Hiut Denim in west Wales employs 50 denim breakers to wear in jeans before they’re sold, or auctioned, to customers. One breaker explains how it works.
David and Clare Hieatt created the denim company Hiut two and a half years ago, as a mission to get hundreds of people their jobs back.
Cardigan, a pretty market town in west Wales, was once home to Dewhirst, the biggest jeans factory in Britain. Dewhirst employed 400 locals. They produced 35,000 pairs of jeans a week, supplying denim across the country, including to M&S. Then, in 2001, Dewhirst decided to outsource production to Morocco and the factory closed. Cardigan suffered immeasurably; overnight, 10% of locals were on the dole.
