The fashion industry’s expectations are particularly high. “Nobody is willing to sacrifice quality and performance for sustainability,” says Matt Scullin, CEO of MycoWorks.

Many in the biotech sector say their textiles meet, or come close to, that high bar for leather.

And they aim for biotech leather to beat the performance of plant-based leather alternatives, such as those made from cactus, pineapple, seaweed and apple peels.

MycoWorks has sent its material to the independent testing firm Vartest. MycoWorks says that its material meets the performance standards of cowhide in durability, color fastness and tensile strength.

In addition to the realistic feel and quality of the material, biotech leather companies also face the challenge of producing their textiles at scale, at a price that competes with animal leather. That’s not an easy matter for companies tinkering with the finicky biology of living things or cultured cells.

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Biotech offers not only an alternative that mimics leather, but an opportunity to do more with a textile. “It’s one thing to have a material, but it’s another thing to take that and continue to enrich that material and evolve that material so that you can serve the different needs of the brands,” says Bakst of Modern Meadow.

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