Nester Hosiery has joined the bluesign system, designed to facilitate sustainable textile production by reducing its impact on people and the environment. The bluesign system is based on an applied practice called Input Stream Management. Bluesign helps its partners to properly manage chemicals and to replace hazardous chemicals with safer alternatives, said the company. The system unites all aspects of the supply chain to jointly reduce the 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.”
Nester is bluesign’s first Socks Manufacturer System Partner in the U.S., 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,” said Dumain. “I have known Nester Hosiery for many years personally and I couldn’t be more pleased to have them as part of our bluesign community.”
Nester Hosiery also 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% over the past five years. In 2013 Nester Hosiery launched Farm to Feet which is committed to the single, simple goal of creating the world’s best socks by exclusively using an all-American recipe: US materials, US manufacturing, and US workers.
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.
