From Merino Sheep to Functional Underwear

 

 

Have you ever wondered how that freshly shorn pile of Merino wool becomes your next functional shirt?

It's a long process that requires a lot of expertise and experience to transform this natural fiber into incomparably comfortable and highly functional sportswear. Here's a small insight into the most important manufacturing steps:

 

1. Sheep Farming and Shearing

The Merino sheep is the breed with arguably the finest wool quality (from approx. 14-16 microns). The best wool qualities come from sheep farms in mountainous regions with large temperature differences between summer and winter. Our suppliers therefore source their Merino wool mainly from New Zealand, Tasmania, and the South American Andes regions.

Merino sheep were bred not only for particularly soft wool but also for rapid and abundant fleece regrowth. Therefore, it is particularly important to shear "Merinos" regularly. The shearing process does not cause the animals any pain; on the contrary, not shearing them would be animal cruelty, as the animals would otherwise perish after years due to the weight of their own wool.

Naturally, all manufacturers listed with us exclusively process animal welfare-certified wool without mulesing. Furthermore, animal-friendly husbandry is also the basis for high wool quality.

 

2. Sorting the Wool

For Merino underwear, usually only the wool from the sheep's lower belly is used, as it has a particularly fine fiber structure (the prime cut, so to speak).
This is also why the raw material price for this fine wool is relatively high.
The remaining wool is used for other purposes where wool fineness is not as crucial (e.g., blankets, knitting wool, etc.).
In the first processing step, the wool is sorted before moving on to washing.

 

3. Cleaning the Raw Wool

Raw wool contains up to 40% of its total weight in dirt particles and wool grease.
In several steps, the wool is washed and mechanically freed from dust, sand, and plant residues.
It is important that a certain amount of the natural wool grease (lanolin) remains so that the wool does not dry out and become brittle. Lanolin also has a positive effect on human skin. The excess wool grease from the washing process is therefore filtered out and then used, for example, in cosmetic moisturizers. Wool grease also plays an important role in the ability of wool fibers to temporarily store large amounts of moisture (up to 30% of the wool's own weight). The washed wool is then combed and dried in several steps.

 

4. The Refinement of Wool into Yarn

 

 

Before the cleaned raw wool can be further processed into underwear, it must be further prepared and spun into yarn.
To achieve a consistent yarn quality, the wool fibers are combed until tangles are removed and the fibers lie parallel to each other. This process, known as "carding," also allows for the sorting out of broken or too short fibers. Due to the uniform alignment, there are far fewer fiber ends that can irritate the skin.
This elaborate finishing process allows the wool fibers to be spun into a smoother, finer, and, most importantly, softer yarn.
These processing steps, which require appropriate expertise and modern machine technology, contribute significantly to the comfortable feel and durability of the finished product, in addition to the quality of the raw wool.

 

 

The combed wool fibers are first gathered into wool slivers and then loosely twisted and drawn into a roving. Subsequently, they can be spun into finished yarn.

In addition to traditional spinning methods, there are also new techniques, such as core spinning, where wool fibers are twisted around an existing filament (e.g., nylon/elastane) to achieve more stability or stretchability in thin fabrics. The finished yarn is then steamed to prevent curling and can subsequently undergo the multi-stage dyeing process.

Many of our manufacturers already use skin-friendly and less chemically-intensive dyeing processes:

 

• OEKO-TEX® Standard 100: Aclima, Devold, Engel, Woolpower
• bluesign® System Partner: Ortovox, Kari Traa, Mons Royale
• Plant-based dyeing (Nature Dye): Icebreaker

 

 

5. Fabric Production

The finished yarn is wound onto large spools and can then be transported to the knitting factory, where it is further processed into fabric panels.
Some of our suppliers still operate their own knitting mills, e.g.:

• Woolpower (in Sweden)
• Aclima (in Estonia)
• Devold (in Lithuania)
• Dale of Norway (in Norway)
• Engel (in Germany)

and can thus minimize transport routes, individually optimize the manufacturing process, and implement their own developed knitting techniques.

 

 

Various knitting techniques are used in the production of fabric panels, e.g.:

• Mixing different colored yarns for patterned fabrics
• Mixing Merino yarns with other fibers
• Seamless circular knitting (mostly in combination with synthetic fibers)
• Terry knit (loop-like structure inside)
• Textured fabrics (wave structure, waffle structure, high-pile structure)
• Mesh structure

In addition, there are different fabric thickness settings, which are measured in grams per m² of fabric weight. Often, for functional reasons, garments are assembled from different pieces of fabric with varying structures or thicknesses to provide, for example, more stretch or more breathability in the corresponding body zones.

 

7. Finishing

Using appropriate templates, the corresponding pieces are now cut from the fabric panels.

 

Here, care is taken to produce as little waste as possible. Some manufacturers even recycle fabric remnants into their own "Resorted" products (e.g., Woolpower, Aclima). Separate patterns are required for different product series and different sizes.

Now, the various fabric pieces just need to be sewn together to form the finished garment. For Merino underwear, flatlock seams are typically used to prevent chafing. For Merino T-shirts, the classic seam with an inward seam allowance is usually chosen for aesthetic reasons, as this seam is less visible from the outside than the flatlock seam.

For shirts or long sleeves with a print, another processing step follows. Designs are usually applied to Merino fabrics using the screen printing method, though rarely by digital printing.
In screen printing, the ink is wiped from one side to the other using a motif stencil within a frame.

 

After these steps are completed, the finished Merino clothing can be packaged and sent to the manufacturers' warehouses.
Some of our manufacturers already use sustainable packaging solutions such as recycled cardboard boxes (e.g., Ortovox, Icebreaker) or film packaging made from plant-based plastic (e.g., Mons Royale, Super.Natural).
However, we believe there is still room for improvement here. Therefore, we continuously leverage our influence on manufacturers to convince them to adopt plastic-free solutions for product packaging as well.

 

7. Conclusion

The reason we want to illustrate the entire journey from sheep to finished functional shirt is to raise awareness of how complex this entire production process is and how many individual steps are necessary to ultimately obtain a high-quality and comfortable end product that also ensures animal welfare.
In light of this, it is hopefully understandable that a garment made from this fine raw material is worth its price.


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