Ground Work: Nextile Design Challenge Weaves U.S. Soy into Creative Textile Solutions

The Ground Work series shares the perspectives of U.S. soybean farmers as they observe how the U.S. Soy industry lays the groundwork to grow innovative, reliable and sustainable solutions for people and communities around the world.  

Biophilia refers to a love of living things. Some believe that people are instinctively drawn to nature.

I don’t know if that is universally true, but I associate the idea of biophilia, loving and using nature and natural things, with warmth and coziness. It influenced my husband and me as we built our house, repurposing wood from old barns to create the warm home where we raise our four children.

My biophilia is also reflected in the way we approach farming. My husband, children, my parents and I raise soybeans, corn, wheat, dry beans, hay, cattle and pigs on our farm near Mayville, Michigan, about 75 miles or 120 kilometers north of Detroit.

We use some of our crops to feed our livestock, which we sell directly to consumers through our online store and presence at area farmers markets. We have some wheat ground into flour to sell directly to food companies. In all my interactions with different customers, I want to create the welcoming feeling I have working with living things.

I also consider myself creative. I don’t want the LEGO^® set with specific instructions to put them together. Just give me the box and I’ll see what I can make.  

With that perspective, I was thrilled to support a unique way that living things can be used in creative ways — in the textile industry. This year, I served as the farmer judge for Nextile: The Soy in Textile Design Challenge. It was a first-of-its-kind contest that challenged current college design students to use soy, a renewable resource that I grow on my farm.

Petroleum is great, and it has lots of value. But I don’t want to use it up on products we throw away. That happens more often than we realize in fashion, fabrics and internal décor.

The Nextile Design Challenge provided students from six different colleges with kits that included soy-based materials, like French terry, a type of cloth, soy silk thread, a soy-based leather replacement, pigment and more. Many of these products commonly incorporate petroleum-based ingredients. In these kits, the renewable, soy-based materials reduced the amount of petroleum needed.

I joined professionals in the textile and design industry as a member of the judges’ panel. In addition to creativity and quality, I evaluated entries on the potential to use soy and how applicable they would be to large volumes and industry segments.

For the first round of the competition, students competed within their own institution. We reviewed and awarded scholarships for each participating school. The second round of the competition tasked our panel with choosing a national winner and runner-up from the winners at each school.

I was blown away by the students’ creativity!

They designed clothing, home décor, upholstery, bedding and more. One student created a wall hanging for a restaurant — something I never would have thought of.

As part of their entries, students researched soybeans and submitted a presentation of what they learned. Prior to the challenge, many participants had no idea what soybeans were, and they didn’t realize renewable options like soy could reduce carbon footprints of their products. They appreciated that soy is a renewable, plentiful resource.

I enjoyed seeing what they learned about soy, while they taught me the variety of ways soy-based products could be used. At the national level, entries included a video of how and why the student chose and created their design.

They made the connection between their desire to design and make things responsibly, and the value a new market for U.S. Soy could have for farmers like me. It is a win-win.

While serving as board member for United Soybean Board and working with our farm customers, I have learned that people want more biobased materials wherever possible. However, supply and knowledge are often limited.

The Nextile Design Challenge took a step to bridge this gap for the textile industry by introducing talented students — and their professors — to U.S. Soy as a solution. U.S. Soy plans to offer the challenge again next year, and at least 17 schools have expressed interest in participating.

Design students will build their knowledge of U.S. Soy as a renewable resource and bring that knowledge into their industry. I am excited to see how their progressiveness in this area will influence the future of textiles.

These Nextile designs and ideas they spark will fit into my idea of biophilia, adding the warmth and coziness of nature in new ways. No wonder I loved being part of the first Nextile Design Challenge!

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