Unifi and Optimer Team Up for Performance Eco Fabrics
Wilmington, Del.–based Optimer Brands, owners of the Drirelease and FreshGuard brands, has teamed up with Greensboro, N.C.–based fiber maker Unifi to create Drirelease Eco fabrics, made with Unifi’s recycled filament polyester Repreve. Targeting both the athletic and the fashion markets, Drirelease Eco combines Drirelease’s good wicking and quick-dry properties with Repreve’s environmentally friendly pedigree.
Repreve is made from 100 percent post-consumer recycled polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, which is used to make plastic bottles. Repreve fibers feature Unifi’s Fingerprint technology, which allows customers to analyze fabrics for the “fingerprint signature” to verify the level of Repreve content in the fabric.
The new Drirelease Eco fibers will also feature Optimer’s FreshGuard odor-control properties.
Drirelease Eco debuted at the recent Outdoor Show in Friedrichshafen, Germany, and will bow in the United States at the Aug. 3–6 Outdoor Retailer trade show in Salt Lake City.
Founded in 2001, Optimer Brands was formerly known as Optimer Performance Fibers. In 2008, the company was acquired by private-equity fund Sterling Capital Partners.—Alison A. Nieder
