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    Texas Rules

    One Houston suburb lands on list of 40 Most Improved Cities in America

    Claire St. Amant
    Jul 9, 2014 | 9:19 am

    It's been five years since the Great Recession officially ended, and Texas appears stronger than ever. According to a new analysis by Nerdwallet.com, eight of the top 10 most improved cities are in the Lone Star State.

    Using data from the National Bureau of Economic Research, as well as figures from the labor and housing markets, researchers determined that the most improved city in America is McAllen. The border town saw a nearly 32 percent increase in household income and a 16 percent rise in home values.

    Since 2009, when the recession officially ended, median household income has increased by more than 10 percent in Sugar Land while the median home value has jumped by 8.3 percent.

    Other Texas towns in the top 10 are Midland, San Angelo, Bryan, College Station, Odessa, Edinburg and Amarillo.

    Ranking close behind is Sugar Land at No. 13. Since 2009, median household income has increased by more than 10 percent in the Houston suburb while the median home value has jumped by 8.3 percent.

    A handful of Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs also earned spots in the survey, which culled a list of 510 cities to determine the 40 most improved economies. Leading the North Texas pack is Richardson at No. 14. Grand Prairie is No. 16, Irving is No. 22, Frisco is No. 27 and McKinney slid in at No. 38.

    According to the Texas Workforce Commission, the Lone Star State added more than 56,000 jobs in May and unemployment dropped to 5.1 percent. Gov. Rick Perry called Texas "the epicenter of job creation in America," pointing to statistics that the state has added more than 400,000 jobs in the past year.

    "If you want a job, or your company needs employees, Texas is the best place in America to find both," Perry said in a statement.

    Sugar Land Town Center. The Houston suburb ranks No. 13 on the list of Most Improved Cities since the recession ended in 2009.

    Sugar Land Town Center, fountain
      
    Photo courtesy of Planned Community Developers Ltd.
    Sugar Land Town Center. The Houston suburb ranks No. 13 on the list of Most Improved Cities since the recession ended in 2009.
    unspecified
    news/innovation

    the future of fashion

    Houston startup showcases sustainable, alternative leather at the rodeo

    Maurice Bobb, InnovationMap
    Apr 10, 2025 | 4:00 pm
    Rheom Materials rodeo outfit
    Courtesy of Rheom Materials
    The commercial showcaes the material's durability and performance.

    Last month’s Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo stirred up another rootin’ tootin’ time for Houstonians and beyond.

    But before the annual event galloped into the sunset, there were quite a few memorable innovations on display, with one notably coming from Rheom Materials.

    The Houston-based pioneer of next-generation materials presented its scalable, bio-based alternative known as Shorai, a 93 percent bio-based leather, through two custom, western-inspired outfits that showed off cowboy flair through a sustainable lens.

    “I'm a Houstonian, I love the rodeo,” Megan Beck, Rheom’s business development manager, recalls. “We're sitting there talking about it one day and we're like, ‘Okay, we've got to do something with this leather to show people how good it can look in apparel, how easy it is to wear.’”

    Buoyed by the idea that their materials are meant to “change your impact, not your life,” Rheom captured the real-life energy of their bio-leather outfits under the rodeo’s neon lights in a short commercial video and photo shoot with models donning the samples, while dancing and enjoying the festivities. Rheom created a skirt, a leather jacket, and then a leather top for the look.


    View this post on Instagram
    A post shared by Rheom Materials (@rheommaterials)


    “Houston is such a vibrant city,” Beck says. “There's so much innovation here. I think the rodeo is just a really, really great example of that. And so we wanted to take this opportunity to take some of these garments out there and go on the slide, go on some of the rides, go into the wine garden and go dancing, because if you've ever felt some of the materials in the market in this space, they're very stiff, you can't really move in them, they're a little fragile, they kind of fall apart.”

    Not only do the models in the video look fashionable, but they also look comfortable, and the leather looks natural and supple. And to the naked eye, Shorai appears to be like the leather most wearers are accustomed to.

    “What we really wanted to showcase in this is the energy and the movement of the leather, and to show people how good it can look in apparel, and how easy it is to wear, which I think we were able to accomplish,” Beck says.

    Next up, Beck says Rheom wants to scale production of Shorai, the Japanese word for “future,” at a competitive price point, while also reducing its carbon footprint by 80 percent when compared to synthetic leather. According to Beck, Rheom plans to see Shorai products come to market sometime this year.

    “We have companies globally right now that are testing materials, that are prototyping, that are making garments, making handbags and footwear, and making eyewear because we have a plastic, as well,” Beck says. “So, this year, I do believe we'll start seeing those products actually come to market, which is very, very exciting for us.”

    And with their large-scale production partner already set up for Shorai, Rheom plans to start its first production run of the product soon.

    “In April, we'll actually be starting our first production run,” Beck says. “We'll be doing it at full scale, full width, and a full run of materials. So over the next five years, we're only going to just try to increase that capacity.”

    ---

    This story originally was published on our sister site, InnovationMap.

    rheom materialsinnovationfashionstartupsustainability
    news/innovation
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