About the production of knitwear in merino wool
Facts about the production of our knitwear in merino wool
We have chosen that the production of yarn and knitwear takes place in Italy – not in Asia, China or other distant continents, where we have difficulty following production. This results in higher production costs, as the yarn is more expensive to produce, and the knitters must have higher wages. It is a conscious choice, which is also about us wanting to see the textile crafts preserved in Europe and preferably also in Denmark. Read more here if applicable.
Why Italy then?
The Italians are incredibly skilled when we talk about knitting, craftsmanship, and the production of the finest qualities of merino wool. Our spinning mills have, over many years, acquired a high degree of knowledge regarding yarn refinement, and at the same time, serious and targeted work is being done to reduce the discharge of water and chemicals, self-production of green electricity, recycling of the spinning mill's residual products, etc. We know from the company's sustainability report that serious work is being done on the task, but we do not dare to guarantee much – sustainability has become an inflated concept – and we do not wish to contribute to that.
The merino wool primarily comes from Australia. Our spinning mills buy from a collective pool and therefore do not have contact with the individual producer. We feel that Australia and the vast majority of wool producers in the world are very far from Denmark and Europe. We hope it can become attractive again to breed wool for yarn production in Europe, and until then, we will encourage our yarn spinners to set requirements for the producers and promote a more transparent process.
Cooperation with a small knitwear factory
Our knitwear factory Emilia-Romagna is run by two sisters. They are independent and thus manage their own business. It is a very small knitwear factory that delivers high quality and great flexibility regarding order size etc. This may mean that our customers sometimes have to wait a little for an order, but we prefer that to having large productions made by a larger company and possibly ending up with knitwear that we cannot sell.
We visit the knitwear factory a couple of times a year and bring designs and suggestions for techniques and qualities. The final models are developed in collaboration with the sisters, as they possess technical knowledge and craftsmanship at a very high level. They work on old manually operated knitting machines, where they shape the products along the way. The assembly takes place on a so-called linker, where the individual parts are knitted together. All processes require skilled handwork, dexterity, and accuracy.
Transparency and mutual trust
Another, and at least equally important, issue is that it is far more difficult to control the working and environmental conditions at a factory in China than at a comparable one in Denmark or Europe. It requires far less to visit your suppliers in Italy than to make the long journey to China. And with Europe, there is greater similarity in culture and thus also in the way we treat our employees and consider the environment and climate. We regularly visit our knitting workshop in Northern Italy, and there is great transparency with the yarn spinner's sustainability reports, which are publicly available, see more here.