Then, there’s the fruit-based leather: London-based startup Piñatex strips and processes pineapple leaf fiber into an unwoven mesh, to create a supple leather that can be customized by color and texture. A number of boutique fashion brands have partnered with the company (although Piñatex uses a synthetic material to “finish” the product, so not all of it is biodegradable.)

To make Mirum — named from the Latin word, miraculum, for miracle — Haverhals’s team combines agricultural waste such as cork powder (the dust leftover from cork processing), coconut fiber (harvested from the outer husk), and rubber. Then comes the chemistry — the addition of what Haverhals describes as a salt-based “magic pixie dust” solution. The reaction glues the fibers together, creating a composite that uses zero synthetic materials. (Sometimes they’ll add mineral pigments and plant dyes at this point, which is how they achieved the vivid gold for the fashion company, Felder & Felder.) The slim stretchy material is then pressed into molds, which help set qualities like thickness, style, and texture. Finally, it’s baked, and cut into sheets or rolled, ready to ship. “We’re thousands of times faster than how fast mushrooms grow,” says Haverhals. Mirum can also be reused; Haverhals claims that in tests, they’ve recycled it 12 times with no degradation.

So far, Haverhals says Natural Fiber Welding has licensed Mirum to 20 companies, including the small sustainable fashion brand Toad&Co and Felder & Felder, which specifically requested something “shiny and modern.” According to him, another 171 brands are also sampling Mirum under NDAs.

One area where Natural Fiber Welding lags behind the competition is money. To date, the company has raised only $13 million, much of it in research grants from the Department of Defense, which is interested in R&D offshoots (a side project Haverhals is exploring is making yarn that stores electricity). It’s pocket change next to the $213 million raised by Bolt Threads and the more than $53 million raised by Modern Meadow.

Treated yarns can be produced in a limitless array of textures and colors.

Fortunately for Haverhals and Zika, space, labor, and equipment come cheap in Peoria. One of Haverhals’ three mills, a towering hulk of burnished metal, dates back to 1952. “We got this for less than $200,000,” he says. (Someone knew someone who knew someone who had it mothballed in a warehouse.) Walking around the factory, I saw buckets and buckets of raw materials — agricultural waste — much of which they get for free. “We asked the factories for one bag and they sent hundreds,” says Haverhals.

“There’s a bunch of economic rules that just operate differently here,” says Zika. “It’s just really, really, efficient to do business — what you can get for your money versus doing this in Silicon Valley.” Still, their lack of capital has hampered their growth, he admits, and has forced them to be selective about how they spend their money; no flashy marketing campaign or New York PR agency for them. “The Midwest is good at figuring out how to achieve a lot of things that VCs on the coast might think is an unrealistic amount of money,” says Zika. But they know they’ll need to raise more, soon, to scale up; without another $10 million, production will slow.

The other hurdle for the company is self-imposed: its branding. Natural Fiber Welding’s industrial-sounding name isn’t exactly catchy. “Everyone is looking for sustainable alternatives, from Gap to Burberry,” says Stephanie Downs, co-founder of the Material Innovation Initiative, a think tank exploring the emergence of vegan materials. “The companies that build their brand could really rise to the top — the way Beyond Meat has in the vegan food market.” Manufacturers have moved from white labelling their products to promoting themselves. “A Gucci bag doesn’t say made from Tyson’s cow leather!” she says.

“To change the world, you have to have price points that are relevant to the masses.”

Ultimately, says Downs, the winner will largely be determined by quality and pricing. “The look and feel of real leather is crucial,” she says. That’s because plant-based leather isn’t just competing against real leather — it’s also competing against plastic leather, which has gotten much better at imitating the original. “It’s not the pleather of the ‘80s any more,” Downs says. “The materials aren’t good for the environment, but from a quality standpoint, synthetic leathers today are amazing.” Downs says Natural Fiber Welding’s product shows promise: “There is a really nice look to it,” she says.