Quality pays off – in the long run anyway
Gota is a fully integrated textile company based in the Swabian Alb region of southwest Germany, which already makes it quite unique. On top of this though, Gota works with machines that others wrote off decades ago. As a passionate collector of old textile machines, Gota’s owner Rudolf Loder is master of a range of machinery that on average is considerably older than he is himself. With it, Gota manufactures under- and outerwear for various brands, including “Merz b. Schwanen”. Demand far exceeds supply.
In many cases, the manufacturer of these vintage knitting machines is Mayer & Cie., now the world’s leading circular knitting machine producer. Gota’s oldest item from this brand is a 104-year-old spring needle machine, currently unused, but which Loder assures he can bring into service at any time. There are also slightly younger spring needle machines by MCT whirring away at Gota on a daily basis, which have thus long outlived their own production line; Mayer & Cie. terminated it back in 1958. The latest machines in Loder’s selection have “only” around 20 years under their belts. They too bear the MCT emblem and, according to Rudolf Loder, they function like all his oldies, “outstandingly well and very, very reliably”.Produced just as before …
At first glance, Gota is a company that really should no longer exist in these times of “higher, faster, further”: old, slow machines that require trained specialists to operate them and which produce correspondingly expensive materials. Manufacturer Rudolf Loder proves the contrary however, as he successfully makes use of the strengths of his decades-old machines. Consistency, reliability, workmanship in both the fabric and the machine – these are clear to anyone who treads the creaking floorboards of the factory and sees these old machines, most over 60 years old, at work. And it’s precisely these attributes that are once again much in demand. “We currently have so many orders that we are working day and night and our machines are usually running for 30 hours at a time. They actually manage that much better than idling, just like people really,” says Gota’s owner. The right people for the machines is undoubtedly Loder’s by far bigger challenge, because the skilled workers who are still able to operate the vintage machines are now at best retired.
The company behind many of the machines, which would otherwise only appear in museums, is Mayer & Cie., founded in 1905. There is a four-system spring needle machine from MCT dating back to 1950, machine number 3616. The production of these machines was discontinued by Mayer & Cie. more than half a century ago in favour of the more productive circular knitting machines. Nevertheless, the fabrics produced are elastic and yet keep their form, since there is no distortion. Previously, therefore, they were used almost exclusively for underwear. From this stems an important USP for Gota: Loder does not attempt to knit something that appears and feels like your grandfather’s shirt, but indeed with his old, reliable machines it is quite simply the very same shirt your grandfather would have worn. Under the brand “Merz b. Schwanen”, this item of clothing has achieved international cult status.with the values to match
Nevertheless, Gota’s machines are able to do much more. Up-to-the-minute children’s underwear in body sizes, for example. This is produced using the most modern circular knitting machines in the company, both built in 1998 and both by Mayer & Cie.: one FV 2.0 and one FHG II. Rudolf Loder acquired them from an Irish firm that was going into liquidation and put them to use. “They work brilliantly.”
In addition to the long lifespan, Loder particularly appreciates the flexibility of the old machines from Mayer & Cie. and other traditional manufacturers, which in many cases no longer exist. “These machines are unbelievably diverse, firstly in relation to the yarn they are able to work with. Cotton, silk, wool, anything goes,” says company owner Loder. “Hence, we have had enquiries from several manufacturers of sports equipment, who want high-quality wool to be made into functional underwear.”
Secondly Gota also makes use of the fact that many different knitted items and qualities can be produced using a single machine. The bandwidth ranges from 440 g/m2 lining material made of pure cotton to silk shirts with 70 g/m2. “We are able to produce small batches. Today’s machines are highly productive specialists, whereas we have slow all-rounders,” explains Loder with a wink of affection for his vintage machinery.
One of these all-rounders is waiting for its next job. It is a Mayer circular knitting machine from the very early days, a 14-inch, gauge E21 interlock machine. The machine number is 1507, so the machine would have been built in the late 1940s, but it’s far from the oldest Mayer machine at Gota. That one is currently dismantled in the cellar amidst a colourful collection of new acquisitions. It is a spring needle machine, number 672, which was manufactured in 1913, eight years after the foundation of Mayer & Cie. It might take some effort to get it running, explains Loder, who is passionate about the machines. “That’s about a day’s work, but then it will run smoothly again. And why wouldn’t it?”