PARTNER CONTENT – For circularity to scale, it’s clear that it must be engineered into textile value chains, rather than just being grafted on. NIL Textile is adopting this holistic approach, with highly promising results.
Based in the Czech Republic, the company has built a genuinely vertical platform, which includes circular fabric development, knitting, cutting and sewing, value-add decoration and packaging. All of this is co-ordinated under one roof, then connected to a managed take-back, sorting and recycling network.
“We have our own production facility, our own knitting mills and sewing shop. We’re also integrated with the decorators,” says commercial director Hana Fořtová. “Fabrics, garments and final touches, are done in-house with us.”
The company proposition started with products to prove the loop. NIL Textile launched 100 per cent polylactic-acid (PLA) T-shirts and invited customers to return worn-out pieces via about 20 collection points across the Czech Republic. New international collection points, including in the UK, were added into the network over time.
That pilot validated consumer participation and the company’s logistics model, forming the basis of what is now a multi-material system spanning cotton (NILCOTT), PLA (NILPLA), nylon (CIRPAD) and polyester (NILPET) streams. Garments are consolidated, sorted and channelled to mechanical or molecular recyclers in Europe according to composition.
Design-for-recycling is integral to the operation. NIL Textile writes detailed requirements for fibre blends, dye types, finishes and trims to meet downstream recycler specs, then guarantees the chemical profile of incoming returns so those partners will accept the feedstock.
That unlocks a route to scale which many brands cannot access alone. “If a brand is coming on their own and trying to negotiate with recyclers, it is very tough,” Fořtová explains. “Since we have hundreds of clients, we can get to the volumes that needed for recycling.”
On the sourcing side, NIL Textile offers fully European chains for clients that need them. Organic cotton is grown and spun in Greece, with knitting and garment-making in the Czech Republic. Recycled post-consumer cotton originates in Spain and is blended with organic for ring-spun quality. Circular nylon feedstock is sourced in France with fabrics produced at NIL Textile.
The company has phased out a recycled-polyester range due to microplastics concerns, while cotton still accounts for the bulk of sales.
At the same time, the business has engineered price and volume flexibility by establishing a parallel Asian manufacturing channel, applying the same circular design rules and traceability. “If you want to work with the bigger players, you can’t sell for European prices,” Fořtová says. With a vetted partner in Bangladesh, NIL can offer the same circular framework “at much lower prices than we would ever achieve in Europe,” bringing entry points to roughly €3 per T-shirt in Asia versus €7–9 for an equivalent made in Europe, depending on volume.
This dual-track model of European proximity production with deep circular governance, plus an Asian pathway for scale, speaks directly to where regulation and brand priorities are heading.
It also explains the breadth of NIL Textile’s customer base. According to Fořtová, the company now works with “about 350 brands all over Europe” in its circular system, while fielding growing interest from larger players pushed by regulation and transparency demands.
NIL Textile’s CEO Dr Mikuláš Hurta says NIL’s approach is about building both a front-end partner for brands and a back-end R&D engine for textile science, with an emphasis on locally produced, fully circular materials that can meaningfully cut carbon and water footprints. The company also aims to automate European production to reach sharper cost parity without compromising standards, a move designed to make “made in Europe” circular apparel competitive at scale.
NIL Textile has packaged its know-how into three complementary service lines. First, circular fabrics for brands that want to buy material only. Second, made-to-order collections, either fully custom or via a library of predefined patterns for smaller labels that need speed and simplicity. Third, “circular sourcing” for complex assortments, where NIL curates approved mills and makers (for example, specialist elastane jerseys pre-qualified for chemical recycling) and orchestrates compliance, documentation and returns.
As Fořtová puts it, brands are “trying to find the right partners and right solutions,” and NIL Textile’s job is to make those solutions work at the mill, on the sewing line and, ultimately, back through the door when garments come home.
