Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, October 18, 1994                   TAG: 9410180120
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WOLFEBORO, N.H.                                LENGTH: Medium

SPORTSWEAR MAKER TURNS TO THE BOTTLE

Wickers Sportswear Inc. is working to lessen both winter's cold and America's landfill use by making thermal underwear and other products from recycled plastic.

Wickers is among a growing number of U.S. companies turning recycled plastic into underwear, T-shirts, backpacks and other products.

Navy blue and Mountain Dew green are the only colors available for its thermals - green because of the bottles' color and blue because that is the only environmentally safe dye the company has found, said quality control manager Carol Metivier.

In November, the mail-order company Lands' End will begin selling 100 percent recycled underwear made by Wickers. Wickers' president and owner, Anthony Mazzenga, also expects to distribute the underwear to specialty shops.

Tops and bottoms, for men and women, will sell for $22 each, the same as comparable thermal underwear made of nonrecycled material.

The Commack, N.Y.-based company makes its thermals at a Wolfeboro factory where most of its 75 employees work. It expects to sell about $400,000 worth of thermals this year.

Overall sales at Wickers have nearly doubled since 1991, and sales this year are projected at $20 million, Mazzenga said. He declined to disclose profit figures for the privately held company.

The fabric Wickers uses for its thermals comes from the fiber Fortrel EcoSpun, made by Wellman Inc., a plastic recycler and polyester producer. The garments are as warm as thermal underwear made from virgin material, Mazzenga said.

Wellman has been making its recycled product out of used soda bottles since 1979, but it wasn't until two years ago that it produced a fiber soft enough for clothing, said spokeswoman Judith Langan.

Wellman can keep 2.4 billion bottles per year out of U.S. dumps and another 250 million bottles out of foreign dumps.

Wellman melts plastic bottles and then converts them to fiber, which it sells to companies that knit or weave it into fabric.

Wellman is the only company to make fiber from 100 percent recycled goods, and Wickers is the only company to make 100 percent recycled underwear, Langan said.

Last year, two companies bought Wellman's recycled material - Wickers and Patagonia Inc. Today, Wellman sells to at least 70 companies.