About
We are a so-called fully processing flat knitting company, which means that we not only produce our knitted fabrics ourselves, but also process them further. Equipped with the most modern Stoll flat knitting machines and all the necessary ready-to-wear machines, we produce everything in-house at the foot of the Swabian Alb, from pattern making to the finished product.
On 12 July 1939, our grandfather Adolf Reiff founded the company Reiff Strick in Gönningen, with a knitting machine on the ground floor of his parents' house. A lot has happened since then.
The house rapidly became too small and he decided to build a factory at Weiherstraße 19. He moved the company there in 1965. At that time, about ten employees mainly produced baby jackets, rompers and little bonnets from bleached cotton.
In 1976, his son Manfred Reiff took over his parents' business and expanded the product range to include women's and men's outerwear. He recognised the spirit of the times early and developed washable nappy trousers made of organic wool. The beginning of ecological textiles was made. For this he was smiled at by many of his competitors. But the demand for these products increased and once again the space became too small.
In 1985, the sewing department moved into new facilities at Hauptstraße 10. The product range became more diverse, the amount of organic textiles became more and more important. But production was exclusively for the wholesale market. These wholesalers increasingly began to have their products manufactured abroad. This created a difficult economical time for us.
Nevertheless, we siblings Axel Reiff and Andrea Reiff took over the business in 2002 as the third generation and presented our own brand for the first time at the International Natural Textile Fair in January 2003.
Since then, our business, now exclusively producing organic textiles, has grown steadily. The premises had also become too limited again, a new move for confection and factory outlet was on 2011's agenda. Since then, we have been producing on 800 square metres and are pleased that the quality of our products is so well liked by our customers.
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our articles are made of merino wool. The merino sheep are kept according to the strict criteria of organic animal farming (kbT.) in South America (Patagonia).
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the wool is mulesing-free. Among other things, this is a minimum requirement for organic animal farming. Mulesing is used after fly maggot infestation in the anus area of the sheep. The fly species mainly responsible for this is not native to South America. After shearing and washing, the wool is shipped to Germany. Further processing, such as spinning and dyeing, is done in Germany or Europe. Synthetic colours are used for dyeing. All steps up to this point, from sheep farming to the ready-to-knit yarn, are certified according to the guidelines of the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS). To a large extent, even the stricter standard of the IVN (International Association of the Natural Textile Industry) is achieved. The bobbins of yarn - packed in cardboard boxes - are delivered to us or to our partner companies, who use them to produce those fabrics for us for which we do not have the appropriate knitting machines. The entire production process therefore takes place at our premises or within a radius of no more than 50 km.
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we follow the strict guidelines of GOTS and IVN in our production. We have been a member of the IVN (Internationaler Verband der Naturtextilwirtschaft e.V.) for more than 10 years.
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