A NORTH-EAST firm developing performance sportswear out of 100 per cent recycled materials which has been worn by Olympic and Commonwealth-winning athletes is hoping to achieve even more success in the coming months.

Founded by Pete Lillie and Rob Webbon, Presca creates garments using yarns from recycled materials, including fishing nets and plastic bottles.

The firm, based in Middlesbrough, already supplies technical clothing to the Vitus Pro Cycling Team and its creations have been worn by Ed Clancy, who won gold medals at the Beijing 2008, London 2012, and Rio 2016 Olympic Games, and North-East Paralympian Jade Jones-Hall, who achieved success at the Glasgow 2014 and Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Launched in February 2018 from Grn Sportswear, Presca aim to create pro-level sustainable sportswear for teams and individual athletes in the cycle, swim, run and triathlon market.

The high-performance sustainable fabrics, from recycled sources such as plastic bottles and fishing nets are cleaned up, broken down and extruded into high-quality yarns that have the same chemistry as standard fabrics.

Sportswear created from these sources uses significantly less water and less carbon dioxide to produce.

Speaking to The Northern Echo, Mr Lillie said: "Rob's background was in sustainability and mine was in start up businesses, so it was almost the perfect combination.

"Sustainability is more important than ever – people want sportswear that is made out of sustainable materials and is made in a sustainable way, but they want something that performs well.

"There has been a transition, in the past it was about 15 per cent wanted to see an increase in sustainability, and the rest it was about improving performance - now it is about a 50/50 split."

Mr Lillie said developing products for women was one of their priorities for the future, as well as looking for a new home for their nine members of staff, after outgrowing their current base at Teesside University.

"Women's sport is a massively growing sector – we've proved we can do it in the men's, but the women's side of triathlon and cycling is definitely growing and we'd like to do a lot more."

For more information about Presca, visit prescateamwear.com.