Peter Fisk

Everything Adidas does is rooted in sport.”The good news is that sport plays an increasingly important role in more and more people’s lives, on and off the field of play, so we operate in a highly attractive industry.

We push the boundaries of products, experiences and services to drive brand desire and capitalize on the growth opportunities in sport as well as in sports-inspired casual and activewear. However, the importance of sport goes far beyond that.

Sport is central to every culture and society and is core to an individual’s health and happiness. Therefore, we believe that, through sport, we have the power to change lives. And we work every day to inspire and enable people to harness the power of sport in their lives.”

Dreaming about sports

Although urban legend has it that the word “Adidas” is an anagram of the phrase “all day I dream about sports,” the athletic wear company gets its name from its founder, Adolph “Adi” Dassler. He and his brother founded the company that would become a worldwide brand, but their history as members of the Nazi Party isn’t as well known.

In 1920, at the age of 20, avid soccer player Adolph (Adi) Dassler, son of a cobbler, invented spiked shoes for track and field. Four years later Adi and his brother Rudolph (Rudi) founded the German sports shoe company Gebrüder Dassler OHG—later known as Adidas.  By 1925 the Dasslers were making leather shoes with nailed studs and track shoes with hand-forged spikes.

Beginning with the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam, Adi’s uniquely designed shoes began to gain a worldwide reputation. Jesse Owens was wearing a pair of Dassler’s track shoes when he won four gold medals for the US at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

At the time of his death in 1959, Dassler held over 700 patents related to sports shoes and other athletic equipment. In 1978, he was inducted into the American Sporting Goods Industry Hall of Fame as one of the founders of the modern sporting goods industry.

In the 1970s, Adidas was the top athletic shoe brand sold in the US. Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier were both wearing Adidas boxing shoes in their “Fight of the Century” in 1971. Adidas was named the official supplier for the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.

Although still a strong, well-known brand today, Adidas’ share of the world sports shoe market dropped over the years, and what began as a German family business is now a corporation (Adidas-Salomon AG) combined with the French global concern Salomon.

In 2004 Adidas bought Valley Apparel Company, a U.S. company that held licenses for outfitting more than 140 U.S. college athletic teams. In 2005 Adidas announced that it was purchasing the American shoemaker Reebok, which allowed it to compete more directly with Nike in the U.S. But the Adidas world headquarters are still located in Adi Dassler’s hometown of Herzogenaurach. They also have an ownership stake in German soccer club 1. FC Bayern München.

Here is a extract from its published business strategy:

Mission

We want to be the best sports company in the world. What does that mean? Well, to us ‘best’ means that we design, build and sell the best sports products in the world, with the best service and experience, and that we do so in a sustainable way. But ‘best’ is also what our consumers, athletes, teams, partners, media and shareholders say about us.

Plan

‘Creating the New’ is not only the attitude that leads us into the future, it is also the name of our strategic business plan until the year 2020 to accomplish our mission. At the core of Creating the New stands our ambition to further drive top- and bottom-line growth by significantly increasing brand desirability. We therefore focus on our brands like Adidas and Reebok as they connect and engage with our consumers.

We know that, in order to be successful, we need to get closer to our consumers than ever before. To achieve that, our plan is based on three strategic choices: Speed, Cities and Open Source. For more information around these three choices, please scroll further down.

But ultimately, Creating the New has its powerful foundation in our unique corporate culture. We have great talents in our organization who work with passion for sports and our brands. It is our people that bring our strategy to life and make the difference in achieving our long-term goals.

Strategic choices

Our business plan is built around three strategic choices that will enable us to focus even more on our consumers:

• Speed – How we deliver: Putting our consumers at the heart of everything we do and serving them in the best possible way means that we need to ensure that they always find fresh and desirable products where and when they want them. We will become the first true fast sports company.
• Cities – Where we deliver: Urbanization continues to be a global megatrend. Most of the global population lives in cities. Cities are shaping global trends and consumers’ perception, perspectives and buying decisions. We have identified six key cities in which we want to over-proportionally grow share of mind, share of market and share of trend: London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Shanghai and Tokyo.
• Open Source – How we create: This is all about collaboration and innovation. About learning and sharing. We are opening the doors of our brands inviting athletes, consumers and partners to co-create the future of sport and sports culture with us.

