Same Same But Different

One of the most striking realizations in our recent chemistry office hour session was just how much the industry obsesses over colour precision. Not across the whole spectrum, but even within a single shade. Take black for example. It is the most used colour in textiles, and yet it exists in endless variations depending on which brand is asking.

Every slight adjustment in tone, depth, or finish requires a separate dyeing run. Achieving the “perfect” black is resource intensive because darker shades demand higher dye concentrations, longer processing times, and more auxiliaries to lock in the colour. The result is greater energy consumption, higher chemical loads, and larger wastewater volumes. Multiply this across hundreds or even thousands of near identical black jerseys produced in the sportswear and daily wear sector, and the environmental cost quickly scales.

Now imagine if brands could agree on a single standard black, particularly for materials like polyester. Instead of dyeing batch after batch to satisfy each brand’s specification, we could dope-dye PET at scale. In dope dyeing, the pigment is incorporated directly into the polymer melt before the fibre is extruded. This bypasses conventional dye baths altogether, saving thousands of tonnes of CO₂ emissions, billions of litres of water, and avoiding the need for large volumes of wastewater treatment.

What makes this even more compelling is that consumers are unlikely to notice the subtle deltas between Brand A’s black jersey and Brand B’s. To the average eye, black is black. The pursuit of micro-variations is largely brand-driven, not consumer-driven.

The fun part is that this change does not need a new disruptive technology or the reinvention of fibre chemistry. It is simply about coordination and restraint. Narrow the number of shades, align specifications, and produce at scale through cleaner methods. Sometimes the most impactful sustainability gains do not come from futuristic breakthroughs but from collective decisions to stop overcomplicating what does not need to be complex in the first place.