Rhodri had to go to Prague to meet a Czech outdoor clothing supplier, so he invited me along and we asked Nain and Taid to come down and look after the troops.
Rhods thought this supplier was based in Prague, but actually they are located a couple of hours by train outside of Prague. We flew over last night and were met at the airport by Lukasz (more on him later), who drove us to our hotel and then took us out for food and beer nearby. Then this morning Rhodri and I took the train out to Turnov to see this company.
We spent a couple of hours looking at clothing and asking questions of Marek, then Marek gave us a tour of the building. It turns out that the company doesn't just sell the clothing from here, they also make everything! From scratch!
I was amazed at the old school methods of manufacturing these well respected jackets, sleeping bags, and other pieces of kit. The ladies upstairs do everything from cutting fabric off a roll using hand drawn patterns, sewing each and every bit of bit of material, and then stuffing down into each little square of baffling on each down jacket!
The whole experience was really interesting and inspiring, actually. This company is a really small outfit, though, so probably won't be able to do much work with Nordic Life.
Anyway, once we got back to Prague on the train, we changed clothes and met Lukasz for an evening tour of the city. It was a gorgeous evening and we walked about 5 miles over the course of the night, stopping every now and then for provisions. He taught us a lot about Czech political history and also his own history of running various businesses in the city center! It was really fun to spend the evening with him.
Rhods thought this supplier was based in Prague, but actually they are located a couple of hours by train outside of Prague. We flew over last night and were met at the airport by Lukasz (more on him later), who drove us to our hotel and then took us out for food and beer nearby. Then this morning Rhodri and I took the train out to Turnov to see this company.We spent a couple of hours looking at clothing and asking questions of Marek, then Marek gave us a tour of the building. It turns out that the company doesn't just sell the clothing from here, they also make everything! From scratch!
I was amazed at the old school methods of manufacturing these well respected jackets, sleeping bags, and other pieces of kit. The ladies upstairs do everything from cutting fabric off a roll using hand drawn patterns, sewing each and every bit of bit of material, and then stuffing down into each little square of baffling on each down jacket!
Anyway, once we got back to Prague on the train, we changed clothes and met Lukasz for an evening tour of the city. It was a gorgeous evening and we walked about 5 miles over the course of the night, stopping every now and then for provisions. He taught us a lot about Czech political history and also his own history of running various businesses in the city center! It was really fun to spend the evening with him.
No comments:
Post a Comment