FTC approves renoa, the first new apparel fiber category in nearly 25 years

The US Federal Trade Commission has approved renoa, a fiber regenerated from keratin-rich textile waste, as its own apparel fiber classification. This is the first new category the agency has recognised since it approved PLA in 2002. Next-generation fiber producer Everbloom announced the decision on Tuesday.

The approval clears the way for textile products containing renoa to be labelled and sold in the United States. As of today, brands can begin labelling and commercialising products containing the fiber in the US market.

Developed in Everbloom's New York City lab, renoa is described by the company as the world's first fiber regenerated from keratin-rich textile offcuts and waste, including down. It is made in the United States using domestic resources, and is engineered for what Everbloom calls luxury aesthetics, consistency and scale. The company says it delivers the hand feel, breathability and softness associated with cashmere and wool while improving durability and longevity.

"Renoa is the result of years of work by our material and computer scientists, chemical engineers and fashion designers to craft a circular fiber that combines the best of biology and human ingenuity to optimize hand-feel and performance while dropping seamlessly into existing industrial infrastructure," said Simardev Gulati, co-founder and chief executive officer of Everbloom, in a statement. "The global fiber market is more than a $1 trillion industry and has run on the same fossil-based chemistry for half a century, while most of the manufacturing base has moved to Asia. By combining our proprietary AI platform, Braid.AI, with advanced manufacturing, we've created an entirely new category of fiber and a real chance to rebuild America's textile base around it."

How the fiber is made

The platform behind renoa, Braid.AI, combines predictive modelling with thermoplastic protein engineering. According to Everbloom, it forecasts fiber characteristics including softness, strength, texture and dyeability before production begins, cutting development time that previously required two months of laboratory testing to two weeks.

Because keratin-rich textile waste varies in composition, producing a consistent, scalable fiber from it has been a long-standing technical obstacle. Everbloom says Braid.AI predicts how each protein stream will behave during production, allowing the company to set production parameters in advance.

Those inputs feed into a patented production process that purifies and refines keratin-rich textile waste into its purest protein form. The proteins are then structurally enhanced and converted into fibers compatible with existing yarn-spinning infrastructure and textile supply chains. Everbloom says the process enables machine-washable cashmere and wool blends.

Everbloom cites independent assessments by Boundless Impact Research & Analytics showing renoa delivers up to 99 percent lower land and water use than conventional luxury fibers such as silk, cashmere and wool, and up to 92 percent lower greenhouse gas emissions than bio-recycled polyester, silk, cashmere and wool. The company points to the elimination of grazing land as a source of those savings.

The announcement lands against a domestic manufacturing backdrop the company is explicit about addressing. About 97 percent of clothes and shoes sold in the US are imported, much of that production concentrated in Asia, according to the American Apparel & Footwear Association.

The FTC approval follows Everbloom's 2025 launch and a funding round led by Hoxton Ventures, with participation from SOSV, Breakthrough Energy, Endgame Capital, Clocktower Ventures and, most recently, the Partnership Fund for New York City.

"New York City is home to one of the world's most iconic fashion industries, and Everbloom is using technology to fundamentally reshape how that industry operates," said Maria Gotsch, president and chief executive officer of the Partnership Fund for New York City. "By transforming a common agricultural byproduct into high-performance fibers that rival wool, silk, and cashmere, they've found an elegant solution to a real environmental challenge. We're proud to be a part of Everbloom's seed round and to support the next generation of sustainable materials innovation in New York City."

Several commercial programmes featuring renoa are already underway, Everbloom said, with further brand and manufacturing partnerships expected to be announced in the coming months as commercial production scales.