Inti Knitwear

Inti works with over 700 Ecua­do­ri­an women to pro­du­ce their coll­ec­tions. This enables Inti to employ craft­swo­men in Ecua­dor. Inti’s foun­ders, Anne and Leon, live half of the year in Ecua­dor and the other half in the Net­her­lands. This allows them to be in clo­se cont­act with the indi­vi­du­als and com­mu­ni­ties making their collections. 

Inti values ethi­cal pro­duc­tion. Inti gives women pur­po­se and their own source of inco­me. The brand pays fair wages and con­nects the women with each other so they form social com­mu­ni­ties.

Inti also uses mate­ri­als sourced from Ecua­dor. For exam­p­le, a lot of the coll­ec­tion is made from alpa­ca wool. Alpa­cas come from the Andes moun­ta­ins in and around Ecua­dor. This allows Inti to sup­port the local eco­no­my even more.

Alpa­ca wool is also a sus­tainable mate­ri­al. An added bene­fit is that Alpa­ca wool con­ta­ins less lano­lin than ordi­na­ry shee­p’s wool making it hypo­al­ler­ge­nic. Alpa­ca wool is very soft and also has good insu­la­ting pro­per­ties so it’s ide­al for kee­ping you warm on chil­ly win­ter days!

In addi­ti­on to alpa­ca wool, Inti also uses meri­no wool in their coll­ec­tion. This is ano­ther sus­tainable mate­ri­al known for its softness.

Unfort­u­na­te­ly, Inti also uses less sus­tainable mate­ri­als in their clo­thes. Alpa­ca wool is often com­bi­ned with acrylic and nylon. This has the advan­ta­ge that it makes the clo­thes che­a­per to pro­du­ce, as alpa­ca wool is a very expen­si­ve mate­ri­al. The dis­ad­van­ta­ge, howe­ver, is that the­se are syn­the­tic mate­ri­als which risk releasing micro­pla­s­tics when being used. This is espe­ci­al­ly the case when the clo­thes are being washed. For­t­u­na­te­ly, wool is self-clea­ning so the jum­pers do not need to be washed often.

Clo­thes’ cir­cu­la­ri­ty depends hea­vi­ly on their com­po­si­ti­on. If clo­thes are mono mate­ri­al, i.e. made from one sin­gle mate­ri­al, then they are easy to recy­cle after use. Inti has seve­ral pie­ces made from 100% alpa­ca wool. The­se are cir­cu­lar and even biode­gra­da­ble!

Clo­thes made from dif­fe­rent mate­ri­als, cal­led mate­ri­al blends, are more dif­fi­cult to recy­cle. When natu­ral and syn­the­tic mate­ri­als are mixed tog­e­ther, the clo­thes are no lon­ger biode­gra­da­ble. In knit­wear, howe­ver, mate­ri­al blends are easier to recy­cle than in fabrics. 

Inti is com­mit­ted to cir­cu­la­ri­ty. For ins­tance, they use the wool rem­nants from their pro­duc­tion to make new scar­ves, among other things. In this way, the brand aims to redu­ce their pro­duc­tion waste.

Inti’s clo­thes come from Ecua­dor and the­r­e­fo­re tra­vel a long way to be sold in Euro­pe. Inti does still have a short sup­p­ly chain becau­se they take care of pro­duc­tion in Ecua­dor them­sel­ves. By employ­ing their own peo­p­le, they are not depen­dent on dif­fe­rent manu­fac­tu­r­ers and have more con­trol over qua­li­ty and working conditions.

Alpa­ca wool is one of the stron­gest wools, making it a high-qua­li­ty mate­ri­al. Thanks to wool’s self-clea­ning pro­per­ties, you also won’t need to wash your new jum­per very often. Airing your clo­thes is often enough. This way, your clo­thes will stay beau­tiful for lon­ger and you’ll save water and ener­gy. If you would still like to wash your Inti clo­thes, the brand recom­mends doing so at a low tem­pe­ra­tu­re and by hand. 

Inti’s coll­ec­tions includes main­ly jum­pers, but also access­ories such as hats and scar­ves. The designs are often colourful, with knit­ted pat­terns or dif­fe­rent colou­red are­as. Inti make hand-knit­ted jum­pers, car­di­gans and shawls. All pro­ducts are made by hand and in limi­t­ed edi­ti­ons. Small irre­gu­la­ri­ties may some­ti­mes occur, making your new pie­ce very uni­que.

A lot of infor­ma­ti­on is known about the pro­duc­tion of Inti’s coll­ec­tions. The brand is open and trans­pa­rent about how and by who the clo­thes are made. Unfort­u­na­te­ly, this trans­pa­ren­cy does not extend to the rest of their sup­p­ly chain. For ins­tance, no infor­ma­ti­on is given about the ori­gin of the mate­ri­als. As men­tio­ned ear­lier, the alpa­ca is nati­ve to Ecua­dor but meri­no sheep are not. Due to a lack of infor­ma­ti­on, it is not pos­si­ble to give a clear pic­tu­re about the wel­fa­re of the ani­mals or whe­re exact­ly the wool comes from.