Changing the Way We Walk the Earth for a Cleaner Future

The textile market has become an increasingly progressive arena for innovation. In line with industry objectives and technological advancements, one designer aims to redefine the way in which textiles are produced, consumed and recycled. Designer Ammo Liao has developed the Bio-Knit—a single material that takes on multiple physical properties—in hopes to reshape the current sneaker industry.
 
PSFK by Christina Mauro

The Bio-Knit is produced of consistent fibers using traditional knitting machine technologies and is rooted in the principles of biomimicry.
By using a singular-fiber fabric versus a composite fabric—a material made of multiple different fibers to create a newly functional fabric—the fabric is easily and more cost-effectively recycled. After a fabric swatch (similar to that of a traditional cable-knit sweater) has been developed, heat is applied in one of two ways: heat pressing or 3D-engraving.
The former of the two processes yields a hard-structured material, while the latter enables a grid-technique for a custom material layout.
Liao has taken his creation and applied it to modern designs, most notably the sneaker. In the development of the Bio-Knit sneaker, Liao simplifies a traditionally wasteful process, by replacing a complex 65-piece sneaker pattern with a four-piece design. By piecing together the soft knit qualities of the shoe for comfort with targeted, heat-set areas that reinforce sections of the heel and toe, the design maximizes multiple properties from a single-sourced fabric.


Biomimicry has come to define a process in which the designs are based on biological patterns and structures within nature. Though the process is certainly not a new one (think Velcro), it has increasingly become the source of inspiration for active and performance wear design.

In an industry that produces 330 million pair of sneakers a year—each of which take 65 years to decompose in a landfill—the Bio-Knit sneaker could truly change the way in which we walk the earth.

Ammo Liao