Sports company PUMA and RE&UP Recycling Technologies, headquartered in Europe and already operational in Türkiye, have signed a Letter of Intent (LoI). This aims to scale a circular textile solution, transforming textile waste into RE&UP’s Next-Gen Recycled Cotton Fibers and Recycled Polyester Chips.
PUMA has already scaled up its RE:FIBRE textile-to-textile recycling program, producing millions of football jerseys made out of an increasing share of recycled textiles. RE&UP has become a key Next-Gen raw material partner in the RE:FIBRE program supporting PUMA’s aim to reduce reliance on bottle-recycled polyester, enhancing circularity while minimizing textile waste. Due to its previous success, this collaboration has now evolved into a broader global commitment to fully enabling circularity.
As part of the expansion, PUMA will introduce RE:FIBRE to the Americas, leveraging RE&UP’s recycled raw materials within its local supply chain. By 2030, PUMA aims to use 30% fiber-to-fiber recycled polyester fabric for its apparel products.
RE&UP’s recycling technology is a key enabler of the circular transition of the industry, especially due to its capability to process diverse textile feedstocks, including post-consumer and post-industrial waste, as well as complex blended textiles like polycotton and polyester-elastane—materials, traditionally difficult to recycle. Powered with 100% renewable energy and leveraging advanced technologies such as decolorization processes, RE&UP play an important role in sustainable, low-impact recycled textile fibers.
PUMA aims to have 30% of its polyester fabrics recycled from fibre to fibre by 2030
“As part of our Vision 2030 goals, we want to have 30% of our polyester fabric in apparel fiber-to-fiber recycled by 2030 and our collaboration with RE&UP opens exciting possibilities for integrating virgin-equivalent recycled materials into our products,” said Howard Williams, Director Global Innovation Apparel & Accessories at PUMA. He added that these materials offer the performance they need while helping them achieve their circularity goals.
“We are proud to elevate our collaboration with PUMA to the next level, building on our existing work through PUMA’s RE:FIBRE program,” said Özgür Atsan, Chief Commercial Officer at RE&UP. “PUMA, as one of the most forward-thinking brands in the industry, shares our vision for closing the recycled material gap. The proven quality of our products, our ability to process diverse textile compositions, our annual capacity of 80,000 tons, and our commitment to renewable energy reinforces our mission to produce Next-Gen materials and establish circularity as the standard for the textile industry. We proudly define our products as Next-Gen materials, as they are designed to meet the needs of the next generation in the textile industry.”
