I n a world where fashion changes faster than ever, the pressure on natural resources and the environment is increasing. The fashion industry, known for its dynamism and innovation, is among the largest polluters globally. For this reason, sustainable fashion is becoming not just a trend but a necessity, and one significant achievement in this field comes from the laboratory of the innovative company Sabant.
Its founders, Tamara Vučetić and Andrej Marić from Zagreb, came up with the idea to create a high-quality material called Beer Skin™ from the leftover barley malt waste produced by the beer industry.
Tamara Vučetić, who completed her master’s studies in fashion entrepreneurship in Amsterdam, reveals that Beer Skin is a versatile material with characteristics that vary depending on what you want to make from it.
“If it’s a material intended for clothing, we’re talking about a stretchy, thin, lightweight material. However, if someone wants to make a bag or a wallet, we’re talking about thicker and more rigid materials. What can be made from Beer Skin is limited only by the creativity of the person using it,” she explains.
She also reflected on the beginnings of this unusual business venture, emphasizing that when she was running her fashion brand, she wanted to use plant-based materials.
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Still, they didn’t meet the necessary quality standards or were not widely available at the time.
“This frustration led to the idea of creating my own plant-based material. The idea of using beer, specifically spent grain, came partly by accident, as my business partner Andrej and I lived across from the Zagreb Brewery. Not to mention, the company itself started, of course, with beer,” Vučetić jokes, adding that they couldn’t resist the opportunity to say, “My shoes are made from beer!”
Regarding the material production process, Tamara explains that it all begins by collecting spent barley malt from the breweries with which Sabant collaborates.
This valuable resource, primarily discarded as waste, is collected before fermentation begins, then dried and ground. Grinding is crucial because it achieves the specific granulation needed to integrate the plant matter into the formulas used to create Beer Skin. Beer Skin is produced in collaboration with Sabant’s Italian partners, following a formulation developed by young entrepreneurs with the help of experts from the Faculty of Science in Zagreb. This method enriches the market with an eco-friendly and sustainable alternative to artificial leather, often produced using toxic materials and plastics.
“Our goal has always been for plant-based leather to replace the standard available artificial materials, like those marketed as vegan leather, and to reduce the amount of plastic used in the production of these materials. By transitioning from standard vegan leather to plant-based leather, we could reduce the amount of plastic produced by several million tons annually,” highlights Andrej Marić.
Prepared by Milena Maglovski
Read the whole story in the new issue of the Energy portal Magazine ENERGY TRANSITION
