SHEERTEX HAS A LEG UP ON SAVING LANDFILLS

By: Hillary LeBlanc

Often, entrepreneurs find themselves creating the solution to an issue. The same goes for those in the environmentally friendly markets we see today. For Katherine Homuth, the research and development of Sheertex pantyhouse was solving an issue most women had experienced, which has led to founding a company with huge goals and monumental positive impact on the environment.

Homuth recently delivered powerful insights as the keynote speaker at Startup Fashion Week's Business of Fashion Conference in Toronto, offering a unique perspective on the intersection of innovation, entrepreneurship, and fashion that resonated deeply with industry professionals and aspiring founders alike.

Credit: @batchan.official

Homuth shared that she always wanted to be an entrepreneur but never expected she would be working with pantyhose. While studying business she networked a lot and worked for startup companies but was unsure exactly where her niche would land as a future entrepreneur. It all came down to that pivotal moment of being curious about a problem and starting a relentless search for a solution. Homuth honed in on a curiosity as to why pantyhose continued to shred so easily as we put them on, and why something more innovative had not been invented. “I thought I would google something that had made advancing pantyhose impossible, but really no one had done anything in 70 years. There were better materials that could be used.”

While still skeptical at the lack of advancements, Homuth called a friend who confirmed that no one in the fashion industry was seemingly working on this. “I called up a friend who was working in the fashion industry to confirm no one else was doing this and she scratched her head and confirmed, that in fact, no one was doing this work. I tested various fabrics and saw how quickly they would snap. I googled the strongest fabric in the world, found the strongest polymer and tested the spool of fibre, which is what we use to make Sheertex today.” The fabric Homuth found was a polymer, which was traditionally reserved for high performance applications like bulletproof vests and climbing equipment. The polymer had yet to be brought to consumer apparel.

Before SRTX launched in 2017, there was no material both fine enough and strong enough to hold up beyond a single day’s wear. After two years of research, the first units of Sheertex tights shipped in 2019. It has since sold over 2 million units.

Credit: Sheertex Website

Fast forward to today and the company SRTX, founded by Homuth which holds Sheertex, introduced the Sheertex knit, SRTX Dura, as the solution to the constant rips in tights. This has led Sheertex to be part of the sustainability movement and is a Certified B Corporation. The Sheertex knit was designed to increase the strength and durability of the products that contain it. Approaching the problem product-first, SRTX set out to engineer a textile innovation that would not only benefit consumers but pave the way for sustainable apparel.

Sheertex tights use 12x less microplastics than disposable tights, 13x less fossil fuels to produce, reduce the carbon footprint by 90% in production and Sheertex believes they have saved over 33 million pairs of tights from landfills.

Though at the beginning phases of launching Sheertex the price point was quite high and as they have found ways to simplify production they have also been able to reduce costs to compete more favorably to disposable pantyhose. “It was difficult to convince people to convert to our product. What did convince people was the resonating experience of how frequently pairs will rip and how many pairs people go through before even walking out the door.” Homuth and her team have been able to reduce the price from more than $100 to under $40 per pair.

Beyond making pantyhose that are environmentally friendly, SRTX is an eco-friendly company through and through. Part of their brand ethos is circularity by extending the lifetime of Sheertex items. It is estimated that pantyhose result in more than 110,000 tonnes of post-consumer waste ending up in landfills annually as people throw away 2 billion dollars in pantyhose a year. Furthermore, Homuth operates the company by reducing the amount of waste and even sell items such as scrunchies and headbands under their ‘Zero Waste Collection’. “We are a fully traceable company, which has made us more sustainable. While it has added to our cost minimally, it’s worth it to be a fully sustainable organization. Sheertex is fully transparent and even our factories are on renewable energy.” Beyond being traceable, Homuth has committed to making Sheertex in Canada to reduce carbon footprint, sample wait times and to be even more eco-concious. Their 300,000 sq ft SRTX innovation headquarters, based in Montreal, QC, is “one of few vertically integrated operations in North America and the only connected knitting factory in the world”. They also use a smart factory software, Cortex which enables SRTX to go paperless, generating meaningful insights into production from raw material consumption through to finished goods inventory and giving operators better work order control and reporting capabilities.

Beyond sustainability, Sheertex as a brand is philanthropic. In recent years they have donated to organizations such as Black Girls Code, Centre Communautaire LGBTQ+ de Montreal, Planned Parenthood, and The Asian Solidarity Fund, and have more intentions on donating as the brand grows.

For more information or to purchase a pair of indestructible pantyhose, go to the Sheertex website.