Japanese designer upcycling industrial nylon fabrics into new streetwear

Japanese designer, Hideyuki Hayashi, is recycling unwanted nylon and polyester textiles from hot air balloons, unexploded airbags, and excess seat belts into recycled streetwear, for the new brand WAySTEaD.

The brand’s formal Kickstarter campaign, which will use talented Japanese textile artisans, will begin on January 14th, 2022.

Hayashi said that the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide is released into the atmosphere through the global manufacture of nylons used in hot air balloons, seat belts, and emergency airbags. Meanwhile, landfill disposal of conventional nylon fabrics requires 30-40 years for complete disintegration, whereas incineration emits carbon monoxide, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, and other pollutants into the atmosphere. Simply put, increasing nylon production while inefficiently disposing of old nylon contributes to global warming.

Hayashi added that the industrial nylon textiles used in these applications are notoriously difficult to upcycle – airbags are stiff, seatbelts are tough to stitch through, and hot air balloon nylon can become badly discolored over time. Most fashion designers reject the constraints and limitations of such repurposed materials for all of these reasons, but rather than avoiding the issue, they at WAySTEaD have employed meticulous design and excellent artisan outfitting to produce an intriguing range of new streetwear pieces.

The Airbag Jacket, for example, turns unused airbags into retro-futuristic giant button blouson jackets. The statement piece is sturdy and one-of-a-kind, embracing the resurgence of 90s logomania and the boxy Y2K design.

In the meantime, the Hot Air Balloon Coat is made of the coated nylon envelope material used in current hot air balloons. Following a thorough washing, the intricate labor of pattern cutting and stitching begins.

The patchwork motif on the final drawstring jacket is color-matched to the print-resistant base material. The jackets are lined with recycled polyester mesh and come in black, yellow, white, and racing green.

Based on abandoned seat belts headed for the landfill, the Seatbelt Racing Jacket was inspired by 1980s burger restaurants, American varsity jackets, and legendary racing jackets from the 1960s.

The new silhouette is reshaped and exaggerated, utilizing stiff nylon seat belts for the torso and a red, black, or yellow recycled polyester upper yoke that connects to the matching colored oversize drop sleeves.

WAySTEaD also uses recycled PET polyester in its Plastic Bottle T-shirts, which feature everything from full-size pictures to single line captions in four vivid colors and completely embrace the nostalgic logo-mania and oversize silhouette of the 1990s grunge era. After the Kickstarter campaign ends, deliveries are expected to take between four and eight weeks.