Manufacture of knitwear — from wool to knitwear

Where are the sweaters made?

RIVA's team members went on a factory visit to our partner Garlita in Lithuania. Garlita is a Lithuanian knitwear family business in Kaunas with more than 50 years of experience in the textile industry. The collaboration between Garlita and RIVA started when RIVA wanted to expand its product range to knitwear.

Garlita employs around 200 skilled workers for various tasks in the factory. It was wonderful to see how every step in the production of knitwear is polished to its peak and all the details are made with incredible quality. Sustainable, organic and innovative knitwear are the core of Garlita's production. Already in the factory yard, the fact that the roof of the factory is full of solar panels immediately caught the eye. Garlita uses 100% electricity from renewable energy sources.

We have been in close contact with the factory throughout our cooperation so far, but during the factory visit we were able to get to know the factory's various possibilities, personnel, processes and equipment even better. We really learned a lot from the visit and, of course, got inspiration for the future. We can promise that there will be sweaters in the selection in the future, and in the fall there will be an incredibly wonderful selection of sweaters!

Knitting production — from idea to product

The wool used in our sweaters comes from an Italian producer and Chilean sheep. The wool is delivered to the Garlita factory in Lithuania, where it is spun into yarn. All the yarns we use are carefully selected, high quality and responsibly produced. Our sweaters use mulesing-free merino wool. You can read more about merino wool as a material in this article.

• The journey of knitting from idea to product begins with the design of the product and the choice of colors according to your wishes. We regularly make inquiries about future products and constantly take your wishes into account. Based on these, ideas for new products are born.
• When the sweater is designed, the plan is sent to the factory. At the factory, the measurements and details of the sweater are fed to the machine, after which the knitting machine knits the pieces of the sweater into shape. As a production method, knitting to form allows for very little waste to be produced in the production of knitwear, as there is hardly any cutting waste.

• The pieces are then washed and steamed. The pieces of the sweater are connected by linking, which requires a lot of skillful handwork.
• The products are finished by adding the brand name and price tags. The products go through a quality inspection, where they are checked and sifted through individually. If a product does not meet the quality criteria and is found to be of second quality, it is disassembled into yarn, after which the yarn is reused.
• Finally, the sweaters are packed and sent to our warehouse, where they can be sold and used!