Meet our suppliers
John Smedley has built lasting partnerships with all its suppliers, from Merino wool growers in New Zealand to our local sign maker. We trust them to provide only the highest quality materials and service. It means we can guarantee that our knitwear is not just the finest available, but accountable, ethical and environmentally friendly too.
New Zealand Merino wool
John Smedley works with a select group of New Zealand Merino wool growers. We've built these relationships over many years to ensure we use the finest yarn available for all our Merino knitwear. We can trace our wool to the sheep station it came from in New Zealand - our growers could probably tell us the exact sheep!
All in the detail
It's the exceptional fineness, luxurious staple length and high tensile strength of John Smedley's Sea Island Cotton that sets it apart from other fibres. We hand-pick the cotton as it matures which maintains its purity and means we avoid using a chemical defoliant. The result is ethically produced, exceptionally soft knitwear that can be worn and washed again and again.
Omarama Station, South Island, New Zealand
Richard and Annabelle Subtil farm around 15,000 Merino sheep at Omarama Station, a 12,000 hectare high country sheep and cattle property on New Zealand’s South Island. Over the last 10 years, John Smedley has built a lasting partnership with Richard and Annabelle. They select and shear their finest Merino wool, which travels around the world to our mill in Derbyshire. We then use it to create the high quality knitwear our customers know and love.
Watch the video below to find out more about Omarama Station.
John Smedley's Sea Island Cotton
To be able to create the fine quality cotton pieces of knitwear that John Smedley has become renowned for, we have to ensure that the finest materials are sourced and used.
The iconic John Smedley Cotton look is controlled not only by the 30 gauge knitting but in the careful selection of the Extra Long Staple, Superfine cotton, this continues to be the foundation for every piece of cotton knitted by the company.
Quality standards for the growers, pickers, balers, ginners and all of the manufacturing processes are highly maintained throughout. The cotton continues to be hand picked ensuring that the cotton reaches maturity with little or no fibre breakage that usually results when mechanically harvested. The cotton fibre is then spun by a dedicated spinner offering excellence in product continuity and reproducibility before we knit into some of the finest knitwear pieces throughout the world.
Where in the world?
John Smedley's Merino wool growers are all based on New Zealand's South Island, as shown by the map below. We chose to work with them because they produce exceptional quality wool and take an ethical, sustainable approach to farming.
Why not
English sheep?
John Smedley knitwear is made in England, but we don't use wool from English sheep. That's because their hair is much coarser, which makes it unsuitable for clothing. Our New Zealand sheep provide yarn that is ultra-fine and extremely comfortable to wear.
Local suppliers
We are proud of our heritage and always stay true to our Derbyshire roots. That's why John Smedley has long-standing partnerships with a range of local businesses, including a button supplier, sign makers and spinners. They are part of our heritage, but also provide skill and service of the highest quality
