Why there's an NGO attached to a knitwear brand

Nogoon Nutag is an independent conservation initiative, and Wollken Studio exists in part to fund it. The two were set up alongside each other on purpose.

The reason sits in how the fibre market works. A herding family that wants to earn more has one reliable lever: more animals. Grassland in the Khangai is finite, so more animals means more pressure on ground that is already carrying as much as it can. Meanwhile the family that raised the fibre sees a fraction of what the finished garment eventually sells for in Europe, because the value gets added after the raw material leaves the country and leaves the herder's hands.

Neither of those things is anyone's fault. Both are what the incentives produce.

Changing what gets paid for

Running our own brand means we set the price at the end of the chain and decide how the margin is split. We can pay for fineness, cleanliness and grading rather than for volume, which is the one signal the commodity trade never sends.

That changes the arithmetic on the pasture. If a smaller quantity of well-sorted fibre earns what a larger quantity used to, a family can hold a smaller herd and end the year in the same place financially. Fewer animals on the same ground gives the grass time to come back. Grass that comes back carries better animals the following year, which produce better fibre, which is worth more again.

That is the cycle we're trying to close.

What the brand funds

A share of what Wollken Studio earns goes to Nogoon Nutag, which puts it into pasture restoration, the development of a Responsible Production Standard for Mongolian fibre, and the traceability system behind our Digital Product Passports.

So when you buy a scarf or a cardigan from us, part of the price is going back up the chain it came from. The Digital Product Passport is there so you can see exactly where.