Acceleration Plan

To foster our brand momentum and accelerate sales and earnings growth, we introduced a number of initiatives that we will focus on in addition to the three strategic choices and our corporate culture – Portfolio, North America, Digital and ONE adidas.

• Portfolio: This is all about more focus and less complexity. We are constantly revisiting and sharpening the focus of our brand portfolio, fully concentrating on adidas and Reebok and on our core competencies in footwear and apparel. This will allow us to reduce complexity and pursue our consumer in a more targeted and consequent way.
• adidas North America: North America represents the biggest market in the sporting goods industry with a total share of approximately 40%. It is the single biggest growth opportunity for the adidas brand. That is why we have made North America a strategic priority and started to significantly increase our investments into our US business – people, infrastructure, marketing and point-of-sale – in order to be more relevant and always visible to the consumer.
• Digital: The digital transformation is fundamentally changing the way our consumers behave and the way we work. Technology has enabled us to build more direct relationships with our consumers. With our relatively young workforce we are in the unique position to continuously improve our digital capabilities – not only to interact with the consumer, but also to become faster, better and more efficient in every part of the organization.
• ONE adidas: We continuously strive for operational excellence. ONE adidas encompasses a set of initiatives that will enable us to work smarter, more efficiently and in a more aligned way. Because we know that when we act as one global company instead of 20 smaller ones, we can only get better.

Other companies are also developing innovative ways to cut global emissions. Massachusetts-based Cambrian Innovation turns contaminated wastewater into renewable energy, and Canadian firm Enerkem extracts carbon from trash and converts turns it into a gas, which can be used to make biofuels.

Buurtzorg, which translates as “neighbourhood care”, is seen by its many enthusiasts as a key part of the solution to challenges facing healthcare systems across the world.

From Aberdeen to Shanghai, the Buurtzorg approach is being seized on by policy-makers as a means of enabling people with care needs to live independently with much less formal support. Potential cost savings of up to 40% have been calculated. At the same time, the model is said to be hugely popular with the nursing teams who run it because it frees them from management control and unleashes their entrepreneurial creativity. And it is very simple.

Buurtzorg was founded 10 years ago by a 56-year-old nurse, Jos de Blok, and started with an initial team of four. The system that evolved deploys teams of up to 12 nurses, who are responsible for between 40 and 60 people within a particular area. There are now around 900 teams in the Netherlands, supported by no more than 50 administrators and 20 trainers.

The principle underpinning the model is that the nurse acts as a “health coach” for the individual and their family, emphasising preventive health measures but also delivering necessary care themselves or calling on others to do so. The golden rule is that nurses must spend 61% of their time in direct contact with the people they support. An evaluation by consultancy KPMG in 2012 found that although the care might be costlier per hour than under a traditional approach, it was of higher quality and better appreciated by those in receipt. Crucially, only half as much care was typically required.

“What I see in a lot of countries is that systems are increasingly complicated and frustrations are becoming worse and worse,” said de Blok when I met him recently at the Thinkers50 Global Summit in London, where he walked away with the Ideas into Practice Award. “I want to show that it’s easy to change.”

However its not necessarily so easy to translate the model into other country’s healthcare systems. One issue is funding: the Dutch model is tailored to payments by health insurance companies, not a state healthcare system like the NHS or means-tested social care. Another is the scrapping of hierarchies and specialisms within the nursing teams: a Buurtzorg nurse might administer wound care, but may also help someone to wash or get dressed. A third challenge is that the model requires management to back off and allow their teams considerable latitude, with much less performance monitoring than has become the norm in, for instance, the UK. Bureaucracy is reduced to a minimum.

“We have tried to prevent it becoming a meetings structure,” says de Blok, describing how his teams are encouraged to think freely in finding answers to people’s care needs, drawing on other professionals and volunteers. “The autonomy is better when [the teams] build their own networks to solve problems.”

The Buurtzorg approach has even been extended to what in the UK would be recognised as home help, after the organisation stepped in to rescue a failing Dutch provider two years ago. By cutting its overheads dramatically, the provider has not only been saved but has expanded by more than 60% to 4,000 employees.

The model has been taken up by the Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS foundation trust in south London as well as integrated health and care services in Tower Hamlets, east London, and in west Suffolk. Active interest has come from Kent and Cheshire West, among others, and 300 people recently attended the first presentation in Wales by Public World, a consultancy working with Buurtzorg.

