HEIKO WUNDER
Meet Heiko Wunder, the alchemist of the sustainable garment production and design. For many years he worked at high management positions at international fashion firms where he gathered rich industry know-how in areas such as design, production and global sourcing. This he is now putting in practice in his own brand wunderwerk, just with a strong ecological twist.
Don’t panic, it’s organic.
Date
12.01.2021
Text
Monika Hauck
photographer
Falco Peters
We talk to Heiko about the world-travel, challenges of starting a business, and of course, the future of fashion.
Tell us about yourself and your connection to Düsseldorf.
I am a real “Düsseldorfer”. I was born in Unterbilk and spend most of my childhood in Golzheim and Derendorf. I did my apprenticeship as an Industrial Management Assistant in men’s fashion and started working as a Brand Manager at the firm Stones. For 8 years I was specializing in men-confection, especially pants, men’s shirts and accessories. Then I was invited to work for ESPRIT. Working for a major international brand was quite a shock at the beginning, but it was also a great learning experience. Later on, I worked for TOM TAILOR, O’Neill and Vanilia. The core of my work was sourcing and technical development of products and collections. Since 1996 I was spending a lot of time in the Far East and could closely observe the garment production processes in countries such as China, Bangladesh, India and Indonesia.
“If you use organic cotton but dye and contaminate it with chlorine or potassium permanganate, it is the same as if you would make a vegan soup and use chicken broth.”
What inspired you to start a sustainable fashion brand?
I am vegetarian since 2006, and I have been living quite “green” all of my life. While on a business trip to Brazil, I came across sustainable cotton production and got fascinated about the idea. Already at O’Neill I started an organic cotton T-shirt line. It became clear to me that this is the future of fashion and that I want to run my own band with a focus on sustainability. But already back in 2011, when I started wunderwerk, it was clear to me that organic cotton alone is not enough. If you use organic cotton but dye and contaminate it with chlorine or potassium permanganate, it is the same as if you would make a vegan soup and use chicken broth.
It is no coincidence that wunderwerk has chosen “more than organic.” as its tagline. Sustainability needs to embrace all stages of the value chain. And then, apart from the production process, the design also needs to match the zeitgeist and appeal to mass consumers. Thus, wunderwerk is not only a fashion label with a “sustainable” background, but also a “love mark” that moves customers emotionally.
What were the biggest challenges as a founder?
Since I was 16, I was producing and selling hand painted t-shirts for my mother’s friends and I always dreamed about starting something on my own. But once I started working in the fashion industry, with each year I started earning more and more money and I got somewhat comfortable and lazy. Then I turned 40 and reached a point in life where it became clear to me that I either start now or never. I can surely say, it is never the right time to start your own business, but it is always the right time.
When I started, the biggest challenge was to translate my esthetic ideas into an organic product quality and to avoid all the chemicals. Going completely organic required a lot of pioneer work. GOTS certification was already existing, but the idea of sustainable production was still in its early days. It was a challenge to speak with suppliers, because they could not understand why one would like to have an organic quality, when it is 20% more expensive. And then, once you found suppliers who work with organic materials, it was a challenge to make them work sustainably all the way through. “If you cannot see it or taste it, why would you like to have it organic” they would ask.
At wunderwerk, even the pocket-lining of jeans are made from organic cotton. We also do not use plastic buttons and toxic chemical dyes. So, it was quite a challenge and in the beginning I needed to look for many solutions myself. Then, of course, as a creative person, once you become a founder you also need to take care of everything in the business, from website development to accounting, which might not be the most fun things, at least not for me. At my last position I had forty people in my division. At wunderwerk I first started all on my own.
Then you also have the issues of financing. In fashion, like in the Food and Beverage industry, you need to make big investments upfront. Banks in these industries are not very eager to give loans. At wunderwerk, we produce even the fabrics ourselves, so we need to order all the material beforehand. Our factory, for example, in Poland, receives all the materials, from fabrics to buttons – they only produce the end garment. Doing so guarantees quality, but it also requires a significant investment upfront and the sums can get high.
“I can surely say, it is never the right time to start your own business, but it is always the right time.”
Could you imagine having a garment factory in Düsseldorf?
