Design & Development – U.K. Manufacturing

Nookie UK Factory Cornwall
Every Nookie product is different and takes a different route, but the core qualities of our design process are always the same from our UK made drysuits right down to our handy neoprene socks.
Nookie Product History
Left to right. Circa 1990 to present day.
Nookie was extablished in 1991 in the front room of a small cottage in Clearbrook in Devon with a public red telephone box on the road as its business contact number. It now occupies a busy factory over the border in Cornwall where we make a substantial percentage of our product range. We have always made products in the U.K and we like to choose British whenever possible.
We strongly believe in customer-led design and the development of all of our products comes from feedback of our customers, retailers and our team of product testers; the riders.
Hand designed patterns for a perfect fit.
Hand designed patterns for a perfect fit.
All of our products start their life in our design studio in the Nookie factory.

They often start with discussions about either a new or re-development of a product concept, be that from a team rider, an outdoor activity centre manager or our internal team, then the doodling starts.

Hand sketching concept products.
Hand sketching concept products.

 

Those doodles then get developed into workable patterns. There’s a number of ways this happens. If it’s to be made on our U.K. production line we start with some concept sketches and block patterns. Our expert pattern drawer develops these patterns hand in hand with the sketches to make sample products. Those samples are reviewed regarding form, function and ease of construction before being streamlined for our production line.

Samples cut by hand.
Samples cut by hand.

 

Quality control is a fundamental part of our manufacturing process. We are proud of the high quality construction and finish of our garments. You only need to turn one of our products inside-out to see the flawless colour matched waterproof taping to re-assured of our British made quality.

We don’t just test one in a batch, we test every single one. From our experience, if there is a small leak in a seam it’s a minor imperfection and cannot be accounted for statistically, so we don’t trust just a visual inspection we choose to pressure test every single suit to be confident in every drysuit that leaves our factory.

We’re the first to admit that not all of our products are, or will be, made in the UK. The simple fact is that some of the technologies and expertise used in the manufacture of our highly technical specialist equipment are more advanced overseas. We make sure we choose the best producer for each of our products, wherever they are in the World. All of our products are designed in Cornwall to make sure function and quality are at the forefront of our range.

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