Advance Denim, a very technically advanced denim manufacturer from China, has signed a three-year supply partnership with Avalo, an AI-powered agricultural biotechnology company operating in Texas High-Plains, USA. Together, they will collaborate at a very advanced project focused on significant water reduction—each one in their field.
Founded in 1987, Advance Denim is one of the oldest denim mill in China and one of the most innovative in the world. With over 1,100 employees and manufacturing operations in China and Vietnam, the company supplies denim to renowned brands across the globe.
For nearly four decades, Advance Denim has offered fabrics produced according to most innovative denim manufacturing techniques, while combining high craftsmanship with design, performance, and sustainability.
In particular it has focused many of its efforts in reducing water consumption in the indigo dyeing process by developing the Big Box Dyeing technique, a proprietary process that reduces water use by up to 95%. While conventional dyeing techniques use 15 to 17 different steps out of which about ten focused on dyeing dipping steps, Advance Denim’s system uses four steps for its dyeing process and a single dyeing bath. This way its process reduces the use of resources like, for instance, electricity, chemicals, gas and water.
As part of the newly signed agreement, Advance Denim is now investing in this strategy by further reducing water consumption in cotton production thanks to this partnership with Avalo.
The American agricultural biotechnology company has made significant progress in this direction in cotton cultivation by using AI-powered genomic selection and computational breeding. This way it has developed non-GMO cotton varieties that are naturally more resilient and able to produce high-quality fiber using a fraction of the inputs conventional cotton requires.
According to recent results collected by an Avalo third-party Life Cycle Assessment, its cotton cultivation achieves a 100% reduction in water use compared to conventionally grown cotton. It uses 75% less fertilizers–a significant result in a year that saw the price of petroleum-based products skyrocketing–and a 47% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional cotton cultivation.
In this partnership, all Avalo cotton supply is under the US Cotton Trust Protocol (USCTP)
regenerative program and traceable through Textile Genesis, providing brands with the data
they need to make credible sustainability claims throughout their supply chains.
Under the newly signed multi-year agreement, Advance Denim will serve as Avalo’s Founding Mill Partner for the denim market across China, Vietnam, and Cambodia — giving them exclusive access to Avalo cotton as the brand scales.
“Advance Denim has always believed that performance and sustainability are complementary—and Avalo is proof of that,” said Amy Wang, general manager, Advance Denim.
“The fiber’s quality speaks for itself. But what truly made this an easy decision was the combination of Avalo’s water reduction and their commitment to regeneration under USCTP and BCI Cotton,” she added.
“Advance Denim represents exactly the kind of partner Avalo was built for,” said Tricia Carey,
chief commercial officer, Avalo. “They have proven for decades that they will not
compromise on quality, and they have proven more recently that they will not compromise on
sustainability either. When a mill of this caliber, serving global retailers, commits to low-footprint cotton as a strategic input, it sends a signal that the whole industry feels,” continued Carey.