De Blok insists he is relaxed about the model being adapted to suit local circumstances. Buurtzorg is a non-profit organisation – though it makes a surplus for reinvestment – and it does not seek to franchise the model under licence. “I’m not interested in money,” de Blok says. “I see so many people searching for a new way of doing things in all the places I visit. It’s all about creating something different from the bottom up.”

Fatih Konukoğlu says that three words best describe ISKO™’s philosophy:

Performance: ISKO™ is the denim specialist, all fabrics are characterized by an advanced technology and the deeply-rooted care for quality, during all the integrated production from yarn to finishing processes.

Innovation: ISKO™‘ mission is to always keep in touch with the latest trends and also to anticipate times. ISKO™’s research centre is certified by the Turkish government and it consists of more than 25 textile engineers, specialists in creating new denim products.

Green: ISKO™ has a strong eco-commitment, backed by sustainable production. 10% of new ISKO™ fabrics are produced from recycled materials, a filtration and treatment plant to clean water is used in the manufacturing process, to redirect the water for other industrial and household purposes.

ISKO™ is part of the SANKO group, a multinational holding company characterized by a solid and well-established presence in the textile industry, which has invested much in cutting edge technology for its textile division. SANKO holding is strongly committed to research in the renewable energy field and to environment-friendly procedures.

Here is an extract from a recent article by Fashion Network:

Turkish denim manufacturer ISKO doesn’t stint on resources, and it isn’t shy in promoting its extensive denim expertise while highlighting responsible production: sometimes it goes for glamour, teaming up for its latest collaboration with Ukrainian designer Ksenia Schnaider; other times for innovation and inspiration, as with the interactive Denim Sound Textures exhibition it presented at Milan Design Week in mid-April. FashionNetwork.com recently had the opportunity of travelling to Turkey to learn about the know-how of what is one of the world’s largest denim producers.

The Uludağ mountain, ancient Bithynia’s Mount Olympus, sketched its soft snowy contours on the horizon. Our van climbed to the top of a low-lying mountain pass, then the two-lane road plunged down to the small Anatolian town of Inegol. Isko’s headquarters are located in the town’s industrial area.

Inegol is a far cry from Bursa, the ancient capital of the first Ottoman sultans with its spas and historic old town, an hour’s drive away. And even further from chaotic Istanbul, with its history and futuristic buildings. After the 2.6 km-long Osmangazi suspension bridge across the gulf of Izmit was inaugurated a few months ago, Turkey’s economic capital is no more than a few hours’ motorway drive away, but Inegol still seems very distant from the hustle and bustle of Istanbul.

With its enormous warehouses, industrial chimneys and HGV parking lots, the town’s industrial area doesn’t seem to have joined in Turkey’s race for modernity. And yet, it is in Inegol that Isko recently opened its new, entirely automated warehouse.

An ultra-mechanised site where the air is hard to breathe

The 40-metre-tall building doesn’t have a single window. Inside, it looks like a spaceship. There is no lighting except for blue neon, as a silent, seven-armed automated picking machine navigates amidst the vertiginous rows of shelves occupying the 80-metre-long and 45-metre-wide warehouse. There are no people here. Everything is automated and digitalised.

Depending on the order, specific rolls of denim weighing several hundred kilos each are machine-picked from one of the 128,000 locations in the warehouse, and shifted to a conveyor belt which places them, through one of four bays, directly onto a lorry. Humans can enter the building, of course, but they cannot stay inside for long. Oxygen content is limited to 16.4%, to minimise the risk of fire.

“It is a major investment, which enables us to improve our reaction time, responding to the expectations of brands that want to react quickly to market trends, and to the needs of e-tail players too,” said Rosey Cortazzi, Isko’s global marketing director.

Isko was founded in 1983 and is part of the giant Turkish conglomerate Sanko, owned by the Konokoğlu family and based in Gaziantep, eastern Turkey. The company wants to become a benchmark player on the world of denim. Besides catering to established jeans brands, it is keen to appeal to more generalist fashion labels. Isko’s general manager Fatih Konukoğlu and his staff invited about 50 designers and sourcing managers from brands across Europe and America to their ‘360’ workshop. A visit to the brand-new logistics hub was one of the workshop’s high points.

Centralised production

Isko’s entire manufacturing operations are based in Inegol, in two huge plants where the company says it works eco-responsibly and ethically with its 2,500 employees. It recently joined the international Textile Exchange organisation, adopting the latter’s recommendations in terms of ethical manufacturing, and is now keen to showcase its know-how, from textile engineering to washing advice.

