Team USA sweaters will bear Nazareth threads.
It isn’t the biggest order the company has taken in its 125-year history doing business in the Lehigh Valley, but it is probably one of the most significant.
Kraemer Yarns of Nazareth will spin the wool for Team USA’s opening ceremony sweaters at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. Kraemer Yarns is a subsidiary of Kraemer Textiles Inc.
The opportunity arose last summer when one of Kraemer Yarns’ customers, Imperial Stock Ranch in north central Oregon, received a call from Ralph Lauren’s design department inquiring about the 142-year-old, 35,000-acre family ranch’s sheep shearing practices, products and history.
That led to an order for 6,250 pounds of wool, which Kraemer Yarns will spin and send on to Longview Yarns in Hickory, N.C.,for dyeing. Finally, the dyed yarn will go to Ball of Cotton Inc., in Commerce, Calif., where it will be woven into sweaters and other made-in-America accouterments for Team USA.