Indeed, I was thinking about it. It would certainly be more expensive, but the biggest challenge would be to find people in Germany who want to sew clothes. In the meantime, even in countries like Greece or Portugal, it is getting more and more difficult to find qualified seamstresses.
I started working in fashion in the 90s, at the time when the Far East opened its doors. The inflation rate in China over the last 10 years was enormous. By now, China produces not only “cheap stuff”, but also many very high-quality and high-tech products. If this economical shift and technological advancement continues, who knows, maybe in 10-20 years we, in Germany, will be producing clothes for the Chinese.
Could in the future machines take over the job of a seamstress?
The knitting process, is already now very automated. Hand-knitting is barely done today. China is also really advanced in automated knitting. When it comes to sewing, Bangladesh, India, Vietnam and Cambodia are the leaders. However, I do not think that in a near future we will reach a point, where you can press a button and one machine makes you a piece of clothing. You always need several machines. You have many different processes – from dyeing the yarn to cutting the fabric to finally sewing, gluing and fixing – that are needed till you get a garment ready. For a fully-automized production one would need machines and robots, that would assist the workflow. Standard garments like T-Shirts are already done this way, but it is not possible to make many variations yet.
If you think about the future, when do you think robots will be producing our clothing?
Well, it is a question of investment. I am quite sure that already today it would be possible. Of course, robots could do it faster and more precise than humans. In this case, the geographic location of the garment production would lose the importance. Then we will no longer need seamstresses but would need to look for qualified employees who can do maintenance and program the machines.
Do you see any positive changes happening in the fashion industry?
Just like the food industry, the fashion industry has made significant improvements when it comes to sustainability. Five years ago, when somebody would have asked me if sustainability will ever become a trend, I would have said “people want sustainable products, but they do not want to pay for it and what people say and what they actually do or buy is often different”.
The global pandemic has changed a lot of things. I think foremost the respect to one another has increased. We became more attentive to the people around us and started to think and act more long-term oriented. This concerns our relationships with other people but also the environment. So, there are also positive side effects, which will hopefully help shift the consumers and the fashion industry towards a more sustainable behavior.
What do you do with unsold products?
I do not like the word “sale”. It is a sign of bad procurement and business management practice. Unfortunately, the industry educated its consumers that they wait for sale before they buy anything. We already have winter pullovers in the shops in July, when nobody wants to buy them. Then in November, when it gets cold, it is already 50% reduced. How ridiculous is this?
Brands that do not play this game have it difficult. But the sale habit is linked to certain brands only. Brands like CHANEL, Bottega Veneta, or Hermes never do this. Their brand management is very smart – they do not overproduce, quite the opposite. This is also a type of sustainability. At wunderwerk, we do not have a mid-session sale. We have a lot of “essentials” which never get reduced. Then of course we might have a very seasonable piece which sold well but maybe there is still one T-Shirt left in size XS or XXL. We would not destroy it but put it to our own outlet store. We have an outlet store, or more of an outlet garage, that opens every 1st Saturday of the month, at our headquarters at the Ackerstrasse 133 in Düsseldorf next to our regular store.
We sell sample pieces or unsold stock from previous collections, with 20-50% discount. We never throw away or burn our own goods. In our outlet store you can find T-shirts which are several collections old. But our consumers do not care. They know that the quality is the same and they are happy to buy it for a slightly reduced price. We can do this because we own and manage our own stores. The story is very different once you work with big e-commerce players or department stores. You have no other choice but to follow the rules of the sale season game – for small brands this can be really detrimental.
“We want to appeal to a modern consumer, but we also want our customers to be able to wear our designs for many years and not just one season - this is an important part of sustainability in fashion.”
Did the global pandemic affect your business?
Just like for the whole fashion industry, it has been a difficult year for us. By now we have five wunderwerk stores; the latest one opened on Sylt on March 14th and had to close again just four days later. But on the positive side, we had to significantly invest and improve in our e-commerce offering – channel, which is now doing very well.
Are you involved in the design process of wunderwerk collections?
I am involved in every process of the business, from the actual garment production and design of the collection to the store management and sales. But of course, I also have a design team. We work closely together. We frequently analyze our past collections, our “bestsellers” but also our “worst sellers”. From this you can learn so much and improve.
When I design a collection, I consider three things: our own classic and bestseller pieces, direct customers’ and the store managers’ feedback, and I observe the zeitgeist and what is trending in the markets. I like to watch high-street fashion shows. The work of Valentino or Balenciaga I highly appreciate.
