For its next line of sustainable fleece clothing, Nike Forward, Nike aims to switch from conventional knit and woven techniques to needlepunched nonwovens. The company will offer the initial hoodie and crew designs internationally the following week.

The culmination of more than five years of study, Nike Forward is being hailed by the company as the most important advancement in sportswear since Dri-Fit thirty years ago. The first patent for a needlepunch machine was submitted in the UK in 1859, so the traditional needlepunching procedure has been around for a while. However, it's likely that Nike has developed covert ways to get past the technique' inflexibility when it comes to clothing draping.

However, the company claims that by eschewing conventional knit and weaving procedures, it can reduce the number of stages required for material manufacture and do away with the multi-stage cycle of spinning yarn, knitting, cutting, and sewing, among other tasks.

In order to reduce carbon emissions by 75%, Nike Forward material must be lighter in density than conventional knit fleece, and the final product must contain 70% recycled material by weight.

Aaron Heiser, vice president of global clothing product merchandising at Nike, said that they believe this platform has the ability to reset the way they think about material and apparel. It has the ability to completely change the market, much like Air and Flyknit did for Nike's footwear.

Carmen Zolman, Nike's vice president of innovation clothing design, said that Nike Forward feels different because it is different. It is a brand-new material that has a significantly less carbon footprint than typical knit or woven fabrics.

The grey hoodie is a classic silhouette that Nike Forward introduces. The hoodie avoids decorations and colors in order to be more environmentally friendly, choosing raw cut pockets and using no water at all.

The platform was also designed with future circularity in mind; for example, the first edition of Nike Forward clothing does not include zippers, aglets, or other additional trimmings, making it easy to recycle.

Nike Forward can be precisely tailored for athlete demands and can be manufactured from a variety of layers, including industrial and post-consumer waste.