The journey towards sustainable headwear

Next year Federico Pasini will be celebrating his 20th anniversary with Master Italia. He is Brand & Sales Director and, together with his team, passionately pursues the goal of making headwear our absolute favourite piece of clothing. After all, a cap is not just a cap. There are almost thousands of possibilities for designing and refining a cap. In the last digital CG Live Talk he presented his company's new products and cool styles to us.

In our minds we are still on board ship in Venice, because the talk was actually supposed to take place there on a boat against a beautiful Italian backdrop. But postponed is not cancelled, because Federico has some cool new products ready for which we don't want to wait any longer.

Atlantis is the umbrella brand of Master Italia. It offers more than 200 different styles in more than 1,500 colours. Around 4 million products are stored in a warehouse near Venice. These can be customised in a variety of ways according to the customer's wishes, for example by printing, embroidery or sublimation. From a quantity of 144 pieces, special products can be individually designed and produced directly in the Far East.

Sustainability continues to be a very important concern for Master Italia. Two years ago the company embarked on its self-proclaimed journey towards sustainability with recycled polyester and organic cotton. This year the journey is really taking off, as the number of sustainable products has been doubled and - SPOILER ALARM - from next year all Master Italia products will be sustainable. But do sustainable caps really look just as stylish?  Yes, definitely! Italian passion combined with a flair for fashion and special design continue to flow into the development process, so that we humans will hardly notice any difference. But nature will!

Here come the sustainable products: the Recy Three is the ultimate recycled cap. The front is made of 100% recycled cotton and the back of 100% recycled polyester. The fastener and sweatband are also recycled.  A real hit! The Recy Feel makes an impact with similar features. Above all it feels incredibly good, hence the name. It's made of recycled microfibre polyester and is very comfortable to wear, making it ideal for sports activities.

For the next winter season Master Italia has developed two new beanies. The Recy Beanie is the result of a perfect combination of softness and sustainability, thanks to the recovery and recycling of around 14 plastic bottles per kg of yarn. The Eco Beanie is made of acrylic yarn in line with OEKO TEX® standards.

In addition to the aspect of sustainability, Master Italia also attaches great importance to transparency in the production of its caps and beanies for end consumers. People need know when their new favourite article of headwear was made, where it was made, what materials were used and the distance it has travelled within our continent. Here consumers can follow exactly when, for example, quality control was carried out, when the products were loaded, when they were shipped, how they were transported within the country and then finally arrived at the Master Italia warehouse. In other words: 100% transparency. Impressive!

For 3 years now Master Italia has been working more and more with special finishes and new technologies in the high-performance sector, because consumers are now attaching great importance not only to fashion but also to functionality. The new Quick&Dry function of the sweatband makes the caps perfectly suitable for sports and outdoor activities. The sweatband and the brand new rubber velcro fastener are elastic and flexible for really comfortable wear. A special refinement that we have implemented for one of our customers is the unique so-called "toothbrush process". The finish feels very soft and pleasant, while the unique structure provides a great 3D and colour effect.

Last but not least, Master Italia has managed to embed small microchips in the screen of the cap, which can be read quickly and easily with a smartphone. The technology is called NFC and offers the possibility of linking a website, a PDF, an image, a video or the like to the cap, which all makes the product even more tangible and exciting.