Taking into consideration all three aspects, we develop colors and then we stick to them for years or at least until we have a particular fabric. At wunderwerk we never throw away fabric. Now, in the corona times, we could use the rests of the fabric, which we have for many years, and produce masks.
Where do you look for inspiration?
I travel a lot and then I have the “unbiased opinion” from my loyal customers. wunderwerk does not want to be revolutionary in design. Our USP is the quality. We do not want to reinvent fashion and do new things every season. We are somewhere in the middle; we follow trends and zeitgeist and want to appeal to a modern consumer, but we also want our customers to be able to wear our designs for many years and not just one season – this is an important part of sustainability in fashion.
Do you have a favorite piece of clothing and a special story about it?
There is this one pair of jeans which I really love. They are from our first wunderwerk collection, which arrived in 2013. These jeans were darker because, back then, we were not able to get this “used look” without using harmful chemicals. Now, over the years of wearing them, they got a used look and look way lighter. They got this used look by me wearing them and living in them. This makes them special – they remind me of all the ups and downs I went through while starting wunderwerk. I am proud to be able to say that all our jeans are made from organic cotton, without any toxic chemicals, and using only high-quality “made in Germany” buttons.
“Düsseldorf fashion has a lot of clichés, which are connected to Königsallee and the luxury brand shopping. But the city has way more to offer.”
What do you think about the fashion industry in Düsseldorf?
The city of Düsseldorf likes to claim itself as a fashion capital. But I think the city also needs to do more in order to keep it this way. There are quite a few activities on the business side of things, but there could also be more things happening when it comes to creativity. Cologne and Berlin, in my opinion, are more courageous in this regard.
Creativity needs to be fostered from very early on. And this needs to be done not only with financial means but also with innovative formats, which come from the industry itself. Fashion has to do with movement, zeitgeist and change. Nothing is constant in fashion. Thus, fashion needs constant reinvention. We need to foster this development.
Fashion in Düsseldorf also has a lot of clichés, which are connected to the Königsallee and the luxury brand shopping. But the city has way more to offer. For instance, a year ago I met the Düsseldorf designer Norman Icking, who in Düsseldorf Flingern makes wonderful handmade wedding dresses. He and his wife are very creative and kind people. I was surprised that I did not hear about their work before.
How do you imagine the future of the fashion industry? Do we even need fashion?
Sustainable will definitely be a key topic in the years to come. However, this topic will also get very political and may get misused. We will see large and small fashion brands making commitments to use organic cotton or recycled materials. The question is: How many of these promises will be kept? But we, humans, will always need fashion – sustainable or not. Fashion represents the zeitgeist. Fashion is a way to express ourselves and our feelings.
What would you recommend to Fashion Design students graduating this year?
Before you think about fashion, you should first think about what drives you and makes you excited. For me, it was always important to work on developing new things. I am grateful that I could realize this craving at wunderwerk. Once we started, we were sustainable fashion pioneers in Germany. Even today, we are constantly working on developing new fabrics and materials.
Then, you should always follow your heart. But, on the other side, you should also be more pragmatic and acknowledge that nowadays there are many other new and great jobs in fashion. Not every Fashion Design student needs to become a start designer. There are a lot of interesting roles in e-commerce, production and material development. With fashion being one of the most polluting industries in the world, we need to invest more energy and seriously think about new ways of how to produce fashion that does not have negative impact on people and the planet.
Is there a trip which changed your life?
Because of my previous work, I used to travel a lot. Peru and the provinces of Lima have kept a particularly special place in my heart. I love the people there and their joy for life. I am grateful for all the travel which I could do. These trips, especially the trips to South America, inspired me to start wunderwerk.
What is the best thing on the planet earth?
I love nature. Nature gives me energy. Oceans, mountains, or deserts, I enjoy it all. As a boy I was fascinated by stars, black panthers and eagles. Later on, spiders caught my attention. Spider nets are seven times as elastic as iron and three times as hard. The way insects – bees and ants – organize and work together is very interesting. They do not fight, there is no ego.
WE THANK SAY YAS TO YOUR BEAUTY FOR THE WONDERFUL MAKE-UP!
