Today, natural and bio-based materials are no longer passive inputs. They increasingly shape how products perform, how fast innovation can scale, and how much trust brands earn over time. Material choices now influence whether performance claims hold up, whether innovation moves beyond pilots, and whether sustainability progress feels credible or forced.
This shift is happening at scale. The global sustainable and eco-conscious sportswear and athleisure market has already surpassed USD 100 billion and is projected to grow at close to a 9% compound annual growth rate over the next five years.
What’s changing is not just chemistry. It’s how sports brands think about risk, resilience, and competitive advantage. Materials have moved from ingredient to infrastructure. At ISPO 2025 experts explained why they are becoming one of the most powerful strategic levers in the sports industry.
Why the Next Performance Leap Starts with Bio-based Materials
High performance or responsible materials? That trade-off shaped design decisions for years. That mindset is now breaking down, not because of marketing pressure, but because material science has reached a new threshold.
Dr. Li Xueqing from Zhejiang Huanlong New Material and Technology, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU) films, describes the reality when comparing bio-based and petroleum-based TPU:
“With biomaterials, we can make this really braceable TPU films with bio content of 52 percent, and the performance can really compare with the petroleum product.”
Thermoplastic Polyurethane is widely used in sportswear for flexible, durable components such as performance fabrics, shoe soles, protective padding, and stretchable waterproof coatings.
Once bio-based materials meet core performance benchmarks – waterproofing, elasticity, abrasion resistance, durability – the conversation changes. The question is no longer whether these materials can perform, but how quickly brands can integrate them into real systems.
For leadership teams, this shift has strategic consequences. Material choices lock brands into long-term pathways. Machinery investments, supplier relationships, certifications, and product architectures all depend on them. A wrong choice can slow innovation years later. A smart one keeps future options open.
From Concept to Reality: Bio-based Performance Is Scaling
Bio-based innovation is no longer confined to concept products or sustainability capsules. It is entering performance categories where failure is not tolerated. At Huanlong, bio-based TPU films already achieve more than 50 percent renewable content using feedstocks such as corn or castor oil, verified through carbon-14 testing. As Dr. Li Xueqing explains:
“Customers are happy with that, and it can actually be used in a lot of applications. It can already replace petroleum films with this one. It’s waterproof, so the vapor transmission behavior is not good.”
Verification is crucial. It allows brands to support claims with data rather than assumptions. In performance apparel, footwear components, and outdoor equipment, these materials now deliver the functionality designers expect.
This shift is reinforced by broader market signals. The global bio-based textiles market – already valued at nearly USD 50 billion – is expected to more than double within the next decade.
Sports and outdoor environments expose materials to sweat, repeated washing, extreme temperatures, and mechanical stress. Success under these conditions sends a clear signal: bio-based materials are no longer experimental, they are viable at the highest performance level.
Why Scalability Is the Real Bottleneck
If performance is no longer the main hurdle, scalability is. Many natural and bio-based materials already work in controlled settings, but very few reach the volumes global sports brands require. The challenge is not chemistry alone, it sits between science and operations.
Bio-based materials depend on long, interconnected value chains: agricultural feedstocks, chemical conversion, polymer consistency, industrial processing, certification, and machine compatibility. If any link breaks, scale collapses.
Cost further complicates adoption. Bio-based polymers and natural alternatives still carry a noticeable cost premium at low and medium volumes, driven by feedstock volatility, specialized processing, and certification requirements.
These premiums tend to decline only when long-term demand, supply contracts, and manufacturing stability are secured. The critical takeaway for decision-makers is simple: scalability cannot be an afterthought. If it is not designed into material choices from the start, innovation remains trapped in pilot mode, regardless of how promising the material looks.
Collaboration as a Performance Multiplier
If scale is the bottleneck, collaboration is the unlock. No single brand or supplier controls the full material value chain. Progress depends on shared systems rather than isolated breakthroughs. From the supplier perspective, Dr. Li Xueqing describes this interdependence directly:
“We have to collaborate with our upstream suppliers and downstream customers to find the right applications to design the molecules and to realize it.”
This kind of collaboration is not about branding alliances. It is about operational trust. When partners share data early and acknowledge limitations openly, brands can plan product roadmaps that survive beyond one season.
In this context, collaboration becomes a performance driver. It reduces uncertainty, spreads risk, and makes scale achievable. For sports businesses, it is no longer optional, it is how material innovation becomes repeatable, scalable, and financially viable.
Materials as Long-Term Business Decisions
Material choices shape far more than product specifications. They influence logistics complexity, sourcing risk, certification costs, and regulatory exposure.
While conventional synthetic fibers still dominate global production, regulation, brand commitments, and consumer expectations are steadily shifting demand toward lower-impact alternatives. Brands that engage early gain something more valuable than immediate cost savings: learning.
They learn where cost curves flatten, where failures occur, and which suppliers can truly scale. That accumulated knowledge becomes a competitive advantage that is difficult to replicate. The real benefit is not lower impact alone, but lower uncertainty.
What This Means for Sports Brands Now
The shift underway is not about replacing one material with another. It is about redefining how performance innovation works.
Three truths stand out:
- Material choice is strategy
- Scale must be designed, not hoped for
- Collaboration is the new performance multiplier
From there, action follows:
- Integrate materials into long-term strategy
- Move from pilots to learning portfolios
- Build partnerships early
- Design for material flexibility
- Align innovation, sourcing, and sustainability teams
What This Means for Sports Brands Now
Sports and outdoor brands sit at a unique intersection of extreme performance demands, visible brand narratives, and highly engaged users.
When materials prove themselves in these environments, they gain credibility far beyond sport. Bio-based materials are not redefining sports performance because they are “greener.” They are redefining it because they force brands to build smarter, more resilient, and more transparent systems.
And increasingly, that is what performance really means.
