks has completed a semi-automatic pilot plant in Emeryville, California, the United States, and achieved the set goal in the one-year operation process to produce 10000 pieces of leather.

The new factory with complete scale is expected to be completed within one year, and millions of square feet of mycelial leather are expected to be produced every year. In addition to the establishment of new factories, the funds raised in this round C financing will also be used to further improve the quality of mycelium leather.

In the spring of 2021, MycoWorks announced Hermes, the first company to cooperate with it, and said that it would successively sign contracts with several international luxury brands to cooperate and produce a large number of artificial leather efficiently.