Nester Hosiery, the U.S. manufacturer of performance merino wool socks, has joined the bluesign system, which is designed to facilitate sustainable textile production by reducing its impact on people and the environment.“To produce bluesign certified socks in our facility has been a long-term goal,” said Kelly Nester. Nester Hosiery Chief Executive Officer. “With the designation we can provide our current and future partners with the mechanisms to make socks in the most sustainable manner available.”
bluesign has been designed to help its partners properly manage chemicals and to replace hazardous chemicals with safer alternatives. The system unites all aspects of the supply chain to jointly reduce the impact on people and the environment. With its holistic approach based on Input Stream Management, the bluesign system ensures responsible use of resources and guarantees the highest level of consumer safety.
“We are glad to be partnering with Nester Hosiery as our first Socks Manufacturer System Partner in the US. Nester Hosiery has shown its leadership in sustainable production and has proven its ability to implement the most stringent criteria for environment protection, occupational health and safety as well as for consumer safety,” said Jill Dumain, Chief Executive Officer at bluesign technologies. “The partnership is a step further for the bluesign system to show that responsible production is possible for a complete range of products.”
Nester Hosiery says it was the first sock manufacturer to submit its facility self-assessment to the Sustainable Apparel Coalition’s Higg Index starting in 2012. The tool has allowed them to both assess and to obtain insights on areas for improvement. For example, these insights have helped them reduce their solid waste by 16 per cent over the past five years.
Nester Hosiery currently produces socks for over two dozen leading brands and retailers, and holds the sock license for the Woolrich brand and Rocky Brands’ divisions of Rocky Outdoor, Georgia Boot and Durango. In 2013 Nester Hosiery launched Farm to Feet which is committed to creating the world’s best socks by exclusively using an all-American production process: US materials, US manufacturing, and US workers.
