Rethread Africa

Redefining the future to a circular sustainable fashion industry, where we dress with a conscience.

There is growing pressure on the textile industry to reduce its environmental impact, including reducing water and energy use, reducing waste and pollution, and using sustainable materials. How we dress is destroying our planet at an unprecedented rate and if we don't do something we might move past the point of no return. The textile industry is responsible for 1.2 Billion tonnes of CO2 each year which is more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined. It accounts for 20% of industrial water pollution and 35% of the microplastics killing marine life and destroying biodiversity traces back to the fashion industry. 60% of all garments are made from plastics-based synthetic fibres like polyester. This means that the end of life for these clothes is in landfills where they are burnt emitting toxic fumes and choking the life out of small children and women in the adjacent slums. Cotton is also a thirsty crop requiring upwards of 10-20,000 litres per kilo and responsible for 25% of the global chemical pesticide use. Simply put, the fashion industry is dressing us for disaster.

At Rethread Africa, we are trying to make fashion more sustainable and circular by developing the technology that turns agricultural waste into biodegradable textile fabric. Our fabric uses 99% less water than cotton, reduces CO2 emissions by 80%, and eutrophication by 51%. But more interesting is that we are using maize husk residue, enabling smallholder farmers to increase their income by 40% and designing material that breaks down to re-enrich the soil at their end of life. 

To sum up the process in simple terms, we collect corn/maize husks that would have otherwise been thrown away, put it through a process of soaking in water and other chemicals, drying, and making fibres/threads using the slurry obtained. These fibres are then pushed through to be spun into yarns and finally weaved into large pieces of cloth which will then be supplied to independent fashion designers and creatives to make fashion more sustainable. Our goal is to make fast-fashion a topic of the past and revolutionise the way we dress. In addition to that, being a material technology startup, we recently also began researching in collaboration with Hyapak, to understand and see how to turn water hyacinth into textile fabric and are seeing very promising results so far.

At its core, Rethread Africa is a social enterprise that is dedicated to addressing several key issues in Africa. Most of the second-hand clothing of the world ends up in Africa and we are trying to make that stop which will touch the lives of millions of people surviving along the outskirts of these dumpyards, as well as the global community through waste reduction. 

More particularly, through the use of innovative material technology, we reduce the environmental impact of the fashion industry, but also provide new opportunities for women in the industry, who make up 80% of the global workforce. 

We are also dedicated to supporting women smallholder farmers and providing them with an additional source of income. By purchasing the waste materials that are produced after maize is harvested, Rethread Africa is able to help farmers subsidize their agriculture and provide a more sustainable source of income by up to 40%. 

By providing sustainable material for the fashion industry and supporting smallholder farmers, Rethread Africa is helping to create jobs for thousands of youth and helping millions more transition into more sustainable sources of income.

The use of locally sourced materials could further help to promote cultural pride and support traditional crafts and techniques. It could also encourage the development of new, innovative designs that draw inspiration from the local environment and culture, and hence touching the loves of the millions of fashion designers across Africa who can now put a sustainable touch to their brilliant designs

Our team is a mix of technical, business, and sustainability professionals.

Mitesh Varsani has a background in Economics and Statistics. He is in charge of finances and business development. He has worked as a volunteer and startup mentor with Hult Prize at both the regional level, Africa, and globally. He is passionate about using data to make financial decisions and predictions.

Vincent Momanyi with an Analytical Chemistry background is in charge of product development. He was working on sustainable textiles as his research project in school. 

Grace Kamau has a Chemical Engineering background and has been innovating since high school. She had been working on biopolymer molecular research and has assisted university lecturers within University of Nairobi write research on the same. Furthermore, Grace has also been a key player in the various SDG Forums across Kenya and Africa, including being a key member of the Champions for SDGs program in Kenya.

So far, we have engaged with various important stakeholders ranging from customers to suppliers to other key partners that may have impact towards our idea. To begin with, we have actually had talks with the Export Processing Zone of Kenya as to what their need requirements are for exporting of our fabric. We have come to understand their quality standards as well as business setup and legal requirements so as to benefit from their various exemptions and tax benefits. Additionally, we are in constant communication with a point of contact on the board of the Kenya Textiles who has given us an insight into what the specific customer requirements are across the industry.

As we move to the stage of prototype perfection, in approximately 2 months we intend to have introduced a decent version of the fabric to 2 specific groups of people: The first is a few high-end famed fashion designers in Kenya, and the second is regular informal sector tailors who can then use the material to stitch up some basic clothes so as to understand its usability and perspective from both angles.

Our tech lead, Vincent, is currently working on engaging with Thika textile mills so as to develop the first testable samples to change the long yarn strands we have obtained into a weaved cloth. 

At Rethread Africa, we enable independent fashion designers and creatives to make fashion more sustainable and circular by developing the technology that turns agricultural waste into biodegradable textile fabric. Our fabric uses 99% less water than cotton, reduces CO2 emissions by 80%, and eutrophication by 51%. But more interesting is that we are using a blend of maize husk residue and banana fibres, enabling smallholder farmers to increase their income by 40% and designing material that breaks down to re-enrich the soil at their end of life. Being a material technology startup, we are also researching in collaboration with Hyapak, how to turn water hyacinth into textile fabric and are seeing very promising results.

