Training had ended at FC Dombes Bresse, and the shirts came off with the usual pile of kit at the edge of the pitch. These, however, were not ordinary jerseys: the R3 side from Ain had become the first team to test NOLT’s “Infini” prototype, a football shirt designed to be recycled again and again.
NOLT’s Infini shirt begins its amateur-football test
The French kit supplier has spent four years developing the Infini range, which it says can return worn football clothing to the production cycle with only limited material loss. Fifty initial shirts have been made, with FC Dombes Bresse players Mathéo, Alexis, Matthieu, Baptiste and Théo among those putting them through a first real training session.
Paul Guinard, NOLT’s co-founder and co-president, describes the project as central to the company’s identity. The name NOLT means “Nothing is Lost”, reflecting the intention to take back old shirts and turn them into new ones rather than send them to waste.
The first reactions from the Dombes Bresse squad were positive. Players found the prototype light, breathable, comfortable and well fitted, with none of the irritation sometimes associated with new technical fabrics. Guinard identified one issue still to be addressed: the collar appeared too wide. The next concern will be how the shirt holds up in matches, particularly when it is pulled during play.
The move
NOLT will now provide complete kits, including shirts and shorts, to two amateur clubs for a six-month testing period. The company currently has enough fabric to produce another 50 shirts.
Once that trial has been approved, the plan is to launch a rental model rather than sell the kits outright. From the 2027-28 season, NOLT intends to offer subscriptions to no more than around 50 clubs.
For €30 per month on a two-year commitment, a club would receive equipment for 14 outfield players and one goalkeeper: shirts, shorts and socks. The annual cost would be €360, compared with an estimated €900 per season for a comparable kit bought in the conventional way.
After 24 months, NOLT would collect the used clothing, process the material and send it back into a new production cycle. Retaining ownership of the garments is intended to make the recovery system reliable and prevent old kit from being discarded.
From discarded polyester to a new shirt
The breakthrough came after NOLT met Raouf Medimagh, founder of Recyc’Elit, in 2022. The company developed a process to recover PET from textile waste and convert it into rPET, a recycled version of the plastic used widely in polyester clothing.
Used textiles are first cut into small pieces before passing through two reactors and a filter. The process produces a plastic powder, or monomer, while also separating materials such as wool and elastane when they have been blended into a garment.
The recovered rPET is then turned into pellets, sent to a spinner, transformed into recycled polyester yarn and knitted into fabric for new shirts or shorts. NOLT says the process loses about 5% of the material, allowing the textiles to be reused almost indefinitely without relying on newly extracted oil. PET is ordinarily made from petroleum-based raw material.
The finished Infini shirts carry details including the year in which they were recycled and a QR code intended to trace each garment’s history. NOLT had previously collected worn shirts, shorts and socks, but could only turn them into small training markers. The Infini project is designed to make the circular route work for match kit itself.
The French season around it
The initial trial sits firmly in the amateur game, where equipment costs can weigh heavily on small budgets. FC Dombes Bresse’s players have provided the first on-pitch test in the Ain department, while two further amateur clubs will take the prototypes into a longer six-month phase.
For NOLT, the model offers both an environmental and financial argument: clubs spread their spending over the season, while the supplier regains material that can be used again rather than buying fresh polyester for every production run.
SEO Title: NOLT’s recyclable Infini football shirt set for amateur-club trials
SEO Description: French kit maker NOLT has tested its endlessly recyclable Infini shirt with FC Dombes Bresse and plans a subscription model for amateur clubs from 2027-28.
