Alcantara S.p.A.’s eponymous material may have a luxurious touch and an enduring usability, but its most impressive quality is its ability to evoke deep emotion. This unique characteristic is the company’s biggest achievement and the reason it has become a popular addition to numerous fashion lines, luxury cars and consumer technology.
A partnership between Japanese giants Toray and Mitsui, Alcantara’s technological breakthrough took shape in Milan. The company’s brand and values reflect the reputation of those two countries for groundbreaking innovation and refined aesthetics.
“It is Japanese technology with an Italian heart,” Alcantara Chairman and CEO Andrea Boragno said.
Since the product was developed in 1972, the brand is positioned as the intersection of technology and art, a forward thinking identity that has led to its global success today.
As CEO and an environmental advocate, Boragno uses his passion for sustainability to drive Alcantara to become Italy’s first carbon neutral company. In partnership with Venice International University, Alcantara held the 5th International Symposium on Sustainability, during which it highlighted the close link between its product and the environment.
“The world now needs an acceleration of decarbonization. We will focus on how to make changes,” Boragno said.
To find new applications for its product, the company plans to expand into rival markets, gradually building itself into a lifestyle brand.
“It’s the material of the future. It is the material that matches fashion and emotion,” he said.
Anticipating further growth in demand, the company will expand its facilities in order to increase production capacity without compromising product quality.
Now globally admired and widely imitated, Alcantara remains a unique material, the full potential of which has yet to be reached.
