[Music] this is the factory floor of hyatt denim a small company in the seaside town of cardigan in west wales whether they're cutting or stitching everybody here shares the same goal to produce a pair of simple but high quality denim jeans can i describe our jeans i mean our jeans are a classic five pocket western gene and our design philosophy is to keep things as simple as we can and we don't want to be high fashion because high fashion comes in and then it goes away and so we want to make a classic pair of
jeans we want to make you know one of the best jeans in the world and we want to keep it as classic and as simple as we can because like classic doesn't come in or go out of fashion it just stays the hyatt denim company was founded in 2002 by david and his wife claire since then it has become a cult fashion brand selling to customers all over the world the company has attracted the attention of the world's media as well as some very famous celebrities meghan markle the duchess of sussex even wore a pair
of hyatt dina jeans on a royal visit to wales a major moment for the small but ambitious business however this is not the first time jeans have been manufactured in cardigan david and claire started their company with a particular mission in mind the reason we started is to try and get 400 people their jobs back because you know for people out there to know the back story is you know this small town in west wales used to have britain's biggest jeans factory in it and it made 35 000 pairs of jeans a week i mean
that's a big number but it did it for 40 years and then in 2002 the factory closed because the economics had changed and um you know the the factory gates closed and so and the question myself and clay asked was could we open those gates again and keep them open today hyatt operates from the old factory and employs many of its former workers they call these lifelong jean makers their grand masters thanks to the skills and experience they bring to their craft my name is claudio belotti i'm the grandmaster in curtin originally i was born
in italy and then came over to this country when i was three years old and lived in this area ever since it's something i've always done since the age of 15. i work with with hyatt from the start um david and claire approached me and asked me if i'd like to um help him start her jeans factory again to see jeans be made in cardinal again was something i never thought i'd see and what does claudio think makes a good pair of jeans i think it's the love you put into it and that's what it
is unless you love doing what you're doing then i think it's don't get the reward for putting all that effort in hyatt is delighted to employ the former factory workers but the company doesn't follow the original business model instead of the 35 000 pairs of jeans a week that the old factory manufactured the hyatt jeans company produces only around 180 pairs [Music] this is because after claudio and his team have cut the denim each pair of jeans is made by hand crafted from start to finish by one person this focus on quality rather than quantity
as well as the importance they place on environmental sustainability sets them apart from many others in the clothing industry so how does hyatt fit in today's world of fast fashion we don't i mean i mean that's the thing i mean like i think this throwaway culture is i don't think it makes the human being actually feel very good because like oh i've bought something then i discard it how do i feel i mean after a while you don't think very much of either the environment or yourself i think that ultimately messes with people but also
from an environmental point of view you know like how does that work you know for the environment and and actually it doesn't and you know like the biggest and best thing we can do for the environment is make something last as long as possible um and yes we do free repairs for life and that means that those genes last more more time and that's good so i think we're as far away from fast fashion as we as i can possibly get um and if we could get even further i would love it the company also
has a no wash club to help lower the gene's environmental impact even after they've been sold there's a reason for the no wash club and it's twofold and one is to you know if you want to have a truly beautiful pair of jeans then if you don't wash it yeah for three weeks five weeks you know a couple months all those creases that you put in there and those wrinkles you know when they when you wash it once the dye goes out and all all those creases and that imprint of you as a human being
is there and it looks incredibly beautiful so um so so the second part is um you know eighty percent of the impact of a pair of jeans yeah is by you and i washing in it so like getting people to not wash a pair of jeans for three months or six months has a huge impact in the world and so the greenest gene is the one that you don't wash hyatt's reputation for quality and craftsmanship together with caring for the planet has been key in its success and this success is something that david claire and
their whole team can be proud of i'm proud of it we i love the fact we make one of the best pairs of jeans in the world and that's good and and the grandmasters downstairs they're proud of it they even sign each pair and there's a thing on the pocket it says all artists sign their work because we must be one of the few companies in the world where they actually make it from start to finish like i mean the robots might be coming but they're not coming to cardigan anytime soon [Music]