Baris Ozden, in charge of product development, gave an introductory presentation on the denim industry, notably explaining the main technical ‘trends’. “It depends on the end-product you’re looking for. Vintage-style and baggy jeans sparked a renewed interest in open-end cotton thread, which was widely utilised in the 1970s. Nowadays, 95% of the thread is of the ring-spun type, though in the last two years we have seen an increase in demand for open-end thread,” he said.

The thread is dyed before weaving. Ozden provided a little more history to explain the process. “When Levi Strauss first developed its denim fabric for miners’ clothes, it used right-hand 3/1 cotton twill. Lee used its signature left-hand twill, which gives a fluffier feel. Then Wranglerintroduced its own technical innovation, the broken twill. Nowadays, 3/1 right-hand twill is the most widely used.”

We were then able to follow denim’s progress along the production line. In the first step, the cotton, whose provenance is certified, is transformed into yarn. A vast room houses rows of roll-stands on which spools are installed. The cotton fibre forms a yarn which is stretched for a length of several metres before giant machines roll it onto huge spools.

The spools are then moved to a second room. We had to negotiate an air-lock and pass under a panel stating that the factory has been incident-free for nearly two months, before getting a glimpse of the monumental machinery that ‘swallows up’ the yarn. The dyeing process takes place along two production lines, more than 10 metres high and some 40 metres long.

“We prepare the yarn for dyeing,” said a production manager ensconced in a control room where two operators were monitoring an array of sensors. “Here, we verify the yarn’s speed, as well as the dye baths’ temperature and their pH,” he added. Up to fifteen 500 kg rolls can be dyed at the same time. At full operating capacity, the machines function 24 hours a day. An operator is tasked with regular checks on the process, which is otherwise entirely automated. The untreated yarn darts off at a speed of 24 metres per minute, plunging into eight indigo baths.

In order to fix the colour, the yarn is immersed in a bath for 19 seconds, then exposed to the air for another 19 seconds. As the yarn emerges from each successive bath, the colour becomes increasingly intense.

“Quality is regulated and yet, despite everything and with the same yarn measurements, we don’t obtain exactly the same end result in winter and summer,” said Ozden. “To achieve a specific result, the yarn can be immersed in a sulphur bath. Depending on whether the bath comes before or after dyeing, the result is different.”

As the yarn comes out of the machine, it continues its progress and, having assumed a blue colour, it is then deposited into huge baskets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AICiksnjBww

An array of over 1,500 weaving looms

Human intervention begins from the next step of the process.  About 20 workers, each at their own machine, introduce the dyed yarn into a contraption that looks like a huge comb, which cleans and rolls up the yarn at a speed of 300 metres per minute. The rolls are then sorted and prepared for weaving.

The operation takes place in the production unit’s second building, a two-floor plant about 10 metres away from the first. As you climb to the first floor, up a spiral staircase, it is advisable to wear ear plugs.

The noise was infernal inside the clean, open-plan space, where 30 weaving looms were transforming the yarn into blue fabric. To communicate with the production specialists, you needed to use gestures, though when we visited, only a very small number of the 1,500 looms housed in the building were operating. Despite the fact that during our visit at a quiet period Isko was exploiting only about 60% of its denim production capacity, more machines are due to be installed, as the company has approved an investment for 500 additional looms.

They will enable Isko to produce other types of textiles, like Arquas, a fabric used by activewear brands, and the Isko Vital fabric. It relies on government funding for part of its technology investments.

We then moved to the lower floor, somewhat similar to a place of worship. The ceiling is very tall, supported by huge concrete pillars and with skylights through which natural light streams in. It is the area where quality controls are carried out. The operators scrutinise the fabric, which is stretched out and rolls upwards, looking at sections of it under spotlights, while the rest of it is in semi-darkness. They check for imperfections in the denim, classifying the batches according to a four-point assessment system.

Any 100 m2 fabric batch scoring less than 18 points is classified as premium quality. Speaking to the ready-to-wear labels’ representatives visiting on the day, Isko emphasised its focus on quality, alongside the ability to handle both small and large order volumes.

