What does brewing beer have to do with making a T-shirt?
At first glance, not very much. One starts with hops, malt and water; the other with fibres, fabrics and an entirely different supply chain.
But when Neumarkter Lammsbräu decided to launch its own fashion and merchandise range, one question connected the two worlds: How can the values behind a brand and their organic ingredient approach for beer extend beyond its core products?
Lammsbräu has been brewing in Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz since 1628 and has focused on purely organic agriculture for more than 40 years. Today, the company is run in the seventh generation and employs 142 people. Its range includes organic, mostly alcohol-free beer varieties, glutenfree varities, soft drinks and mineral water.
Fashion, however, was new territory.
“As a brewery, we naturally have little expertise of our own in the textile industry,” Lammsbräu explains.
Rather than trying to become textile experts themselves, Lammsbräu looked for a partner with experience in the industry. After conversations with several manufacturers, they chose German GOTS-certified fashion brand Nordlicht to help bring the first part of Lammsbräu textile merchandise to life.
That partnership became a bridge between two very different industries. Lammsbräu brought its brand, ideas and long-standing engagement with organic agriculture; Nordlicht brought its experience in textiles and working with GOTS certification. Together, they developed GOTS-certified products for the launch of the Lammsbräu shop.
Bearbeitete Version, sRGB, Onlineshop Bilder, Merchandiseartikel, Moodbilder
For Lammsbräu, the collaboration also provided a way to work with an established certification framework rather than developing its own criteria for textiles. GOTS covers the third-party certified processing of textiles made with certified organic fibres. It applies to stages after raw fibre production, including first processing, manufacturing and trading, and sets environmental, human rights and social requirements for certified operations.
The collaboration also highlights something easily overlooked about merchandise: a T-shirt may not be a brewery’s main product, but once a company’s name is printed on it, it becomes part of that brand.
For Lammsbräu, that made the choice of textile partner particularly important.
“If there isn’t yet in-depth textile expertise within your own company, you should consciously invest time in selecting the right partners,” the team says. “We were in very open and transparent discussions with many manufacturers.”
Today, Lammsbräu’s shop offers around 20 products, with the range expected to continue growing. Five of the products developed with Nordlicht for the launch are GOTS-certified.
The story behind those shirts is therefore not about a brewery suddenly becoming a textile brand. It’s about recognising when someone else already has the expertise you need – choosing a partner and an established certification framework for the textile products you want to offer.
Because sometimes looking #BehindTheSeams means looking at who is behind them, too.
