Can You Improve Nature?

Super Natural . It’s certainly an ambitious plan. Natural fibres are currently all the rage; one might even brand them as inevitable. Super Natural Europe is brave enough to try and optimise the properties of natural fibres.

Text: Dörte Welti. Photos: Super Natural It is a delicate mission. It’s difficult, needs to be explained, and initially brings a frown to people’s faces. Pure merino wool is really not the ultimate fabric? Thommy Stumpp, the managing director of Super Natural Europe, is eager to educate the public: “If you are wearing pure merino wool directly on the skin while pursuing activities such as hiking or skiing, the wool naturally absorbs the sweat. It becomes moist and heavy; the clammy feeling remains.” And it scratches too. Everyone knows that rather uncomfortable sensation. One wants to be environmentally conscious and wear natural fibres such as functional merino wool that the sheep of this world have put to the test. But it itches. “Exactly”, says Thommy Stumpp. Just like his colleagues at Super Natural Europe, he started off in the skiing industry and was most recently the managing director of Rossignol Germany. The team loves extensive ski tours and being active in general. The perfect way to develop the best equipment.

The “Touch & Feel” Experience

Good fortune struck two years ago. Thommy Stumpp met an

individual who raved about a new fabric that is a blend of merino wool and an intelligent synthetic fibre. “Suddenly it became possible to have the best of both worlds”, Thommy Stumpp recapitulates. “It combined the advantages of nature with the advantages of modern technology.” It’s not exactly rocket science, especially as blended fabrics have been on the market for ages. So what is new about this particular material? “The two fibres are used in a 50:50 proportion and interwoven super delicately”, Stumpp explains. Nothing is coated or layered; the wearing comfort is truly exquisite. The comfort is enhanced even more by the fact that some items have some Lycra content. The fields of application are limitless. However, Super Natural decided to tread a new path. The company decided against simply creating a saleable collection with the new fibre, but opted for producing no more than two items and sending out countless samples. This is how the customers were convinced that the new product is truly exceptional. Then Super Natural started designing what the market actually wanted. The items are not seasonal, by the way. After all, the retail industry - especially the sport and

Thommy Stumpp found his mission in life at Super Natural.

fashion segment - is always on the lookout for optimal products that are desirable all year round. Come sunshine, rain, or snow, multifunctional use is simply better than pure active-wear.

Market Demand to Product

Super Natural started off with a casual running collection, added a yoga balance range, and finally also started thinking about travelling. People who spend 13 hours on a flight to Shanghai tend to have a musty body odour upon landing. This doesn’t happen when the travellers are wrapped in Super Natural clothing. The entire company is a system partner of Bluesign, which is a quality certificate that guarantees that the entire value chain is sustainable, socially responsible, and environmentally neutral. Thommy Stumpp trusts his Chinese production associate, especially as the partners - three in all - share belief in the concept as a whole. The majority of the merino wool is obtained from farmers in New Zealand, by the way. Not all the wool is from there. The country doesn’t have enough sheep to supply as much wool as the market claims to purchase. That would be supernatural. It’s also a completely different story.

Super Natural Europe GmbH, Munich/Germany, T 0049.89.323 87733, office@sn-europe.com, www.sn-supernatural.com