We believe that once people start making use of sustainable fabrics, larger brands such as H&M, Zara and others who are the 'face' of fast fashion will be forced to switch to such sustainable fabrics. As larger brands make such a move, smaller producers will follow suite eventually making our fabric a norm. But it all starts with our launch into the market. We intend to change the scene of fashion across the world beginning from Africa, using 100% African materials, something that isnt a common trend today. The best part? Our fashion industry in Africa is already vibrant and exciting, its just about making it sustainable. That means it will be much easier to gain momentum in the long run.

Our primary goal over the next 6 months is to get our fabric into the market and see how it performs compared to conventional fabric. But the larger impact goal of this is to prove to the market and society at large that sustainable fashion is not lame and boring. It is infact vibrant, unique and powerful and we want the young people to realise that during our initial product launches. We want to show the world out there that we don't need to dress in traditional polyester and cotton to look good, and in the process garner the attention of large fashion brands. This will allow us to partner with them so that we can be one of the first people to redesign fashion and make it a sustainable blessing. All in all, once the benefit of our product is seen, we will be able to touch the lives of thousands of African communities who currently live in terrible conditions outside dumpsites piling with loads of waste textiles.

Moreover, we intend to change the demand of clothing in Africa by encouraging a more ‘buy what is made in Africa’ approach. A significant proportion of old textiles ends up in Africa via Ghana as second hand clothing. These are clothes that are of outdated fasion or lower quality. To change this, we will be giving the African market an option to buy local and grow local starting from Kenya where we intend to have our first product out in the next 12 months.

Additionally, in the next 12 months, we want to being small scale manufacturing which will mean onboarding about 15 fashion designers from at least 7 African countries from the 6 regions. This will expose our fabric to different designs & patterns and kick-start initial conversations with the maker space in these markets. The impact we intend to bring with this is to reignite the interest in African fashion globally with its vibrant colourful nature. African fashion designers have often been overlooked by high street fashion brands but if we manage to give a touch of sustainability to these designers, we might be able to make African fashion a global trend. This means we will be able to preserve our traditions and culture without harming the environment.

Our technology is a hybrid of traditional methods and modern innovation in manufacturing. Traditionally, Africans have had a history of using agricultural wastes in their every day lives. Old Kenyan pastoralists used to use maize husks to decorate their homes or themselves. Indians in the past made extensive use of banana plants in their everyday lives for fashion purposes. In the same sense, we took our inspiration from such traditional communities, and incorporated modern manufacturing processes to extract fibres from maize husks which can be spun into yarn for fabric making. Essentially, we collect maize husks and expose them to a process of decortication where we soak them in an alkaline solution to extract the fibres. We then use natural sunlight to dry them before making use of locally manufactured extract machinery that will extract the fibres from the maize husks. These fibres are then spun into yarns and fed into a weaving machine to make standard sized fabrics that will be sold to designers to make garments. Below is a link that will take you to some pictures from our process (the pictures below were taken as we were making our prototype)

Link to images

Since we are still in the prototype stage, we have not started impacting people as of yet. However, in the next one year, we intend to serve approximately 20,000 people in the city of Nairobi. This figure is based on the target market we intend to meet within the next 12 months based on the number of shoppers with middle level income and are prone to shop for clothes more often. It is obvious that the middle class size is much larger in the city of Nairobi, but practically it may not be possible to start selling in all major garment outlets within the country. This would be our target size with scope to expand to the entire Kenya, including child and infant clothing, within the next 3 years to about 40 million people.

There are 3 primary roadblocks we are being faced with at the moment:

1. The first is the lack of proper technical support. A lot of our process involves the use of some intense chemical processes as well as great knowledge in material and fabrics. As of now, we are limited to a team of 3, where only 2 are working on the technical bit. The greater we can indulge into this, the faster we will have a more sturdy fabric (yet we still have come a long way from out initial brittle yarns)

2. The second is a lack of collaborative assistance with exisitng manufacturers of textiles. We have recently partnered with Thika Textile mills, but they provide a bit of a limited support as they cannot stop their entire production process to weave for us smaller pieces of fabric. Other partners  have not yet come on board with the belief that fast fashion is more of a 'western world' problem and it does not look profitable for them

3. Financing is another problem as we plan to move to sell our first batch of fabric. To make a significant proportion to sell, we need hefty investment in machinery and labour, since our innovation is in the filed of manufacturing. But we do believe that with the first 2 conquered, finance will be an issue easier to conquer. 

We are currently collaborating with Thika Textile mills as earlier mentioned towards the refinement of our fabric to make it marketable. This collaboration has been a CSR approach on their end. Additionally, we have a partnership grant with the UNDP to finalise our prototype and expose it to the first market.

We have also partnered with the Makueni innovation hub which has been providing support in terms of the business aspect of the entire idea and guiding us into preapring to enter the market.

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As earlier mentioned, our funding for the prototype has been covered for by the UNDP. Our next step is seeking for grants that will allow us to set up a small version of our planned production facility, enough to meet local demand, which will be amounting to about 500,000USD. 

As we seek to expand, we would consider some equity financing options to expand out further.

In terms of revenue, our sales to manufacturers of garments will be our primary source of revenue. We intend to be supplying the fabric to local manufacturers in the Export Processing Zone of Kenya for the first few years before expanding to foreign firms. Selling the fabric at approx. 4USD per SQM will enable us to gather enough to atleast cover our costs with an estimate sales of 150,000 Square meters minimum in 18 months.