Raleigh, N.C — North Carolina Soybean Producers Association is pleased to announce the winners and runners-up from school-level NEXTILE: The Soy in Textiles Design Challenge.
In NEXTILE’s second year of its competition, design students from 21 colleges and universities were invited to leverage their creative and problem-solving skills to produce the next sustainable innovation in textile design. The catch? Students must create their products using one versatile ingredient — soybeans.
Each participating individual or team received a design kit including six sustainable, soy-based materials including: soy silk, soy cashmere, organic pigment, soy wax and other soy products. Project submissions leveraged three or more of these ingredients to produce new textile threads, dyes, paints, designs and more. Judges included representatives from the design and textile industries, and soy farmers from around the country.
The winners from each school receive a $500 scholarship and the runner-up receives a $250 scholarship. In addition, the winners from each school are invited to participate in the national level competition.
The winners and runners-up are:
Appalachian State
- Winner Team names: Anna Hare, Rose Tallent, Emily Poortvliet, Kimberly Acosta-Flores, Kaylee Schaffnit and dyed-pattern Bio-vera™ coat
- Runner-Up Team names: Ruth Grant, Karson Branch, Bailey Whiteford, Claire Brantley, Luke Jackson and Butterfly textile asymmetrical bag
East Carolina University
- Winner name: Reya Peedin and Bio-vera™ earth pigment handbag
- Runner-Up name: Sam Ford and Bio-vera™ and soy cashmere floral pattern skirt
North Carolina State University
- Winner name: Amanda Cease and soy woven belt:
- Runner-Up name: Morgan Eastling and Bio-vera™ and soy fabric handbag
U.S. Soy has long been a critical ingredient for product innovation, going all the way back to Henry Ford, who used soy-based paints, textile materials and plastics for automobile design. Soy is used in every industry. Farmers can find their products in the streets they drive on, the shoes they wear and the biofuels for their vehicles. The possibilities are endless. There are more than 1,000 soy-based products currently on the market — from tires and firefighting foam to fabrics and turf. You name an industry, and U.S. Soy is almost always an essential component.
U.S. soybean farmers and industry partners consistently push the limits of innovation to discover and deliver solutions to the most significant challenges our world faces, such as food security and climate change. NEXTILE was created to put sustainable soy materials into the hands of the brightest young minds in design to create the next generation of eco-friendly and biobased textile solutions.
Learn more about NEXTILE, the participating schools and students, and the next round of soy-based sustainable innovation at www.ussoy.org/nextile
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