Pioneering Thermo Coated Yarns for High-Performance Markets

Coatyarn, Santoni, and Macpi needed a truly next-generation shoe upper for outdoor, sports, leisure, and workwear—capable of delivering extreme abrasion, solvent, hydrolysis, UV, and aging resistance while remaining permanently antibacterial and supremely comfortable.

The real breakthrough opportunity lay in unlocking a completely new fibre application: a coated yarn that, once knitted, could be thermally activated in-process to solidify into a reinforced structure far more resistant than any standard knitted area—delivering post-application performance without any post-process steps. Scalable, zero-waste production of high-knitting detail.

 

Delivered the Revolution Shoe Project upper through a game-changing material-machine synergy:

TPU Evolution® coated yarn – engineered for extreme durability plus permanent antibacterial comfort. Its defining innovation: when rapidly pressed/heated during finishing, the TPU coating solidifies in-place, creating a monolithic, skin-like reinforced structure that is dramatically more resistant than surrounding standard knitted zones.

Mecmor CMP3 circular knitting machine – Santoni’s 12-feed, variable-width panel system that functions exactly like a flat-knitting machine but with 10× higher productivity and minimum fabric waste across all sizes.

This combination enabled:

Precision knitting of TPU Evolution® as a single yarn or plated selectively into the most stressed/wear-prone areas.

Created the first 100% recyclable, high-precision shoe upper with integrated, heat-solidified reinforcement zones far exceeding standard knitted performance.

Boosted productivity and efficiency dramatically via the Mecmor CMP3’s 12 feeds and variable panels

Unlocked entirely new revenue streams by opening applications in footwear, home textiles business, and automotive industry through this revolutionary fibre + Santoni technology.

As Marketing & Business Development lead, I drove the entire strategic innovation cycle. I identified TPU Evolution® as the only coated yarn whose unique thermo-activation chemistry could deliver the required performance leap, then matched it with Santoni’s Mecmor CMP3 circular knitting technology (the hyper-productive flat-knitting equivalent Technology).

I championed the revolutionary “knit-then-activate” process, positioning this as the first true in-line integration of a heat-solidifying coated yarn directly into weft knitting. I orchestrated the cross-company collaboration (Coatyarn, Macpi, Santoni) and mapped the technology’s expansion into footwear, home textiles, and automotive interiors—opening entirely new high-volume, sustainable applications for the fibre and machinery applications.