Sumo

Long description

Sumo is a washable, reusable cloth diaper specifically engineered for sensitive baby skin. To counteract the enormous waste problem that disposable diapers cause globally, we have fundamentally re-engineered this everyday product and specifically developed a material that is not only kind to the environment but also to the baby’s bottom. The diaper is made from an extremely absorbent, naturally antibacterial and skin-caring cellulose-algae fiber called SeaCell. Our custom SeaCell fabric, awarded by Dezeen as one of the most innovative materials 2019, was developed in cooperation with the German Institute for Fiber Research. Unlike other cloth diapers made from PUL fabric, Sumo’s water repellent layer features BenQ’s innovative Xpore membrane which is PTFE and PFC free. The idea behind the innovative and sophisticated design is to free the cloth diaper from its negative image and sensitize people to cloth diapers who normally do not feel addressed. By needing only 25 diapers per child instead of 5000, they can be much more selected, luxurious and simply better. Sumo has been awarded with the James Dyson Prize 2019, the German Sustainability Award 2021, and most recently, won the Red Dot Product Design Award 2021. The diaper has been in development since 2019 and originally started as a research project by Luisa Kahlfeldt at ecal in Lausanne. Now a small Berlin based team is in the final stages of development and testing, and a market launch is planned for 2021/2022.

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