Recover, a Madrid-based producer of recycled cotton fiber, has partnered with Turkey’s Ünteks Group to scale the use of recycled cotton in circular knitwear, combining Recover’s fiber with Ünteks’ vertically integrated manufacturing to produce fabrics and garments for high-volume, everyday apparel programs.
The collaboration centers on a dedicated collection of circular knit fabrics and garments, with additional constructions to be added as the range expands. The current lineup includes single jersey, fleece, interlock, terry, rib and pique constructions, drawing on Ünteks’ capabilities across knitting, dyeing, printing and garment production. All fabrics and garments in the collection will carry a minimum of 20% Recover recycled cotton, a threshold the companies said balances performance, consistency, reduced environmental impact and improved traceability across the value chain.
Ünteks Group brings more than 30 years of textile manufacturing experience and a production plant in Turkey capable of producing up to 1,500 tons of fabric and 1 million garments per month. The companies said that capacity, paired with the plant’s proximity to European fashion brands, positions Ünteks to help accelerate industrial-scale adoption of Recover’s recycled fiber.
Matthew Neville, chief commercial officer of Recover, said Ünteks’ ability to carry circular knit fabrics through to finished garments with a high level of consistency made the company a strong manufacturing partner. He said the collection is focused on turning recycled cotton into everyday products that brands can depend on at scale, rather than limited-run or capsule applications.
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Hakan Kılıç, chief executive of Ünteks Group, said small variations in circular knit production can materially affect how a fabric performs during manufacturing. He said much of the technical work between the two companies has centered on adjusting and refining each stage of the process so the recycled material runs consistently from knitting through to the finished garment.
Introducing recycled fiber into conventional textile production chains carries risk if not carefully managed, and can result in inconsistent quality that fails to meet brand and consumer expectations. That risk has made preliminary research and process refinement a central part of the partnership, with the two companies testing and adjusting production steps before scaling output.
The partnership adds to a broader industry push to move recycled cotton beyond niche or premium positioning and into mainstream, high-volume supply chains, where price, consistency and available capacity typically determine whether recycled materials are adopted at scale. Brands under pressure to meet recycled-content targets have increasingly sought manufacturing partners capable of running such materials through standard production lines without disruption.
Recover, backed by investment from STORY3 Capital and Goldman Sachs, has positioned itself as a materials science company aiming to scale proprietary recycling technology across the global supply chain. The company develops its recycled cotton fiber and cotton blends in close partnership with retailers and brands, framing the work as a way to drive sustainability commitments through both business value and industrial-scale supply. It launched Recover Yarns in June to accelerate recycled cotton uptake further upstream, and the Ünteks partnership extends that push into finished knitwear, closing the gap between fiber production and retail-ready garments.
For Ünteks, the tie-up builds on a manufacturing base that already spans knitting, dyeing, printing and garment assembly under one vertically integrated structure, a setup the companies said reduces the handoffs and quality inconsistencies that can arise when recycled fiber moves between separate suppliers. That integration, combined with the plant’s scale and European proximity, is central to the companies’ pitch that recycled cotton can now be run as a standard input rather than a specialty one.
The Recover-Ünteks collection is now available to brand partners looking to accelerate their transition toward more circular products, the companies said, with further fabric constructions expected to be added to the range over time.