OUR VALUES
Being a new and independent company, we are committed to environmentally friendly building blocks as a foundation for our processes and strategies.
We celebrate craftsmanship, responsible sourcing and transparency in our production and aim to collaborate with suppliers and manufacturers who share our values.
Quality is substantial in our products. We use a thought-out preferred fibre list as a road map to source materials with lower climate impact. Finnsheep wool is sourced and developed with local natural dyers and mills that are passionate about their craft. The Finnsheep wool has merino wool characteristics and potential for further development. We follow innovations, such as Finnish wood-based fibres and hope to use them in the future.
Our values strive to redefine luxury through climate-conscious goals and long-term systemic shifts.
We are committed to learning and incorporating methods that have a reduced impact on the planet, such as circular economy and commencing new technologies. Most importantly, we make desirable clothes for every morning that last a lifetime.
Responsibly designed clothes are not just about changing material to be a bit less harmful or producing a garment with a smaller carbon footprint. "Less bad" is not enough – we must change how the whole fashion industry works.
Conscious design means an ecological, ethical, and transparent way of designing, making, and wearing clothes. It's part of every step of our business, such as durable, timeless design, high quality, low impact materials, ethical working conditions, and transparent production process.
The By Hinders designs are divided into collections, but many items will continue their lives in the following collections. We don't think of only one season when designing a new collection. It is a continuous process where we improve the idea of a wardrobe and design new items to complement the previous ones, with subtle renewal in each collection.
We wish to design garments that will last as the cornerstones of your wardrobe for a long time.
Transparency
The most important way to ensure the whole supply chain is as low impact as possible is to know everything about it. It's crucial to be transparent throughout the production chain and open in all business activities.
We have thoroughly researched the best suppliers and partners to work with, so we can make sure we know as much about the production as possible – and we can share all this information with you.
Please feel free to contact us at info@byhinders.com if you have any questions. We'd be happy to hear from you.
Transportation
We want to do our best to minimise all transportation and produce locally. However, as long as we use materials such as linen, cotton, and tencel, talking about entirely local production would be untruthful.
Even though some of our raw materials are produced within Europe, our main production chain is nearby, which means design development and production in Finland and Estonia, allowing us to ship any materials by sea or land.
Materials
The amount of textile waste – both pre-consumer and post-consumer – is nowadays huge. At By Hinders, we aim to reduce waste by using recycled materials, leftover fabrics, and second-hand furniture, carefully recycling our waste, cutting waste in pattern making, and up-cycling and recycling our leftover materials.
Polyester and cotton are the most widely used textile materials and the most harmful materials to the environment. We constantly source alternative materials that are produced ecologically and ethically but simultaneously are durable and of high quality.
We use wool, shearling, organic linen, organic cotton, recycled fibres, deadstock fabrics, and leather. You can read more about the materials we use here.
Production
We feel that clothes are only pretty if the people who made the clothes are treated with dignity. All the people involved in the production process need to be paid fairly and have safe working conditions and reasonable hours. It doesn't matter if the production takes place close by or far away – the ethical aspects are always equally important.
We recognise that clothing manufacturing always impacts the environment, but we want to make this impact as small as possible by paying attention to every step of the production chain.
We work with local suppliers in Finland and Finland's Southern neighbour Estonia. We work closely with all the factories and cooperate only with production places we trust.
These are the suppliers we work with:
Pirtin kehräämö Oy (Mikkeli, Finland)
The demand for yarns and products made with Finnsheep and Kainuu grey wool is growing strongly. This is due to consumers' greater appreciation of ecological values and the increased popularity and appreciation of handicrafts in Finland and abroad.
Pirtin Kehräämö has carried out a three-year development project involving investing in more efficient production, particularly ecological production, to meet consumer expectations and demand.
Pirtin kehräämö is currently the largest Finnish wool processing company with spinning mills located in Hiirola and, as of early 2021, also in Jämsä. The wool yarn is spun from Finnish sheep wool purchased directly from sheep farms around the country.
Most raw wool must be washed in England or Belgium, as a sufficiently efficient wool washing service is unavailable in Finland. Batches for sheep breeders' use and other special wool batches are washed in Hiirola eco-friendly low temperatures with water heated with geothermal heat. Hydropower is used for all electricity in Hiirola and Jämsä, and the spinning mill is heated with geothermal heat. Pirtin kehräämös goal is a fully carbon-neutral production process in which Finnish natural products are manufactured using renewable energy.
Kultavilla Oy (Virkkala, Finland)
Kultavilla is a textile design studio and a small fabric mill managed by textile designer Susanna Kääriäinen. Kääriäinen works with different companies, and she designs and produces small orders, using mostly yarns from natural fibres, with certifications. It is located in Virkkala, Finland. Read more here.
Kudokko Oy (Oulu, Finland)
We decided to collaborate on a small knitwear development project for collection_02. Kudokko, a small knit design development company held by knitwear designer Miina Piippo specialises in machine-knitted garments. Piippo mainly uses linen in her developments, but we tried developing a machine-knitted set with a lightweight Finn sheep wool yarn in our collaboration.
Fashion pattern Oy (Espoo, Finland)
Our tailoring and heavy woven is cut and made at a local garment production studio called Fashion pattern.
Tuotenauha Oy (Lahti, Finland)
Founded in 1948, Tuotenauha Oy is one of the largest label manufacturers in the Nordics. They develop and produce product labels, ribbons, patches, and stickers according to the customers' wishes, with decades of experience and skill.
Tuotenauha produces all our neck, care and size labels from certified 100% cotton.
Tegade Oy (Tallin, Estonia)
Tegade, short for Technical garment design, is a small development studio in Tallinn, Estonia. Their skill and dedicated team help By Hinders create final prototype patterns and salesman samples and efficiently handle final production.
Tegade is a member of the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Estonian Clothing and Textile Association.
If you have any questions about our production partners or want to know more about our practices, please email us at info@byhinders.com.
You can read more about our materials here. Or, if you’d like to know how to care for your garments, read more here.