Merino Pullover 2 Men

The knitting is done in Aargau. Herr Urs is young, courageous and knits everything that can be knitted from card game mat to scarf to jumper with enormous commitment. His one-man business is located in the former railway building in Turgi. Urs Landis originally learned how to design typefaces and advertisements. After various jobs, including truck driver, he began his studies in fashion design & technology in 2009 and discovered his passion for knitting. In 2014 he became self-employed and started knitting everything that fits on his Stoll knitting machines as Herr Urs.

Our journey with Herr Urs began 2016 with the development of the first knitted sweater. After the customer feedback on the first sweater series in 2018, we plunged ourselves again in the development process to improve our sweater. The result was our new sweater II (fancy name).

In August 2019 the Stoll CMS 340 TC ejects the first sweaters under the watchful eyes of Herr Urs. Around 60 minutes and 330 grams of yarn are needed for the knitting. Then the logos and washing labels are sewn on and the sweater is ready. 

For the most part, the organic merino wool for our sweater comes from South America. A smaller part comes from Australia. The South American wool is washed and combed on-site close to the farms. Only then the wool is shipped to our partner Schoeller-Wool in Hard (close to the Swiss boarder). The Australian wool is firstly shipped to China to be washed and combed before being sent to the Schoeller-Wool site. We are not happy about this fact. We try to receive only South American wool for our clothing from Schoeller-Wool. Unfortunately this is not easy to accomplish. Organic merino wool is extremely rare, only a few farmers around the globe comply with those strict guidelines. To prevent material shortages for our Merino clothing we are obliged to buy Australian wool in addition. Arrived on the company site in Hard, the organic merino wool is finished in a complex process. This step is very important so that the shirt is machine washable and doesn’t need to be hand washed after use. Normally the finishing process uses a lot of chlorine, which is harmful for the employees as well as for the environment. This is for us a no-go. To our knowledge Schoeller-Wool is the only company which has the know-how of finishing without chlorine and undertakes all process steps in Europe. 

After the finishing, the wool is shipped to Kresice in the Czech Republic near the Elb. There the wool is spun to a fine thread. Two of this single threads are then twisted to one thick yarn. Afterwards the yarn is transported back to Hard for dyeing.

At this point the wool has already travelled a long way. So the question can arise, is this still in terms with an organic product? Yes, it is organic. We don’t want that our sheep are prophylactically treated with antibiotics or to be feed with minor quality feed pellets and eventually slaughtered miles and miles away from the farm. Our organically kept sheep are only treated with antibiotics if an infection could be determined and only fed with grass. At the end of their life they are brought to slaughterhouses near the farm. Organic products are for the protection of animal welfare, so the location of the raw material production is secondary for us.

The emitted CO2 from the transport is compensated to 100% with projects from our partner MyClimate.

Unfortunately, there is no possibility to receive organic merino wool with the desired quality from farmers in Switzerland or Europe.