MORE INTERVIEWS
Meet Heiko Wunder, the alchemist of the sustainable garment production and design. For many years he worked at high management positions at international fashion firms, where he gathered rich industry know-how in areas such as design, production and global sourcing. This he is now putting in practice in his own brand wunderwerk, just with a strong ecological twist.
Don’t panic, it’s organic.
Date
12.01.2021
Text
Monika Hauck
Photographer
Falco Peters
We talk to Heiko about the world-travel, challenges of starting a business, and of course, the future of fashion.
Tell us about yourself and your connection to Düsseldorf.
I am a real “Düsseldorfer”. I was born in Unterbilk and spend most of my childhood in Golzheim and Derendorf. I did my apprenticeship as an Industrial Management Assistant in men’s fashion and started working as a Brand Manager at the firm Stones. For 8 years I was specializing in men-confection, especially pants, men’s shirts and accessories. Then I was invited to work for ESPRIT. Working for a major international brand was quite a shock at the beginning, but it was also a great learning experience. Later on, I worked for TOM TAILOR, O’Neill and Vanilia. The core of my work was sourcing and technical development of products and collections. Since 1996 I was spending a lot of time in the Far East and could closely observe the garment production processes in countries such as China, Bangladesh, India and Indonesia.
“If you use organic cotton but dye and contaminate it with chlorine or potassium permanganate, it is the same as if you would make a vegan soup and use chicken broth.”
What inspired you to start a sustainable fashion brand?
I am vegetarian since 2006, and I have been living quite “green” all of my life. While on a business trip to Brazil, I came across sustainable cotton production and got fascinated about the idea. Already at O’Neill I started an organic cotton T-shirt line. It became clear to me that this is the future of fashion and that I want to run my own band with a focus on sustainability. But already back in 2011, when I started wunderwerk, it was clear to me that organic cotton alone is not enough. If you use organic cotton but dye and contaminate it with chlorine or potassium permanganate, it is the same as if you would make a vegan soup and use chicken broth.
It is no coincidence that wunderwerk has chosen “more than organic.” as its tagline. Sustainability needs to embrace all stages of the value chain. And then, apart from the production process, the design also needs to match the zeitgeist and appeal to mass consumers. Thus, wunderwerk is not only a fashion label with a “sustainable” background, but also a “love mark” that moves customers emotionally.
What were the biggest challenges as a founder?
Since I was 16, I was producing and selling hand painted t-shirts for my mother’s friends and I always dreamed about starting something on my own. But once I started working in the fashion industry, with each year I started earning more and more money and I got somewhat comfortable and lazy. Then I turned 40 and reached a point in life where it became clear to me that I either start now or never. I can surely say, it is never the right time to start your own business, but it is always the right time.
When I started, the biggest challenge was to translate my esthetic ideas into an organic product quality and to avoid all the chemicals. Going completely organic required a lot of pioneer work. GOTS certification was already existing, but the idea of sustainable production was still in its early days. It was a challenge to speak with suppliers, because they could not understand why one would like to have an organic quality, when it is 20% more expensive. And then, once you found suppliers who work with organic materials, it was a challenge to make them work sustainably all the way through. “If you cannot see it or taste it, why would you like to have it organic” they would ask.
At wunderwerk, even the pocket-lining of jeans are made from organic cotton. We also do not use plastic buttons and toxic chemical dyes. So, it was quite a challenge and in the beginning I needed to look for many solutions myself. Then, of course, as a creative person, once you become a founder you also need to take care of everything in the business, from website development to accounting, which might not be the most fun things, at least not for me. At my last position I had forty people in my division. At wunderwerk I first started all on my own.
Then you also have the issues of financing. In fashion, like in the Food and Beverage industry, you need to make big investments upfront. Banks in these industries are not very eager to give loans. At wunderwerk, we produce even the fabrics ourselves, so we need to order all the material beforehand. Our factory, for example, in Poland, receives all the materials, from fabrics to buttons – they only produce the end garment. Doing so guarantees quality, but it also requires a significant investment upfront and the sums can get high.
“I can surely say, it is never the right time to start your own business, but it is always the right time.”
Could you imagine having a garment factory in Düsseldorf?
Indeed, I was thinking about it. It would certainly be more expensive, but the biggest challenge would be to find people in Germany who want to sew clothes. In the meantime, even in countries like Greece or Portugal, it is getting more and more difficult to find qualified seamstresses.
