From the cold north with a warm heart Quality garments, fair wages and local, sustainable production – it almost sounds too good to be true. But Woolpower is serious about all of the above, producing clothes that keep you warm inside and out. This year, the responsible wool brand turns 50. By Linnea Dunne | Photos: Woolpower
“It’s a combination of many factors,” says Adam Brånby, one of two owners, when asked how Woolpower has managed to keep the production of its quality garments local, in Östersund in Sweden – now probably the last business to keep up the feat. “It’s important to remember that we’re not a fashion brand,” he continues. “Our clothes look almost exactly the same now as they did 20 years ago. 68 | Issue 126 | July 2019
We change things, of course, but mostly on a quality and yarn level, and not so much in terms of style. We don’t have to.” Other factors include the fact that the production is machine heavy, producing seamless tubes for sleeves, legs and the torso, as well as the brand’s focus on its very own material, Ullfrotté Original®. “We need special machines for this, and
they’re expensive wherever they are,” Brånby explains. On the other hand, they need fewer seamstresses, which might explain why paying local seamstresses in Sweden fair and proper wages – up to 60 times the equivalent of a seamstress