Materials science company Pangea is hungry for more.
On Wednesday, the company revealed its new wellness vertical Pangea Health, which makes its first foray into food. Pangea Superfoods will be its initial offering, which also includes its plant-based Super Super Bars, which tap a number of unique ingredients, including sweet prickly pear and goji berry.
Company with celebrity followers such as Harry Styles, Jennifer Lopez and Kourtney Kardashian has momentum. Pangea partnered with Nordstrom in February for the retailer’s rotating pop-up series. Pangea apparel is moved to 12 Nordstrom stores in the US
Pangaia Superfood launched in the US on Thursday and will be online only at pangaia.com. The first Super Super Bar will start at $35 for a pack of seven.
Unlike their experimental apparel, Super Super Bars also taps into technological innovations like Incredo Sugar, a fast-dissolving sugar that halves sugar usage without compromising flavor, and Meltec Fiber, a sugar-free vegetable blend. which uses vegetable fiber from corn and legumes. Otherwise it will be ruined.
While the bars tout organic ingredients, they are not yet USDA certified organic—and thus not considered completely organic at launch.
“We see food as a huge opportunity. We are expecting anywhere from three to seven launches” [products] this whole year. Snacks and beverages potentially between now and the next two to three years,” said Ira Laufer, chief executive officer of Pangia Health. After joining the company a year earlier, Laufer was previously CEO of consumer packaged goods brand Just (which was started by Will and Jaden Smith).
Personalized products and supplements are also on the horizon. Laufer said. “We don’t really fit into a certain category. Yes, we are launching bars but we don’t really want to play in that bar category. We are just using bars as a format. A distribution as a system.”
The medium – and especially the content – is the message in Pangea.
While the brand’s 365 Core collection and denim are some of the fashion offerings, material innovations such as FluorDawn are an ethical alternative to Down’s which is a material made from dried wildflowers; FRUTFIBER, a less resource-intensive alternative to cotton, or C-fiber, a blend of eucalyptus pulp and seaweed powder, is the focus of the collection.
“Our overall physical philosophy is what we call high-tech naturalism,” said Dr. Amanda Parks, Chief Innovation Officer at Pangea, “or enhancing what nature is already good at.”
Pangea does what Parks calls “side-streaming”, or uses all parts of an organism. “Part of our physical strategy is to actually return everything to the biocycle” [the energy transfer between environments and species]….we’re not using anything fossil-fuel based. We can also be more efficient in the resources we are using. Using all parts of plants, increasing biodiversity, moving away from traditional cotton – it’s really a return to putting the earth back in balance.”
In addition to the bar’s component innovation, its cover will decompose in home or industrial composting and the box is recyclable. Pangia said it is also offsetting emissions related to its food sector and has completed LCA on 66 per cent of its products, which it will soon release for its apparel products.
Pangea is a private company and does not disclose the sources of funding.
