Ask any sustainable fashion expert how to fix the industry and they will likely tell you the solutions already exist, it’s just a matter of scaling them. That’s the founding principle behind the annual Trailblazer Award, a partnership between non-profit Global Fashion Agenda (GFA), manufacturing group PDS, and its investment arm PDS Ventures, which recognizes early-stage companies working with nature, closed-loop pathways, and tech-powered transformation.

The GFA announced this year’s finalists today, during the first day of its annual Global Fashion Summit in Copenhagen. The line-up consists of Synflux, which is tackling waste in pattern-cutting; MacroCycle, which recycles polyester-rich textiles; and Fibe, which creates natural fibers from agricultural waste. Selected by jury members representing Kering, Ralph Lauren and Zalando, as well as MIT, Fashion for Good, Pepper-i2 and PDS, the shortlist is an insight into what industry leaders value today, and where sustainability is heading.

The Trailblazer Award finalists are “proof that the solutions already exist”, says GFA CEO Federica Marchionni. “There are plenty of solutions, but we need more commitment and investment to scale them. Adoption is really crucial.” Alongside an investment package worth up to $200,000, the winner will get access to advisory, commercial, and operational support from PDS and its subsidiaries.

“The world is going through so much turmoil, and unfortunately sustainability has taken a backseat,” says PDS co-founder and executive chair Pallak Seth. “But there is still a big requirement for the world to move into a more sustainable space, and keep that innovation pipeline alive. We have to assess innovations in terms of what is practically possible. So many require a lot of capital investment and infrastructure to scale, even if they look great on paper. With this year’s award, we are more focused on solutions that use current infrastructure, improving productivity and efficiency without costing too much money, because they are more likely to succeed.”

The winner will be announced on Thursday during the Global Fashion Summit. In the meantime, Vogue Business sat down with the three finalists.

Synflux

The fashion industry wastes an exorbitant amount of fabric each year, but Japanese startup Synflux is on a mission to change that. Laser-focused on the cutting process, Synflux uses AI-powered algorithms to find the most efficient tessellation of pattern pieces. “In just 10 minutes, our system can test over 100 design variations, reducing textile waste by up to 66% and fabric consumption by up to 15%, with no changes to the design and no threat to the quality,” says CEO Kazuya Kawasaki.

To date, Synflux has optimized more than 80 products across 15 local brands, including The North Face and Issey Miyake. Now, it has its sights set on Europe. Kawasaki, who previously advised the Japanese government on sustainable fashion policy, is hoping the looming threat of compliance will convince brands and suppliers to come on board. Waste reduction is particularly relevant to extended producer responsibility (EPR) and eco-design (ESPR), he says.

“Our technology delivers the most impact when developed in close collaboration with factories and suppliers. The Trailblazers program has been a great opportunity to connect with these stakeholders and has opened doors it would have taken us years to reach otherwise.”

MacroCycle

MIT spin-out MacroCycle focuses on poly-rich material, extracting the polyester out of blended garments and turning it to virgin gray raw material that can be used again.

“Imagine the polyester is salt, and all the other blends and contaminants are rocks. If you put salt and rocks in water, the salt will dissolve. You can then scoop out the rocks, boil the water, and get pure salt. That’s basically how our technology works,” explains co-founder and CEO Stwart Peña Feliz.

What sets MacroCycle apart is that it doesn’t need to depolymerize the materials to recycle them, meaning the process requires significantly less energy, and can achieve price parity with virgin polyester at a significantly smaller scale than its competitors. “We don’t want to be dependent on subsidies or premiums,” he says.

MacroCycle is currently working toward its first commercial facility, which should be able to produce 5,000 tons of recycled polyester per year. Its second facility, down the line, will multiply that tenfold. In the meantime, it is scouting brand partners to pilot a capsule collection, but balancing the needs of brands and investors has proven difficult. “There is a huge disconnect, which many material innovators come up against,” says Peña Feliz. “Investors want to see offtake agreements [where brands commit to buy a certain amount of the material in advance, de-risking production], but those agreements are a late-stage mechanism and are pretty rare. We believe price parity will help us overcome this lack of commitment from brands.”

Fibe

London-based Fibe turns agricultural waste into yarn that co-founder and CEO Idan Gal-Shohet believes can rival more established natural fibers, like cotton and hemp. On one side is the agricultural industry’s struggle with “resource misallocation” (meaning waste), and on the other is fashion’s increasing exposure to supply chain risks such as natural fiber scarcity. The team started with potato stems, but their ultimate goal is to tailor yarns to local agricultural wastestreams around the world, such as oil seed crops in Europe or banana waste in South America.

“We often hear that natural fibers are one of the best solutions we have to make fashion more sustainable, but they are becoming harder and harder to rely on with climate change, and harder to scale than polyester,” explains Gal-Shohet. “We see this as a way to de-risk natural fibers by offering alternatives to cotton.”

Today, Fibe can produce several kilograms of fiber each week, which is enough to create yarn and test the material with industrial partners, but is planning a speedy expansion. The startup received £3 million in investment from the Royal Academy of Engineering this year to build its first pilot plant, pegged for completion in early 2027, and is hoping to have a full-scale commercial plant within the next few years. Rather than creating one yarn that can function like cotton in all scenarios, Fibe has built a technology platform to iterate on its formula for different use cases, starting with easier wins like chunky yarns for sweaters and knits, and working up to fine yarns for woven pieces.

“Because cotton is so versatile, you don’t have to hit exact one-to-one dimensions in every yarn,” says Gal-Shohet. “You just need like-for-like comparisons in specific product applications.”