A knitwear designer and a textile engineer from Germany teamed up in 2018 to create Chiengora®, a yarn made from 100% combed out dog undercoat. In addition to hand knitting yarn, they have also developed an industrial yarn, providing a sustainable wool alternative for the fashion industry. Dog undercoat exists in abundance and has mostly been a household waste. The source of the raw material comes from a network of dog undercoat collectors, and in addition, they have the chance to donate all or part of the proceeds of the sent in undercoat to a non-profit animal welfare project. In their online shop, Modus Intarsia offers a range of products made from dog wool, such as hats, sweaters or socks.

Combed out dog undercoat is an unused resource that can be spun into yarn but has been ignored until now. More than 85 million dogs are kept as pets in Europe alone, and over 100 tonnes of combed undercoat is discarded. Wool and other animal hair account for a small per cent of the fibre market but still impact eco-systems enormously. Breeding sheep and other animals to produce these yarns can also pose immense animal welfare problems.

Modus Intarsia has built a network of private dog undercoat collectors with whom they are working together to save this previously underutilised resource. Chiengora® provides an alternative to conventionally bred and spun animal wool that is transparently and fairly produced in Europe.

Photo source: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0507/9380/8032/files/ModusIntarsia_Intern-27-1024x683_2048x2048.jpg?v=1604045562