Hyosung TNC is expanding regen™ BIO Spandex across Europe and North America, backed by an integrated production system in Vietnam that takes the material from sugarcane-derived feedstock to finished stretch fibre.
Stretch is everywhere in modern fashion. From activewear and swimwear to denim, underwear and performance clothing, spandex has become difficult to avoid — and so has its reliance on fossil-derived raw materials.
Hyosung TNC is attempting to change part of that equation.
The South Korean textile manufacturer is accelerating the international expansion of regen™ BIO Spandex, its bio-based alternative to conventional spandex, as it targets premium textile markets in Europe and North America.
Rather than eliminating synthetic stretch fibre altogether, the technology replaces part of its conventional fossil-based feedstock with raw materials derived from sugarcane — an important distinction at a time when fashion’s search for lower-impact materials increasingly depends on understanding what has actually changed within a product.
Throughout 2026, Hyosung has been positioning the material directly in front of the international fashion and textile industry.
From sugarcane to stretch fibre
At the centre of Hyosung’s strategy is an integrated production system in Vietnam.
The process begins with sugars derived from sugarcane, which are fermented to produce Bio-BDO, or bio-based butanediol. That material is subsequently converted into Bio-PTMG, one of the principal raw materials used in producing spandex polymers, before being manufactured into regen BIO Spandex.
Hyosung says bringing those stages together within its Vietnamese production network gives the company greater control over the bio-based supply chain while reducing reliance on conventional petrochemical feedstocks.
The company began commercial operations at its Bio-BDO plant in Vietnam in 2026, with an initial annual capacity of 50,000 tonnes. Infrastructure has been designed to allow production to expand to as much as 200,000 tonnes annually as demand develops, as part of a wider investment Hyosung has valued at $1 billion.
The significance is scale. Fashion’s material innovation landscape is filled with promising alternatives that struggle to progress beyond laboratories, pilot plants and limited collections. Hyosung is approaching bio-based stretch fibre from the opposite direction: through an existing global spandex business and industrial manufacturing infrastructure.
Taking bio-based spandex to fashion’s global stage
Throughout 2026, Hyosung has been positioning the material directly in front of the international fashion and textile industry.
At the Global Fashion Summit in Copenhagen in May, the company presented its mass-production capabilities and integrated Vietnamese production model, tracing the journey from certified raw sugar through Bio-BDO and Bio-PTMG to the finished fibre.
The company continued its European push at the Future Fabrics Expo in Brussels in June before bringing regen BIO Spandex to New York’s Functional Fabric Fair in July. There, Hyosung presented a capsule combining TENCEL™ fibres with regen BIO Spandex, demonstrating potential applications across categories where elasticity remains technically difficult to replace, including activewear, sportswear, denim, innerwear and swimwear.
The geographical strategy is notable. Europe is moving towards increasingly stringent environmental requirements for products and supply chains, while brands across both Europe and North America face growing pressure to reduce dependence on virgin fossil resources.
For material suppliers, the question is therefore moving beyond whether lower-impact alternatives can be developed to whether they can be produced reliably, consistently and at commercial scale.
How much difference does bio-based spandex make?
Hyosung says its current regen BIO Spandex range can achieve approximately 45 to 55 percent lower carbon emissions per tonne compared with conventional products, depending on the product line.
The fibre has also received certification under SGS’s Environmentally Evaluated Product Scheme (EEPS) confirming the use of bio-based raw materials, while the sugarcane feedstock is verified through the VIVE Sustainable Supply Programme, which addresses sourcing, transparency and traceability.
Hyosung says the resulting fibre maintains comparable performance to its conventional spandex, an important consideration for brands that cannot compromise elasticity, resilience or durability when changing materials.
But the terminology matters. Bio-based spandex is still spandex.
Replacing fossil-derived feedstock with renewable biological inputs can reduce dependence on petrochemicals and lower production-related emissions, but it does not make the finished fibre biodegradable or resolve every environmental issue associated with synthetic stretch materials.
That distinction is particularly relevant in circular fashion. Stretch fibres can complicate textile-to-textile recycling when blended into fabrics with cotton, polyester or other materials. Changing the origin of the feedstock therefore addresses one part of spandex’s environmental footprint rather than solving its entire end-of-life challenge.
A transition rather than a perfect material
That does not make the development insignificant. One of fashion’s most persistent sustainability challenges is finding lower-impact alternatives that can perform at the level the industry requires while being manufactured in quantities large enough to matter.
For categories built around stretch, simply removing spandex is rarely realistic.
Hyosung’s approach represents another pathway: reducing fossil-resource dependency within an existing material while maintaining its technical function and building the infrastructure necessary to supply it at industrial scale.
It is an incremental proposition rather than a perfect one — but perhaps that is precisely why it deserves attention.
The transition to a lower-impact fashion industry is unlikely to arrive through a single revolutionary fibre. It will also depend on changing the materials already embedded throughout the global wardrobe, one component of their footprint at a time.