More than simply an expert denim manufacturer, Isko wants to come across as a fully fledged denim specialist. For example, its staff are available to advise and support clients on styling issues. It has a ‘creative room’ offering a range of new designs and, as emphasised by Moreno De Angelis, in charge of Iskoteca, the department which oversees its denim and washing archives, it also has a thorough knowledge of the washing process.

Speaking to an audience of interested professionals, De Angelis presented the range of washings and finishings offered by the firm. And it told the audience about new developments heralded as ‘ecological’. “Each denim manufacturer has its own machinery and its specific expertise. I recommend you analyse various solutions based on your needs. For example, laser processing requires a large amount of electricity to create small wear streaks, which a worker can make by hand in just a few minutes. Is it interesting then?” said De Angelis, who also encouraged brand representatives to brief their designers on the possibilities offered by denim: “Don’t buy a fabric to process it and then wait for the end result. Select the fabric based on the final look you’re aiming for. You will save on chemicals, and save money.”

Suggestions that will resonate with a number of labels, and which should enable Isko to keep its Turkish site busy, producing 300 million metres of finished material per year, about six times the Earth’s circumference.

Whether you’re a digital nomad, family on vacation, adventurous backpacker, or surfer looking for paradise, you’ve come to the right place. Participate in the complete ecosystem of Selina: stay, eat, work, surf, explore, and find a deeper connection with the world.

Selina is not just accommodation. Yes, it offers (gorgeous, beautifully-designed) places to stay. More than that, it offers a place to connect with others. Be inspired by stunning beaches and lush jungles. Fuel your creativity in energetic urban centers. Catch a wave, dance until dawn, or tap into a new level of productivity with surfing, activities, co-working, and community by Selina. If you’re looking for a unique, immersive, purpose-filled experience, you’re looking for Selina.

In 2007 Rafael Museri and Daniel Rudasevski were living in Pedasí, a small fishing town in Panama. They ran real estate projects and while developing the town, they began to build a tight-knit social circle with locals and travelers.

The two friends had a project in mind. After traveling the world and staying in many places, they believed they could begin to change the world of hospitality and share this community with other travelers. This is how the first Selina was born in Venao, a surf town near Pedasí in 2014.

Once the model was proven to be a success in Venao, the expansion began. Selina is growing quickly in Central America, South America, North America and Europe.

Every Selina aims to be a contributing member of the communities in which we operate. Selina Gives Back is our holistic volunteering program for staff, guests and “Amigos de Selina” (friends from the neighborhood) who want to volunteer with us. Selina commits 2% of labor time so our staff can volunteer in Selina Gives Back activities. Whether it’s promoting arts and culture, or taking care of the environment, SGB offers the chance to give back.

The SGB activities we promote at locations are all free and include:

​Sharing your Talent:

• Assisting future “Chef Kids”
• English instruction for locals
• Painting, building, and improving local infrastructure
• Teaching arts & crafts
• Inclusive surf classes
• Yoga lessons for locals

​Protecting the Environment:

• Reforestation
• Beach Cleanup
• Town Cleanup
• Environmental Education

​Open SGB activities:

• To support local initiatives that contribute to building the identity and culture of local communities

Selina has raised $225 million in funding since its 2015 launch by co-founders who came from outside of the hospitality sector. The startup said it had separately secured more than $300 million from regional partners to acquire real estate and fund its conversion costs for ongoing projects.

Historically, hotel companies rarely received investment from venture capitalists. Selina’s executives believe it’s unlike traditional players. They argue that most offerings today feel commoditized and inflexible to a few segments of millennial travelers, including so-called digital nomads.

“We provide an offering that’s relevant to these customers who want a surprise in their experience,” said co-founder and CEO Rafael Museri. “We tap the local artists and workshops and let them create an aesthetic. The community decides what kind of wellness programming we’re going to have, what kind of music. Selina is the platform that lets them do it efficiently. We can now convert a property in about two months.”

Intriguingly the company has grown mostly through word of mouth. So far Museri has been skeptical of traditional customer acquisition methods.

“Personally, I never consume a product because I’ve seen a billboard or someone pushed me through the internet,” said Museri. “I’m not a big believer in traditional branding efforts. It’s Selina’s offline content — and how well it helps guests socialize and work and feel fulfilled — that will drive occupancy and repeat business.”

Selina plans to open 35 properties by the end of this year.

Things haven’t entirely gone according to plan. Selina first intended its U.S. premiere to take place in September 2018 in Florida. It later pushed that back to February 2019. Now it says its first three properties in Florida will open sometime in 2019.

