Soma has fought against cheap clothing imports to grow a niche market making quality Merino product to order. Owner Harold Trigg talks to Shannon Johnstone about how they are so successful. Video Warren Buckland.
A Hastings man with a "virtual factory" had no idea his business model would be a blueprint for a Covid-19 future when he introduced it in 2013.
Soma Merino in Stortford Lodge is something of an oddity. It has no online presence whatsoever but has been running for 93 years.
Third generation owner Harold Trigg says business is strong, and he is determined to see it to 100 while he's running it.
Started in Wellington in 1928 by Trigg's grandfather Stan Amos (Soma is Amos reversed), the key to the business' success has been changing and modifying, he says.
Since 2013 it has run a "virtual factory", accidentally ahead of its time when it came to Covid-19 and businesses shifting to work from home models.
It was a decision they had to make to keep costs down to stay in competition with clothing manufactured at a cheaper cost in China.
Trigg receives the orders, sources the material and contracts the work out to people in Hawke's Bay and Manawatū to sew them at home.
During the war they made military gear, for years they made cotton Haines underwear, in the 60s and 70s they made shirts and in the late 90s they switched to merino, manufacturing for Ice Breaker until 2007.
He said the importing of goods from Asia meant the business "suffered huge impact", this meant they evolved into a company focused on locally New Zealand made merino garments, filling various contracts as well as selling clothing for "rams, lambs and ewes" (men, children and women) in the shop at 932 Heretaunga St West, Hastings.
Orders include merino blankets for pepi pods and wahakura (woven flax bassinets) from DHBs and thermals for refugees from the Red Cross.
There is also no waste with scraps being made into clothes and beanies for newborns.
The shop features a few quirky items, including Trigg's mother's little Singer used to sew dolls clothes. Photo / Warren Buckland
During the lockdown, when they couldn't sell, the hangers got "a very good clean" and some of the sewers sewed scrubs for health workers.
A resurgence of buying and supporting local after the Covid-19 lockdown has been great for the business with new customers coming into the store.
Trigg took over the business in the mid-80s and says he's "never had so much fun".
Known as the "merino man" around town, as when customers come in saying merino makes them itch, they get "the merino talk".
"[Human] hair is about 50-to-60-micron, genuine merino has to be under 21 micron.
"We take a little piece [of merino] and we tease it out, you can barely see the fibres, so when it hits your skin, it bends rather than digs in.
"If you rub the fabric under your neck and it tickles, it's lambs wool, it is not merino."
Soma Merino owner Harold Trigg in his Hastings shop with the merino sheep horns he shows to customers by a photo of his grandfather who started the business in 1928. Photo / Warren Buckland
Trigg says the shop is "boomer friendly" with baby boomer customers frequenting the shop.
He loves speaking to customers and getting to know each of their stories.
"It's a shop with a little personality."
He has also kept the detail cards of each Soma employee in his "own knowledge bank" and recently has had sometimes up to three or four relatives of employees a week coming in to get "a piece of their history".
Soma doesn't yet have a website or social media but Trigg said this is the next step, hoping someone who is digitally savvy may want to help out with this.
