Sheep, Goats, Alpaca's and Farmers
Everywhere you see sheep, you’re bound to find wool. In a world where commodities are becoming more and more scarce and our focus is shifting from owning to using, wool with its renewability and unique properties stands out. In the 90’s, a farmer was paid 25 Dutch guilders for a sheep’s fur. Today, that same fur is only worth 0,05 to 0,30 cents. In a bizarre turn of events, you now even have to pay to have black wool picked up and processed. This is such a shame, especially when you realize that Dutch sheep produce 1.2 million kilos of wool each year.
What happens to all that wool?
Due to Dutch wool’s devaluation, fur quality is no longer an important factor in the breeding process. Wool is rarely sorted, and is usually stuffed in massive bales, to be collected by organisations such as the Wool Federation. These bales are sold at bottom prices, to end up in Chinese car seats, rugs, or curtains.
It doesn’t have to be this way
With the rise of synthetic fibres and fast fashion, Dutch farmers weren’t able to maintain wool production as a viable industry. As a result, almost the entire Dutch wool industry has disappeared. We believe that using and producing sustainable Dutch wool is possible, so we are constantly researching sustainable applications. We want to find a way to use the current Dutch wool production right here in Holland, and bring back the entire chain on a small scale.
How will we do this?
We’re teaming up with several Dutch farmers and industry organizations. Together we look at different breeds and their wool’s quality. We then advice farmers and breeders how to sort their wool into different qualities and eventually we buy their wool. Depending the quality and fibre thickness, we pay between 0,8 and 1,5 euros for Dutch sheep wool. To illustrate: all fibres under 30 microns are comfortable to wear. Everything above is usually described by consumers as ‘that itchy sweater’. However, this doesn’t mean the latter can’t be processed into rugs or other fabrics right here in Holland!
Let’s stay close to home
Because Holland doesn’t have a professional processing industry for wool anymore, we have our fibres professionally washed and spun into yarn in Europe. We want to constantly create sustainable, innovative applications for Dutch wool, so we started with developing sheep, mohair, and alpaca wool yarn.
Our sheep and goats
On 11 hectares of meadow, our own merino sheep, Texel sheep, and angora goats walk around freely. This means we’re learning everything about wool quality, proper breeding, terrain management, animal behaviour, and animal welfare first hand! What we learn we immediately apply and share. The more we know, the more transparent we can be about the chain. The furs from our animals are the basis for our yarns, as well as for our own fashion brand.
For producers and consumers
We want to give tomorrow’s producers access to sustainable, innovative applications of wool. In order to do so, our yarns are available for sale, and we team up with brands and designers that have a passion for the matter. Consumers that want to make a difference can turn to our brand, or buy single balls of wool in our web shop.
