Desa, Turkey's leading leather manufacturer, has launched Nuera, a biofabrication venture aimed at moving next-generation biomaterials into commercial production. The venture combines Gozen's Lunaform biomaterial and proprietary BioCraft technology with Desa's leather-processing, finishing and product-manufacturing capabilities, creating an integrated operation that spans biofabrication through to finished goods.
Nuera operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of the publicly listed Desa and holds exclusive global rights to produce and commercialize Lunaform under a long-term licensing agreement with Gozen. The launch comes as the next-generation materials sector faces a credibility challenge: technology has outpaced adoption, and several promising companies have gone under. Desa chief executive officer Burak Çelet said the biggest problem facing such materials is credibility, noting that many valuable innovations have emerged but no product has fully made the leap from lab scale to industrial mass production.
Çelet said his evaluation of competing technologies over the past five years focused not only on sustainability credentials but also on whether they could meet the physical performance, financial and manufacturing requirements of established materials. Lunaform's compatibility with conventional tannery processes was a decisive advantage. Nuera's bet is that combining Gozen's biofabrication technology with Desa's more than 50 years of manufacturing expertise can help bridge the gap between material innovation and industrial scale.
Nuera secured its first commercial orders from Kering for its S|Style 2026 Wardrobe Edition during Milan Fashion Week. Designers Lorenzo Seghezzi and Ayham Hassan selected Lunaform, with Seghezzi using it for a structured corset and pleated tutu, and Hassan for a softer, translucent design. Çelet said Nuera is developing products with an additional 16 clients across the luxury fashion and automotive industries.
The platform is intended to address the gap between material innovation and what luxury brands actually need from suppliers. Çelet said supplying just the material is not enough and that clients must be helped to understand how to use it properly. He added that labeling something sustainable is not sufficient to make it commercial; the product has to meet the expectations and key performance indicators required by the market. Gozen CEO Ece Gozën said Nuera's focus will be on securing repeat orders by building long-term relationships with brands and establishing confidence in the platform, rather than expanding capacity immediately. She said sending new materials to designers alone is not enough to create business success, and that brands want support from customization to finished product.
Before launching Nuera, Çelet and Gozën spent nearly a year meeting with brands. Luxury companies are looking for bespoke colors, textures and finishes, alongside technical support and rapid development. Nuera is set up to accommodate those requirements, including customized development without minimum order quantities, and will use the resulting work to improve its commercially available materials. Brands can also have products manufactured at Desa's facilities in Turkey and Italy, reducing the need to coordinate with multiple suppliers.
The launch is also a strategic response to longer-term prospects and uncertainties facing the leather industry. Leather is a byproduct of the meat industry, meaning shifts in consumption patterns and alternative proteins could eventually affect the availability of animal skin. Changing consumer expectations and increasingly stringent environmental requirements are also pushing manufacturers to reassess their dependence on traditional materials. Çelet predicted that leather supply will shrink in the foreseeable future, noting that raising cattle takes at least a year while Lunaform can be grown within seven days. He framed the move as future-proofing Desa's business.
Çelet said next-generation biomaterials are an opportunity for traditional tanneries to adapt and diversify. Because Lunaform is plug-and-play and can be processed using conventional machinery, it could potentially allow other established manufacturers to enter the next-generation category without significant capital outlay. He said the industry should prepare for structural changes before they become immediate commercial pressures. Longer term, Nuera aims to move beyond luxury, which Çelet views as the initial market for establishing the material, and eventually compete with petroleum-based polyurethane alternatives. As production scales, the company aims to reduce costs to put it on par with petroleum-based materials while continuing to meet the performance standards required by brands, prioritizing performance before price. Additional commercial adoption announcements are expected in 2027.
Sources: WWD.