British textiles brand Amphico has awarded the Alibaba.com Prize at ISPO BrandNew for its innovative and 100% recyclable material, Amphitex. Alibaba.com is one of the world’s leading business-to-business (B2B) ecommerce marketplaces.

Recognising the most exciting innovations from start-ups in Europe’s sports business industry, the ISPO Brandnew awards are selected by an interdisciplinary jury of sports experts and showcase advances in sustainability, design, quality, functionality and technology. The Alibaba.com Prize specifically highlights brands and products that have the capability, boldness and entrepreneurial mindsight, to drive meaningful change. This year’s winner, Amphico’s Amphitex material was selected due its unique manufacturing process that lowers emissions from production, while creating a recyclable, high-performance material.

Inspired by water and oil repellent nanostructures found in natural environments, Amphitex is a sustainable superhydrophic and waterproof breathable textile that provides a recyclable or circular alternative to the traditionally non-recyclable waterproof textiles used in the outdoor apparel industry. It is PFC-free, but unlike alternative materials does not fall short on durability, preventing its clients from having to make a difficult choice between toxicity and shorter garment lifecycles. When scaled globally, Amphitex is estimated to mitigate up to three million tonnes of Co2-equivalent as a result of its low emission manufacturing process and unique recyclable features.

To support its growth, Alibaba.com will grant Amphico access to its comprehensive sourcing capability, customer service and logistics support, including a dedicated category expert. This will enable Amphico to connect with millions of buyers from over 200 countries and regions around the world, who are increasingly seeking sports and outdoor products on Alibaba.com’s international sourcing platform, while unlocking new opportunities to connect with innovative and valuable suppliers to support the brand’s ongoing research and development.

According to new research from Alibaba.com which was launched at ISPO, the gross merchandise value of sporting goods and camping items saw significant month-on-month growth in October 2022. This was led by the camping, winter and water sports sectors, which grew by more than 150% and the balance training, boxing and cardio training category which grew by more than 300%. These trends reflect broader in the category, which is forecast to be worth €20.16bn by 2027.

Michela Rubegni, Marketing Director of Alibaba.com EU, said: “We are proud to announce British textile brand Amphico as the winner of the Alibaba.com Prize. In this challenging time, we at Alibaba.com stand by SMEs to enhance their product competitiveness. Amphico has fantastic technology and an innovative product that offers a low-cost sustainable alternative to others on the market. With high growth in the sports and outdoor category on Alibaba.com, we are excited to support Amphico on the next phase of its growth journey on the platform, helping the brand connect with more suppliers to strengthen its supply chain and build more industry-leading products. We can’t wait to work with Jun and the team in the months ahead and demonstrate our unwavering support for SMEs worldwide through more awards in the future.”

Jun Kamei, CEO of Amphico, said: “As a company still in the process of growing our material and textile manufacturing capacity, we need to set up research and development hubs and find new suppliers of original materials. Using Alibaba.com is really helpful for us to source the required equipment and ingredients that we need to both accelerate our research and development process, but also our routes to market. For small businesses with limited resources, Alibaba.com is an effective way to drive success.”

ISPO Brandnew

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