Exploring Ecoalf’s New Recycled Cotton T-Shirt Project​

​During Milan Design Week, Spanish sustainable apparel and footwear brand Ecoalf partnered with Materra, a company specializing in regenerative cotton farming, to launch a new collaborative initiative: Ecoalf x Materra: A (Re)generation of Storydoers.

The project, implemented in Ahmedabad, India, has successfully restored over 50,000 square meters of land and engaged 4,000 farmers. It began by training 20 "master growers" in regenerative agricultural techniques. After witnessing healthier land and increased yields, these farmers became role models in their communities, inspiring others to join. The initiative has now expanded across Gujarat, one of India’s largest cotton-producing regions, impacting over 4,000 farmers.

At Design Week, Ecoalf showcased a collection of recycled cotton T-shirts in white, gray, and black, including unbranded styles and special editions featuring the slogan (Re)generation of Storydoers. Each T-shirt is made from regeneratively farmed cotton, produced using green energy, and dyed with natural pigments to protect water resources. A single T-shirt restores 12.05 square meters of degraded land and significantly reduces toxic chemical use. In its first collection alone, Ecoalf has restored land equivalent to 76 tennis courts, setting a new sustainability benchmark for the fashion industry. Additionally, each T-shirt comes with a unique QR code, allowing consumers to trace its journey from cotton field to finished garment, including the specific village where the cotton was sourced.

The (Re)generation collection has been available since April via Ecoalf’s e-commerce platform and flagship stores.

Founded in 2009, Ecoalf was created to reduce waste and produce high-quality recycled products that rival non-recycled materials in design and quality. Over the past 15 years, the brand has developed over 600 innovative recycled fabrics, repurposed more than 300 million plastic bottles, along with discarded fishing nets, tires, industrial cotton, and wool, saving over 54 billion liters of water and reducing 12,500 tons of CO2 emissions. Currently, Ecoalf is committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2030, with approximately 70% of its products made from single materials for easier recycling. The brand’s products are now sold in over 1,300 multi-brand stores worldwide, with flagship locations in Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Milan, and Tokyo, as well as through its official website.

Partner Materra is an Indian company dedicated to growing cotton through regenerative agriculture while supporting smallholder farmers with tailored, traceable, fair, and climate-resilient cotton farming programs. Materra also leverages an AI-driven technology platform to digitize fashion supply chains, providing brands and textile manufacturers with compliance data to address challenges like climate change. By 2030, Materra aims to regenerate 500,000 hectares of land, driving the fashion industry toward sustainability.

Ecoalf and Materra’s collaborative recycled cotton T-shirt project not only reflects the brand’s commitment to sustainability but also charts a path for the future of fashion. From training farmers to restoring soil health, from using natural dyes to creating traceable supply chains, every step demonstrates a holistic responsibility toward ecology, communities, and products. By transforming cotton farming through regenerative agriculture, the project reduces reliance on natural resources while empowering farmers, achieving a true "farm-to-closet" green cycle. Ecoalf proves through action that responsibility and design, sustainability and fashion, can indeed go hand in hand.