NUSPUN® electrospun laminates wins ISPO BrandNew Award 2026

SINGAPORE/AMSTERDAM, 5. November 2026

NUSPUN®, the ingredient brand of electrospun laminates from Niber Technologies, has won the ISPO BrandNew Award 2026 in the Sustainability & Materials category.

The brand was chosen from three category finalists after Chief Commercial Officer Jochen Lagemann pitched it live on the BrandNew Launchpad stage at RAI Amsterdam, following its debut at Performance Days Munich in October.

ISPO BrandNew puts new brands or businesses in front of the global sporting goods industry, including brands, investors, and other stakeholders across the value chain. It singles out emerging opportunities with the commercial potential and industry impact to change their category. 

In Sustainability & Materials, NUSPUN® laminates answer one of the industry’s open challenges.

As performance apparel moves away from PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), many PFAS-free alternatives keep the rain out but trap heat and sweat in, leaving wearers to trade comfort for protection. NUSPUN® laminates are engineered to address that trade-off. For the NUSPUN® brand, the award is its first industry recognition, and an early sign that the idea behind it is landing: performance apparel that goes beyond keeping the weather out, to keeping people comfortable in motion. “For decades, our industry has built the waterproof fortress: keep the weather out, whatever it costs the person inside,” said Jochen Lagemann. “We think it’s time to open the doors. We don’t stretch or cast a film; we electrospin it, and that is what lets us tune weather protection to create real comfort instead of locking in maximum protection. Having the jury back that idea is a strong signal for the whole category and industry.”

Enabling a new category in performance apparel: Active Comfort

NUSPUN® laminates give brands the basis for a new product category, Active Comfort, built for the way many people move today: shorter, more frequent bursts of activity. Instead of maximum protection at any cost, Active Comfort puts comfort people can feel in motion first, with as much weather protection as the moment needs. Engineered with Niber’s electrospun nanofiber membranes, NUSPUN® laminates are ultra-breathable, with tunable weather protection, and PFAS-free by design: NUSPUN® membranes and laminates are manufactured without intentionally added PFAS materials. 

Niber Technologies owns the process end-to-end. From select polymers, the company builds membranes fiber by fiber, and laminate with the matching face- and backer textiles, tuning the material to the activity while keeping it light, soft and stretchy. “Our family has worked with electrospinning for two decades, and for years that technology worked quietly inside other people’s products,” said Jaemin Park, Co-founder of Niber Technologies. “With NUSPUN®, it finally has a name people can see, feel and ask for. This recognition from ISPO BrandNew belongs to our whole team, from our production in Asia to our partners around the world.”

From launch to market

Selected brand partners have access to NUSPUN® laminates from Q4 2026, with the first products expected in Fall/Winter 2027 outerwear collections. Niber produces membranes at its own facility in the Philippines, and is working with partners, scaling capacity as customer demand grows.

“Active Comfort isn’t just something you wear. It’s something brands can build on, retailers can sell, media can tell, and people can feel,” added Lagemann. “The technology is proven, the production is in place, and the brand is now introduced to the market. Where it goes next depends on who we spin it with.”

Alongside the award, Lagemann was invited to speak on the ISPO Ingredients & Components Impact Forum panel on next-generation PFAS-free membrane technologies. Brands interested in developing collections with NUSPUN® laminates can find out more at nuspun.com or contact Niber Technologies at [email protected].