PARIS — Materials innovation company Uncaged Innovations has officially unveiled its bio-based luxury leather alternative Elevate and will launch its first products with a selection of accessories including handbags, watch straps and jewelry.
The first items made from Elevate will be created through partnerships with 10 global indie brands, brought together as a group called Uncaged Collective.
“We wanted to come to the market with a bang,” said cofounder and chief executive officer Stephanie Downs. “These small brands can move so quickly. They’re so nimble. We can get them the material, and in two months the materials could be on the marketplace.”
In the luxury leather goods space are U.K.-based luxury bag brand Stow London and Argentina-based leather bag manufacturer Humo Estudio. Both traditionally work with animal skins.
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Vegan bag and accessories brands releasing their first products with Elevate include Kaila Katherine from the U.S.; Sans Beast from Australia; Melina Butcher from Germany, and Mexico’s Sentient.
Italian luxury jewelry brand Marco Dal Maso and U.S.-based accessories and watchband-maker Wear Hadley are part of the collective, along with South African luxury pet accessories company Chommies and Indian fashion brand Ethik.
The company decided to move with independent brands to get its first products to market after a turbulent two years in the alternative materials development space that saw Bolt Threads pause production on its mushroom-based Mylo material, even after partnering with brands like Adidas and Stella McCartney.
As a result, the industry “is a little bit hesitant now. They want to see technologies get to scale to meet these promises,” Downs said. “There’s a lot of demand.”
The material was named Elevate to reflect the changes in the developing alternative materials sector.
“We don’t want to think of this as just an alternative, but more that this material is about elevating the segment to a new level. It’s the new evolution of leather,” she said.
Uncaged Innovations worked with the participating brands on product development from prototype to being able to bring items to market in a variety of applications and price points.
For example, a traditional leather bracelet from Italian luxury jewelry brand Marco Dal Maso is in the 1,100-euro range, and British bag brand Stow’s totes are priced at around 300 euros.
Stow was asked to join the collective specifically due to the company’s expertise in manufacturing with animal leather. Elevate is designed to be a “plug-and-play” solution using existing machinery, and Stow was able to give them feedback on the performance, characteristics and specs of Elevate throughout the two-year R&D process.
“It really is good in terms of its structural integrity. It’s a good substitute for leather…and has the strength to be able to support weight and pull when you’re wearing a bag,” said Adam Bryer, Stow London’s head of factory operations.
The Elevate material uses grain proteins fused with plant-based elements to create collagen-like scaffolding with its BioFuze technology.
“This is in that area of innovation that you might call the Holy Grail of an alternative to leather, because they wanted to be non-animal but sustainable at the same time,” said Bryer, acknowledging the industry’s use of plastic.
The core of Elevate is plastic-free, or can feature a topcoat of corn-based bio polyurethane in various grains and finishes, which is a key feature for applications in the automotive and footwear industries.
“It’s been really cool to be part of the development and we’re excited about the offering that we can bring to market in this [material] because it’s going beyond just being a vegan, non-animal alternative. This just ticks so many boxes,” Bryer said.
Compared to animal leather, Elevate emits 95 percent fewer greenhouse gases, uses 93 percent less water and 72 percent less energy, according to the company’s data.
Uncaged Innovations is scaled up for full roll-to-roll production of Elevate through a partner factory in New York that can produce more than a million square meters of material a year, and has two additional factories lined up to increase capacity. The company is currently scouting another factory in Europe to be in closer proximity to automotive brands, such as Jaguar Land Rover, and fashion houses.
It is working with “one of the largest luxury brands” on a handbag collaboration that is expected to be revealed in the first quarter of 2025, Downs said.
Uncaged Innovations was founded by Downs and Xiaokun Wang in 2020 and has raised $7.9 million in two rounds. The company will look at a Series A fundraise in early 2026 but has a two-year runway, Downs said.
The first Elevate products will be available to consumers in January 2025.
“This is something that the brand was absolutely looking out for, absolutely waiting for,” Bryer said. Feedback from the initial product launch will be used to additionally refine the material. “It is something that is just going to iterate toward something better,” he said.
