By Nicole Phelps

Pangaia’s recycled- and organic-cotton sweatshirts and sweatpants stood out from the pandemic-time softwear competition thanks to the material descriptions printed on them. Logos that aren’t really logos, the sans serif labels appear on the chest or at the hip, and though the writing is small, the message is loud and clear: Style and sustainability are both important to me. Those little text blocks became so popular, in fact, the young company compressed its five-year financial plan into one.

Today the company is launching a new capsule, and the hoodies, T-shirts, and track pants in it bear an innovative description: “The print is created by transforming carbon emissions into Air-Ink®.” Air-Ink is the brainchild of Graviky Lab founder Anirudh Sharma, and “it’s a really quirky invention,” says Amanda Parkes, the chief innovation officer at Pangaia, who knows Sharma from their days as graduate students at MIT.