In the U.S., the company has signed nine deals, said Yoav Gery, Selina’s president. “We have a strong pipeline beyond that in the U.S. in particular.”

Tel Aviv and Greece are among its upcoming outposts.

Critics said the company has so far not been as fleet of foot when it comes to some operational aspects. Separately, it competes for deal flow with traditional professional services firms that specialize in real estate and investment management and have well-practiced playbooks.

Selina aims to “redefine the way millennials live, work, play, learn, and give back,” said Lincoln Benet of investor Access Industries.

It typically provides dedicated coworking spaces rather than merely encouraging people to work in its lobbies. It usually coordinates wellness or art-related activities for guests to participate in rather than install a gym.

As a US$ 2.3 billion company, Welspun Group is one of India’s fastest growing conglomerates, registered at a CAGR of 30% over the last decade. Welspun is a fully integrated player within the Pipes, Plates & Coils and Home Textiles sector, while it also has a presence in the other business verticals such as Steel, Infrastructure and Energy.

As a globally recognized leader in the fields of Line Pipes and Home Textiles, Welspun Group has captured a strong foothold in more than 50 Countries, it employs over 24,000 people and has as many as 100,000+ shareholders.

Welspun’s vision is: “Delight our customers through innovation and technology, achieve inclusive and sustainable growth to remain eminent in all our businesses”.

In the Line Pipe sector, Welspun has to its credit some of the most prestigious projects including the world’s deepest pipeline project in the Gulf of Mexico, U.S.A; heaviest pipeline project in the Persian Gulf; highest LNG pipeline project in Peru and longest pipeline project from Canada to the US.

While in the Home Textiles sector, Welspun is the largest integrated towel manufacturer in Asia, a leading supplier to 14 of the top 30 US retailers, and a global supplier offering the entire range of products within the segment.

Welspun is proactively involved in a highly developed CSR programme which focuses on the three ‘E’s – Education, Empowerment & Health and Environment. With an aim to give back to the society, the company has driven an entire campaign to empower the underprivileged and establishing a sustainable business model that takes care of the environment. The social activities aren’t just limited to high profile projects, in fact every Welspunite is encouraged to contribute to the community in any small way they can.

Welspun CEO Dipali Goenka says “We pride ourselves being customer-centric and leaders in the industries we operate in! We love what we do and are continuously looking for those who believe in turning passion into action. As a three decade young conglomerate, we touch lives in over 50 countries. If you are searching for an exciting career, we promise a challenging and fulfilling environment. Our employees are our biggest asset. With a strong focus on inclusive growth, our endeavour is to ensure a great unifying culture.”

She adds “As we prepare to address new markets, customers and growth strategies for the future we have embarked on a new journey, called Welspun 2.O. ‘Leading Tomorrow Together’ is our new philosophy, our mantra for Welspun 2.O. It is our shared vision and the single-minded and unifying goal of all Welspunites.”

Bolt Threads is a biotech company based in Emeryville, California, that produces sustainable materials to supply the apparel industry.

Among these materials are a synthetic spider silk called Microsilk, developed without the help of spiders, and a newly-announced synthetic leather material called Mylo derived from the root structure of mushrooms. The production of Bolt Threads’ synthetic spider silk material has nothing to do with actual spiders.

In 2017, Bolt Threads released its first product, a $300 tie, made of Microsilk, a biomaterial designed to replicate the strength, elasticity, and durability of spider silk. In 2018, Bolt introduced Mylo, a biofabricated leather grown from mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms.

The material, now available in a tote, resembles genuine leather but doesn’t emit the greenhouse gases associated with traditional leather production. Bolt Threads’s larger goal is to disrupt the textile industry, currently the second largest industrial polluter in the world. The company has raised $213 million in four funding rounds.

CEO Dan Widmaier and a team of fellow scientists studied how spiders make silk to try and replicate that process using DNA samples similar to that of the arachnids. The silk fibers that spiders make are durable, soft, and can withstand a high degree of tension without breaking, similar to steel. To Widmaier and his team, it was the perfect source of inspiration for a sustainable material derived from “four billion years of life on this planet,” a focal point in the company’s mission statement. With the textile industry being the second-largest polluter on the planet next to oil, there’s always room for innovation of new materials.

