Mylo™
Overview
Mylo™ is a leather-like material made from mycelium, the underground root structure of mushrooms.
The textile fiber company Bolt Threads developed Mylo™ in partnership with Ecovative, who pioneered mycelium fabrication technology to create soft, flexible foams (as a more sustainable alternative to Styrofoam packaging, for example).
Mycelium is the underground root structure of mushrooms. It grows as tiny threads that form vast networks under the forest floor. To produce Mylo™, optimal growing conditions are created for mycelium cells to self-assemble into a supple, sustainable material that looks and feels remarkably like animal leather.
Benefits of Mylo™ include:
- Mylo has a soft, supple, warm feel.
- It’s strong, and abrasion resistant.
- Mylo is remarkably leather-like, but no animals are used in making it.
- Mylo grows in a matter of weeks, compared to animal hides which take years to grow.
- Because Bolt Threads carefully controls its environment, they can direct the mycelium’s growth and control the final material’s properties including thickness, shape, and more.
- Compared to synthetic leathers which are made from polyurethane, Mylo feels natural and has better moisture management properties.
- Mylo has the potential to be significantly more sustainable than leather and other leather substitutes.
The term leather is reserved for animal hides, and animal hides are made of collagen. Mylo™ is made from 100% mycelium, and there is no collagen in Mylo™.
Mylo™ is currently still in the R&D phase. A full lifecycle analysis will be conducted prior to large scale commercial rollout. So far Mylo™ has only been sold as a limited edition bag and made into a one-off Mylo™ Falabella Prototype One in collaboration with Stella McCartney for the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Unlike making leather, the process of making Mylo™ doesn’t involve raising and sacrificing livestock, or any of the associated greenhouse gases or material wastes. Those impacts are substantial, according to Bolt Threads livestock use an astonishing 30% of the earth’s entire land surface and cattle-rearing generates more global warming greenhouse gases, as measured in carbon dioxide equivalent, than all transportation methods.
Mylo is also a more sustainable option than synthetic leathers, most of which are made from polyurethane or PVC, This so-called ‘pleather’ is manufactured using numerous toxic chemicals. While not proven to be dangerous to humans during use, these toxic chemistries persist in the landfills and groundwater where they end up.
Because Mylo™ is made from organic matter, it is completely biodegradable and non-toxic. (Note: animal hide is also biodegradable.)
How It’s Made
- The process begins with mycelium cells. The cells are grown in beds of corn stalks with additional nutrients to feed and grow their mycelium. The mycelium are not genetically engineered, wild spores’ require specific growth conditions to engineer the final material’s properties.
- Growth conditions like temperature and humidity are precisely controlled to encourage the mycelium to grow upward and self-assemble into an organized mat of interconnected cells. Billions of cells grow and form an interconnected 3D network; their connections give the material strength.
- The material is compressed to make a 2-D material as thin or thick as the desired final material. At this point the mycelium is no longer growing. It then goes through a natural tanning process and can be dyed.
- The final step is to imprint any desired pattern.
Suggested Reading
“Bolt Threads Launches Its First Mylo™ Leather Product With A Stylish Tote Bag” By Western Bonime, Sept 8, 2018, Forbes
“Mylo Mushroom Leather! Get a piece of fashion history” By The Discerning Brute, Sept 13, 2018
“Ikea plans mushroom-based packaging as eco-friendly replacement for polystyrene” By Emily Gosden, 24 Feb 2016, The Telegraph