The apparel industry has spent years searching for alternatives to petroleum-based fibres. From recycled polyester and bio-based synthetics to lab-grown materials, brands have invested heavily in finding the next breakthrough.
Yet many next-generation fibres have struggled to move beyond pilot projects and limited commercial launches.
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For Thompson, founder and CEO of Kraig Biocraft Laboratories, the answer may lie further upstream in the supply chain.
Rather than reinventing textile production, his company has spent years developing genetically engineered silkworms capable of producing recombinant spider silk, a material he believes could eventually transform not only apparel manufacturing but the way textile innovation itself is approached.
The concept first emerged from Thompson’s interest in applying biology to materials science.
“While on sabbatical, I was studying a company called Nexia, which was an exciting company that was applying biology to material science,” he tells me. “It was a new field, I was interested, and I began studying their technology, and very quickly I realised that they had completely misunderstood the problem they were to solve.”
That research ultimately led to the creation of Kraig Biocraft Laboratories and a long-term vision centred on what Thompson describes as biology-enabled farming.
Today, after years of development, the company believes it is approaching a critical turning point: commercial-scale production.
Moving from grams to tonnes
The biggest challenge facing many next-generation materials is not proving that the technology works but producing enough material to supply commercial markets.
For Thompson, that challenge has defined much of Kraig Biocraft’s journey. “The biggest milestone right now that we need to achieve is larger-scale production,” he says.
The company has spent years gradually increasing output.
“When we started this project, we created the first transgenic silkworm producing a recombinant spider silk, which was a very significant scientific breakthrough, but from that step to large-scale production in the field is a long journey.”
That journey has seen production move from laboratory quantities to industrial volumes.
“At first we were producing single gram quantities of spider silk, then ounces, then kilograms and last year we were able to go into hundreds of kilograms for the first time, and now our latest harvest is 2.5 metric tonnes of recombinant spider silk cocoon, moving towards 10 metric tonnes over the next couple of months.”
Thompson says the rapid increase in production is giving the company confidence that commercialisation is now within reach.
Kraig Labs has also had to address practical manufacturing challenges that rarely feature in discussions about advanced materials.
Current silk-processing equipment is designed to handle traditional cocoons with specific dimensions and weight distributions. Rather than forcing the industry to adopt entirely new machinery, Kraig Biocraft chose to adapt its production model.
“We realised about two years ago that we needed to begin modifying the shapes of our cocoon to match the shape of what’s already in process, unless we want to have to design entirely new equipment for materials handling.
“We don’t want to do that. We want the system to be completely compatible with existing processing equipment.”
That strategy reflects a broader philosophy underpinning the company’s commercial plans.
“When I designed this system, it was designed originally to be plug and play,” Thompson says. “We create a transgenic silkworm that is virtually identical in every way except the silk it produces from a mundane silk farm.”
A premium material, not a mass-market fibre
Despite the progress, Thompson does not expect recombinant spider silk to immediately compete with mainstream fibres on volume.
Instead, he sees the material occupying premium niches where performance, rarity and storytelling matter as much as cost.
“I think at the early stages we’re looking at blending,” he says.
The reason is straightforward: even commercial-scale production remains relatively small compared with global fibre markets.
“Our production plans right now are to ramp up to producing about 10 metric tonnes of cocoon a month, which would equal about a one metric tonne of finished silk in a month.”
While significant for a material that has never been commercially available before, Thompson acknowledges these volumes remain limited relative to the wider textile industry.
“That material is rare with high value.”
As a result, blending could provide a practical route into apparel applications while extending the reach of available supply.
“We would like to see blending in order to obtain a balance in material properties.”
The company’s initial focus is likely to centre on segments where exclusivity and performance command a premium.
“I think that we’re looking at discrete applications in fashion and high-performance apparel, where cost is not the major driving factor.
“In the near term, I think that in high fashion, where the customer is not looking for either disposable fashion, but for true quality and something truly unique and rare, made by nature.”
Is this the beginning of a textile revolution?
For Thompson, recombinant spider silk is only the first step.
The company is already exploring additional silk variants using different genetic sequences that could introduce entirely new performance characteristics.
One example comes from an unlikely source: a childhood memory.
Such developments reinforce his belief that the future of materials innovation will increasingly be driven by biology rather than chemistry.
In Thompson’s view, biology-enabled farming could eventually become a major source of next-generation textile materials, creating fibres designed in laboratories but produced through agricultural systems and integrated into existing supply chains.
For now, the focus remains on reaching the next production milestone.
“We set a target for ourselves of 10 metric tonnes of recombinant spider silk cocoon a month,” he notes. “To achieve that this year, in 2026 and maybe within the next 60 days.”
If successful, it would mark a significant step towards commercialisation, and perhaps provide an early glimpse of a future where textile innovation begins not in a factory, but on a farm.