Since Microsilk’s debut, Bolt Threads has received $213 million in funding and has catapulted into a comfortable limelight in the apparel and tech industries. Recent developments include a partnership with fashion designer Stella McCartney to create “vegan silk” and outdoor brand Patagonia, and a new synthetic leather material produced from the roots of mushrooms.

When Canadian science graduate Christopher Charles visited Cambodia six years ago he discovered that anaemia was a huge public health problem.

In the villages of Kandal province, instead of bright, bouncing children, Dr Charles found many were small and weak with slow mental development. Women were suffering from tiredness and headaches, and were unable to work. Pregnant women faced serious health complications before and after childbirth, such as haemorrhaging. Ever since, Dr Charles has been obsessed with iron.

Anaemia is the most common nutritional problem in the world, mainly affecting women of child-bearing age, teenagers and young children. In developing countries, such as Cambodia, the condition is particularly widespread with almost 50% of women and children suffering from the condition, which is mainly caused by iron deficiency.

The standard solution – iron supplements or tablets to increase iron intake – isn’t working. The tablets are neither affordable nor widely available, and because of the side-effects people don’t like taking them.

Lump of iron

Dr Charles had a novel idea. Inspired by previous research which showed that cooking in cast iron pots increased the iron content of food, he decided to put a lump of iron into the cooking pot, made from melted-down metal.

His invention, shaped like a fish, which is a symbol of luck in Cambodian culture, was designed to release iron at the right concentration to provide the nutrients that so many women and children in the country were lacking. The recipe is simple, Dr Charles says. “Boil up water or soup with the iron fish for at least 10 minutes. “That enhances the iron which leaches from it. “You can then take it out. Now add a little lemon juice which is important for the absorption of the iron.”

If the iron fish is used every day in the correct way, Dr Charles says it should provide 75% of an adult’s daily recommended intake of iron – and even more of a child’s. Trials on several hundred villagers in one province in Cambodia showed that nearly half of those who took part were no longer anaemic after 12 months. In a previous trial, published in the European Journal of Public Health, participants started using water from wells after a few months, because of drought, which was contaminated by arsenic. Arsenic blocks the uptake of iron so it looked like the fish had stopped working.

‘Better than tablets’

Prof Imelda Bates, head of the international public health department at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, says the iron fish is a welcome development. “These sort of approaches are so much better than iron tablets, which are really horrible. “If it’s something that is culturally acceptable and not too costly, then any improvement to anaemia levels would be of great benefit.”

Around 2,500 families in Cambodia are now using the iron fish and the Lucky Iron Fish company, set up by Gavin Armstrong, has distributed nearly 9,000 fish to hospitals and non-governmental organisations in the country. What pleases Dr Charles most is the fact that villagers appear to have accepted the smiling iron fish, which is 3in (7.6 cm) long and weighs about 200g (7.1 oz).

One woman and her daughter, who are part of a current trial in Preah Vihear Province, said they would use it during cooking. “I’m happy, the blood test results show that I have the iron deficiency problem, so I hope will be cured and will be healthy soon. “I think all the people in Sekeroung village will like the fish, because fish is our everyday food.”

Scale of anaemia

The World Health Organization estimates that two billion people – over 30% of the world’s population – are anaemic, mostly due to iron deficiency. It says stopping iron deficiency is a priority – for individuals and countries. “The benefits are substantial. Timely treatment can restore personal health and raise national productivity levels by as much as 20%,” it has said. And it emphasises that it is the poorest and most vulnerable who stand to gain the most from its reduction.

Rice diet

In those with iron-deficiency anaemia, the cause is often poor diet. And that’s the case in Cambodia, Dr Charles says. “They have a really poor diet – a big plate of white rice and maybe a small cut of fish. “That’s their two meals a day. And it’s just not meeting their nutritional requirements.” What’s missing from their diet are iron-rich foods, particularly red meat. Green leafy vegetables, such as spinach, are not as rich in iron and mustn’t be overcooked if they are to offer any benefit at all.

The Lucky Iron Fish project has a plan to get fish to every part of the world that needs them, including countries like Canada, the US and Europe. So should everyone be putting recycled metal car parts in their soup? According to the experts, there is no reason not to – although levels of anaemia are far lower in developed countries, and there is easier access to iron-rich foods which can make all the difference to pregnant women and vegans, for example.

We could all eat iron filings instead, of course, but they wouldn’t taste half as nice.