Swedish Stockings

Bare legs-wea­ther lasts from May to Octo­ber. Tha­t’s about half of the year. But even when it is a bit chil­lier, we want to show our legs. Right? The raw mate­ri­als of tra­di­tio­nal tights – nylon and elas­t­a­ne – are extre­me­ly pol­lu­ting. So, when we dis­co­ver­ed Swe­dish Sto­ckings, we wwe­re over the moon. Becau­se this brand makes dura­ble tights and sto­ckings. We would almost get warm if someone says now that win­ter is coming.

Swedish Stockings?

More than two bil­li­on pairs of tights are pro­du­ced each year. Two bil­li­on! The­se are often cheap sto­ckings, made of infe­ri­or nylon. They are worn once – some­ti­mes twice, if you were careful with them – but then they end up in a gar­ba­ge dump. 

That had to be impro­ved, accor­ding to Linn Fri­sin­ger and Nad­ja Fors­berg. They foun­ded Swe­dish Sto­ckings with a pur­po­se: to take the lead in the deve­lo­p­ment and pro­duc­tion of envi­ron­men­tal­ly fri­end­ly, sus­tainable tights. In other words, they want to make dura­ble sto­ckings. With the hope that the rest of the fashion indus­try will fol­low their exam­p­le. So we can all look beau­tiful, but wit­hout any­thing or anyo­ne else suffering.

Eco-brand?

Yess­ss! Swe­dish Sto­ckings pro­du­ces tights and sto­ckings from recy­cled nylon and elas­t­a­ne. The cot­ton used for their socks is orga­nic and cer­ti­fied. Other fabrics are NILIT® ECO­CA­RE and Q‑Nova®. Umm, wait, which mate­ri­als? NILIT® is made from recy­cled was­te yarn and Q‑Nova® are unu­sed nylon rem­nants, ori­gi­na­ting from Italy.

The desi­gners at Swe­dish Sto­ckings also devo­te a lot of their time to the inno­va­ti­on of new mate­ri­als and pro­ducts. They recent­ly laun­ched the Keep it 100-line, which is made from 100% recy­cled elas­t­a­ne and nylon. 

Elec­tri­ci­ty for the recy­cling plants and Swe­dish Sto­ckings HQ is gene­ra­ted from solar panels and the brand limits the use of water and che­mi­cals in its pro­duc­tion. Both NILIT-yarn and Swe­dish Sto­ckings’ colou­ring pro­ces­ses are REACH-cer­ti­fied.

A great place to work?

The tights and socks are made in Ita­ly. This enables Swe­dish Sto­ckings to clo­se­ly moni­tor the pro­duc­tion pro­cess. The brand wants to make sure that the working con­di­ti­ons in the fac­to­ry are tip-top. Swe­dish Sto­ckings has regu­lar inspec­tions car­ri­ed out and pays sup­pli­ers the mini­mum wages. Serious claims, right? Tha­t’s why we under­stand why Swe­dish Sto­ckings does not reve­al the names and addres­ses of their fac­to­ries! Ano­ther brand could secret­ly take advan­ta­ge of it.

How circular is Swedish Stockings?

Com­ple­te­ly cir­cu­lar. This is why: Swedish Sto­ckings asks for used – cheap and bro­ken – nylon sto­ckings to be sent to one of their two recy­cling cen­tres. You have to pay the ship­ping cos­ts. We advi­se you to take your old tights and socks to a Swe­dish Sto­ckings point of sale near you. They will then be able to take it to a recy­cling centre.

In het kort

The mis­si­on of Swe­dish Sto­ckings is clear: to chan­ge the hosiery indus­try. And by exten­si­on, the enti­re fashion indus­try. How? By com­bi­ning the luxu­ry of the past with inno­va­ti­ve techniques.