Walking on air with Freudenberg

During the recent Techtextil show in Frankfurt, Freudenberg Nonwovens secured a contract to supply leading Turkish footwear brand Greyder with its new Vildona Airliner 2.0.

This compliments an existing technology partnership Fruedenberg has established with Germany’s Deichmann Group – which sold some 74.7 million pairs of shoes at 1,300 outlets in Germany in 2012, achieving sales of €1.89 billion.

With 300 times more breathability than conventional membranes, Vildona Airliner 2.0 has exceeded all expectations as a shoe insole,” said Simon Browne, who is responsible for Freudenberg’s shoe business in Europe. “Other major brands are also now extremely interested in this revolutionary shoe technology.”

The technology is based on a a spunlace nonwoven substrate in which a superabsorbent polymer is anchored using a chemical reaction. As such, it offers new levels of breathability for waterproof applications in shoes and leather goods.
Its predecessor Airliner 1.0 already offered 35 times more breathability than contemporary membranes for waterproof shoe insoles, incorporated in the shoe outer soles.

“The next goal was to develop a softer handle with Airliner 2.0, allowing the larger shoe upper linings market to be targeted,” said Browne. “Not only did we achieve this goal, we took the breathability values to a whole new level. Our current laboratory results indicate that Airliner 2.0, offers at least 300 times more breathability than conventional membranes. We really believe after reaching this second milestone that the field of applications will be broadened immensely and look forward to working on new challenges.”