I started working in fashion in the 90s, at the time when the Far East opened its doors. The inflation rate in China over the last 10 years was enormous. By now, China produces not only “cheap stuff”, but also many very high-quality and high-tech products. If this economical shift and technological advancement continues, who knows, maybe in 10-20 years we, in Germany, will be producing clothes for the Chinese.
Could in the future machines take over the job of a seamstress?
The knitting process, is already now very automated. Hand-knitting is barely done today. China is also really advanced in automated knitting. When it comes to sewing, Bangladesh, India, Vietnam and Cambodia are the leaders. However, I do not think that in a near future we will reach a point, where you can press a button and one machine makes you a piece of clothing. You always need several machines. You have many different processes – from dyeing the yarn to cutting the fabric to finally sewing, gluing and fixing – that are needed till you get a garment ready. For a fully-automized production one would need machines and robots, that would assist the workflow. Standard garments like T-Shirts are already done this way, but it is not possible to make many variations yet.
If you think about the future, when do you think robots will be producing our clothing?
Well, it is a question of investment. I am quite sure that already today it would be possible. Of course, robots could do it faster and more precise than humans. In this case, the geographic location of the garment production would lose the importance. Then we will no longer need seamstresses but would need to look for qualified employees who can do maintenance and program the machines.
Do you see any positive changes happening in the fashion industry?
Just like the food industry, the fashion industry has made significant improvements when it comes to sustainability. Five years ago, when somebody would have asked me if sustainability will ever become a trend, I would have said “people want sustainable products, but they do not want to pay for it and what people say and what they actually do or buy is often different”.
The global pandemic has changed a lot of things. I think foremost the respect to one another has increased. We became more attentive to the people around us and started to think and act more long-term oriented. This concerns our relationships with other people but also the environment. So, there are also positive side effects, which will hopefully help shift the consumers and the fashion industry towards a more sustainable behavior.
What do you do with unsold products?
I do not like the word “sale”. It is a sign of bad procurement and business management practice. Unfortunately, the industry educated its consumers that they wait for sale before they buy anything. We already have winter pullovers in the shops in July, when nobody wants to buy them. Then in November, when it gets cold, it is already 50% reduced. How ridiculous is this?
Brands that do not play this game have it difficult. But the sale habit is linked to certain brands only. Brands like CHANEL, Bottega Veneta, or Hermes never do this. Their brand management is very smart – they do not overproduce, quite the opposite. This is also a type of sustainability. At wunderwerk, we do not have a mid-session sale. We have a lot of “essentials” which never get reduced. Then of course we might have a very seasonable piece which sold well but maybe there is still one T-Shirt left in size XS or XXL. We would not destroy it but put it to our own outlet store. We have an outlet store, or more of an outlet garage, that opens every 1st Saturday of the month, at our headquarters at the Ackerstrasse 133 in Düsseldorf next to our regular store.
We sell sample pieces or unsold stock from previous collections, with 20-50% discount. We never throw away or burn our own goods. In our outlet store you can find T-shirts which are several collections old. But our consumers do not care. They know that the quality is the same and they are happy to buy it for a slightly reduced price. We can do this because we own and manage our own stores. The story is very different once you work with big e-commerce players or department stores. You have no other choice but to follow the rules of the sale season game – for small brands this can be really detrimental.
“We want to appeal to a modern consumer, but we also want our customers to be able to wear our designs for many years and not just one season - this is an important partof sustainability in fashion.”
Did the global pandemic affect your business?
Just like for the whole fashion industry, it has been a difficult year for us. By now we have five wunderwerk stores; the latest one opened on Sylt on March 14th and had to close again just four days later. But on the positive side, we had to significantly invest and improve in our e-commerce offering – channel, which is now doing very well.
Are you involved in the design process of wunderwerk collections?
I am involved in every process of the business, from the actual garment production and design of the collection to the store management and sales. But of course, I also have a design team. We work closely together. We frequently analyze our past collections, our “bestsellers” but also our “worst sellers”. From this you can learn so much and improve.
When I design a collection, I consider three things: our own classic and bestseller pieces, direct customers’ and the store managers’ feedback, and I observe the zeitgeist and what is trending in the markets. I like to watch high-street fashion shows. The work of Valentino or Balenciaga I highly appreciate.
