Pinatex is a kind of artificial leather specially made from pineapple leaves. It is a new material that can replace animal leather. It is zero cruel and sustainable. Its inventor is a female doctor named Carmen Hijosa.

Carmen defeated four other candidates in February this year and won the heavyweight "Innovative Materials" award issued by the British Art Foundation. At the same time, she is also the winner of 2015 Cartier Women's Advocacy Award and 2015 Vegan Fashion Award.
In fact, when Carmen was 26 years old, she had already owned her own company in Ireland. In 1995, Carmen, who was a leather merchant at that time, was suddenly invited to go to the Philippines to develop new products. It was here that Carmen met the legendary Barong talong, a traditional costume for local women, which was made of the fiber of pineapple leaves.
This is the first time she heard of pineapple leaf fiber, which is flexible, flexible, moderately elastic, without weaving, 100% natural, and its characteristics are very similar to animal leather. Carmen was amazed by this novel material!
Why not use pineapple fiber instead of chemical leather?
"Over the years of working in the leather industry, I have deeply understood the devastation and destruction of leather products on the ecology. It not only includes cruelty to animals, but also the use of a large number of chemicals in the production and processing process means a threat to human health and damage to the environment. The emergence of pineapple leaf fiber may solve this problem and become a new leather substitute." Carmen said.
The key point is that the fiber source of pineapple leaves is sufficient. For example, in the Philippines, pineapple leaves are the waste of pineapple agriculture. Local farmers will discard the leaves as garbage after harvesting mature pineapples. Without spending more costs, these discarded leaves can just be used as the original product of pineapple leather.

It seems that everything is going well, but Carmen is stuck in the technical level. It's a pity that no one will make the "pineapple leaf leather" in her mind. In order to put the idea of "pineapple leaf leather" into practice, Carmen, who was 50 years old at that time, decided to return to school. She first entered the National Academy of Art and Design of Ireland to study for a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in textile quality. She followed other young people in the school to learn how to weave.
Then in 2009, after numerous failures, she finally made the first sample of "pineapple leather",
This is her master's work. But for Carmen, this is only the first step to realize the dream. With this small piece of "pineapple leather", Carmen, who was 57 years old at that time, applied to the Royal Academy of Arts to study for a doctor of textile science, and officially started the research, development and production of "pineapple leather".
In 2014, Carmen, who already has his own R&D team, established Ananas Anam UK and took the post of CEO himself, officially bringing pineapple leather Pinatex to the market.

"For many years, I have been looking for a new material that can replace animal leather. It should be zero cruel and sustainable. Pineapple leaf fiber has achieved this!" Carmen said excitedly.
Now Pinatex has a very wide range of uses. It can be used to make fashion, bags, shoes and hats, accessories, mobile phone accessories, furniture, car seats, etc. It not only has excellent performance and wide application, but also has a high cost performance ratio.
Maybe in the near future, leather will be replaced by the "pineapple environment-friendly leather" invented by Carmen.