Wool – From a Sheep’s Back to Yours

At Swanndri, we’ve been working with wool since way back. About 1913 to be exact. Sure, we’ve grown and changed since then, just like everyone has. But we’ve always stayed true to this core material.

How come? Well, wool’s pretty darn special. In lots of ways. And it comes from some pretty special farms, right here in New Zealand. So here’s a quick yarn about the wool we use for our outerwear*, where it comes from, and the journey it takes to get from there to the clothes on your back (or your dog’s).

It all, of course, starts on a farm. We get our wool from contracted ZQRX growers in New Zealand. If you’re not sure what ZQRX is, check out the full lowdown. Basically, it means these farmers consistently meet the highest standards of animal welfare and product quality, and who are farming in regenerative ways.

From these farms, we source both lamb’s wool and merino. Lamb’s wool is mostly used on classic Swanndri jackets because it’s a great balance between softness and resilience. We use finer merino wool blends for the softer jackets. The real snuggly stuff.

Shearing happens in the summer months. Shearing is obviously important to provide us with wool for clothing, but it’s also important for animal welfare. Wool grows constantly, so if sheep aren’t shorn annually it can cause discomfort, overheating and disease. It’s like getting a much needed haircut (and a new set of lighter clothes) just in time for summer.

As the wool is shorn, it’s collected and pressed into bales which are then individually marked with the farmer’s brand. The bales are then collected from the farm and trucked to a wool store and kept separate until a Swanndri order is collected for processing.

The production cycle itself starts with scouring, where the wool is cleaned to remove dirt, grass, seed and wool grease (aka lanolin – a great skin cream!). The clean, bright, soft wool is then shipped off to a yarn spinning plant, where the wool fibres are separated and stretched out and straightened to create yarn (yep, just like Grandma did), before being twisted to give it some extra strength and resilience. This yarn is then dyed into our specific Swanndri colourways.

Next, the Swanndri yarn is woven together to create fabric, with alternate colours included in the warp and the weft to create the distinctive Swanndri chequered patterns. These great rolls of fabric are then carefully cut to size and the pieces sewn together to create our iconic Swannies, the finished product.

These legendary bits of kit are then shipped all around the world, where they help keep all sorts of people warm, comfy, cosy and looking good. A big journey for a bit of wool. But we reckon the sheep would be proud.

*we are working towards expanding the use of ZQRX wool throughout knitwear and base layers