Taking into consideration all three aspects, we develop colors and then we stick to them for years or at least until we have a particular fabric. At wunderwerk we never throw away fabric. Now, in the corona times, we could use the rests of the fabric, which we have for many years, and produce masks.
Where do you look for inspiration?
I travel a lot and then I have the “unbiased opinion” from my loyal customers. wunderwerk does not want to be revolutionary in design. Our USP is the quality. We do not want to reinvent fashion and do new things every season. We are somewhere in the middle; we follow trends and zeitgeist and want to appeal to a modern consumer, but we also want our customers to be able to wear our designs for many years and not just one season – this is an important part of sustainability in fashion.
Do you have a favorite piece of clothing and a special story about it?
There is this one pair of jeans which I really love. They are from our first wunderwerk collection, which arrived in 2013. These jeans were darker because, back then, we were not able to get this “used look” without using harmful chemicals. Now, over the years of wearing them, they got a used look and look way lighter. They got this used look by me wearing them and living in them. This makes them special – they remind me of all the ups and downs I went through while starting wunderwerk. I am proud to be able to say that all our jeans are made from organic cotton, without any toxic chemicals, and using only high-quality “made in Germany” buttons.
“Düsseldorf fashion has a lot of clichés, which are connected to Königsallee and the luxury brand shopping. But the city has way more to offer.”
What do you think about the fashion industry in Düsseldorf?
The city of Düsseldorf likes to claim itself as a fashion capital. But I think the city also needs to do more in order to keep it this way. There are quite a few activities on the business side of things, but there could also be more things happening when it comes to creativity. Cologne and Berlin, in my opinion, are more courageous in this regard.
Creativity needs to be fostered from very early on. And this needs to be done not only with financial means but also with innovative formats, which come from the industry itself. Fashion has to do with movement, zeitgeist and change. Nothing is constant in fashion. Thus, fashion needs constant reinvention. We need to foster this development.
Fashion in Düsseldorf also has a lot of clichés, which are connected to the Königsallee and the luxury brand shopping. But the city has way more to offer. For instance, a year ago I met the Düsseldorf designer Norman Icking, who in Düsseldorf Flingern makes wonderful handmade wedding dresses. He and his wife are very creative and kind people. I was surprised that I did not hear about their work before.
How do you imagine the future of the fashion industry? Do we even need fashion?
Sustainable will definitely be a key topic in the years to come. However, this topic will also get very political and may get misused. We will see large and small fashion brands making commitments to use organic cotton or recycled materials. The question is: How many of these promises will be kept? But we, humans, will always need fashion – sustainable or not. Fashion represents the zeitgeist. Fashion is a way to express ourselves and our feelings.
What would you recommend to Fashion Design students graduating this year?
Before you think about fashion, you should first think about what drives you and makes you excited. For me, it was always important to work on developing new things. I am grateful that I could realize this craving at wunderwerk. Once we started, we were sustainable fashion pioneers in Germany. Even today, we are constantly working on developing new fabrics and materials.
Then, you should always follow your heart. But, on the other side, you should also be more pragmatic and acknowledge that nowadays there are many other new and great jobs in fashion. Not every Fashion Design student needs to become a start designer. There are a lot of interesting roles in e-commerce, production and material development. With fashion being one of the most polluting industries in the world, we need to invest more energy and seriously think about new ways of how to produce fashion that does not have negative impact on people and the planet.
Is there a trip which changed your life?
Because of my previous work, I used to travel a lot. Peru and the provinces of Lima have kept a particularly special place in my heart. I love the people there and their joy for life. I am grateful for all the travel which I could do. These trips, especially the trips to South America, inspired me to start wunderwerk.
What is the best thing on the planet earth?
I love nature. Nature gives me energy. Oceans, mountains, or deserts, I enjoy it all. As a boy I was fascinated by stars, black panthers and eagles. Later on, spiders caught my attention. Spider nets are seven times as elastic as iron and three times as hard. The way insects – bees and ants – organize and work together is very interesting. They do not fight, there is no ego.
WE THANK SAY YAS TO YOUR BEAUTY FOR THE WONDERFUL MAKE-UP!
MORE INTERVIEWS
