A vision forged from purpose: CEO Mikuláš Hurta on NIL Textile’s path to circular fashion

NIL Textile did not begin with a fabric, but with a question: How can work itself be meaningful? For founder and CEO Dr. Mikuláš Hurta, the answer lay far from his first career in aviation. In 2018, he launched his business as an expression of a clear conviction: textiles should never end as waste. Six years on, NIL Textile has grown into a global partner for more than 1,000 brands, offering fully recyclable materials and a closed-loop infrastructure designed for a new regulatory era.

In an exclusive conversation with FashionUnited, Hurta reflects on the company’s milestones, its science-driven innovations, and the pressing need for systemic change in fashion. Again and again, one theme surfaces: consistency, clarity, and collaboration are the cornerstones of NIL Textile’s mission to prove that circularity can scale.

Leap into textiles

Hurta’s entry into fashion did not come with a design degree or family legacy. Instead, it began with a notebook full of questions. Partnering with Czech universities, such as Liberec for textile innovation and Brno for molecular recycling, he quizzed scientists on fiber chemistry, recycling technologies, and supply chain inefficiencies. “I asked what I call stupid questions,” he recalls, “but they led to the insights we needed.”

Those insights crystallized around one solution: circularity. Textiles could be designed fiber by fiber with end-of-life in mind. NIL Textile’s early years were dedicated to developing recyclable fabrics and validating molecular recycling at the laboratory level. In 2021, the company launched its first collection. Initially aimed at consumers, the project quickly drew the attention of brands asking: Could these fabrics scale? Did they meet regulation? The demand sparked a pivot to B2B, supplying recyclable materials to fashion labels rather than selling direct.

Materials that ask more

Strategic investment soon followed. Backing from Danielson, Central Europe’s largest textile decoration firm, enabled NIL Textiles to open production facilities in Europe and later expand to Asia with operations in India and Bangladesh. Today, the company serves more than 1,000 brands worldwide, from agile sustainable startups to established global names.

Yet, scale has not diluted NIL Textile’s ethos. Every fabric, whether NILCOTT®, a ring-spun recycled cotton blend, or CIRPAD®, a polyamide derived from car tires, is engineered according to eco-design principles. “True circularity is not one recycling loop,” Hurta insists. “It is the ability to keep materials in the market, again and again.”

Closing the loop

Beyond materials, the company has built an infrastructure to match. A global network of collection points allows consumers to return garments at the end of life. Brands can connect their stores or surplus stock into this system. Returned textiles are recycled fiber-to-fiber and reintroduced into the supply chain, keeping resources in circulation instead of ending in landfill or incineration.

Hurta likens his role to “managing a circus”: aligning many moving parts while markets push against sustainability. “There is pressure for low price. Sustainability is sliding back in priority,” he observes. His mission is to hold the line. With EU directives on Extended Producer Responsibility, Eco-Design, and the looming Digital Product Passport, NIL Textile is already prepared. QR codes and microchips embedded in garments ensure traceability. “Legislation is always behind what we do,” he says. “For us, it’s not a challenge, it’s confirmation.”

Clearing noise and fixing focus

Despite progress, many brands still grapple with fuzzy concepts: Is bamboo always better? What about recycled polyester? What counts as ‘organic’? Hurta believes the industry needs clarity: “We know what doesn’t work, but we haven’t agreed on what to follow. Without focus, it becomes messy. We must choose concrete paths and build the infrastructure around them.” Systemic textile waste collection, he adds, is still missing: easy returns for consumers and homogenous waste streams will be key to making circularity mainstream.

Impact at scale

In the near future, NIL Textile aims to automate its production processes in order to achieve a competitive price point in Europe. The goal is to produce fully circular materials locally and meaningfully lower carbon and water footprints. Long-term, Hurta envisions the company as both a front-end partner for brands and a back-end R&D hub advancing textile science. For those considering a similar path, his advice is candid: “Ask the stupid questions. And be consistent. Fashion is a fight, but if you stay the course, the impact can be extraordinary.”