Lochaven, the Real Life Knitters of Wizard Wear

The magical textile tale of how Lochaven was saved by clothing wizards for the Harry Potter series is a true Scottish success story.

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Tucked away in a village in East Ayrshire in south-west Scotland, the Lochaven knitware company weaves some magical products as the official supplier of uniforms for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. They created costumes for our favorite characters in all 8 Harry Potter movies.

The growing Stewarton factory now supplies movie fans through the Warner Bros. gift shops and Universal Studios theme parks worldwide, including the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter Hollywood.

According to the Daily Record, Lochaven is so busy producing scarves, jumpers, cardigans, Quidditch jerseys, and other Potter goods that they declined to make a costume for Star Wars. Keith Murray, the company director, commented:

"“The Potter franchise has worked its magic on Lochaven. Even we can’t get our head around how successful the company are now. If you had told me 10 years ago we would be where we are today, I wouldn’t have believed you. It’s like the plot of one of the movies. We are in talks about making products for two major film and TV projects. When themakers of Star Wars asked if we would make a garment for the desert scenes in the last movie, we had to say no."

That’s great news for a company that was doing so poorly in 2007 that it entered into receivership. Keith, together with Colin Leishman and Mark Davidson, got involved and managed to save the company due to his noticing a photo.

"“By chance, on my way out, I noticed a signed photo of Harry, Hermione and Ron from the Harry Potter films and I asked why it was there.I was told Lochaven supplied the knitwear worn in the films and had just received the order for the Hogwarts school knitwear to be worn in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. All 300 of the jumpers, cardigans and tank tops on the order were from Lochaven’s own school range and even had their brand labels in them.It turned out Lochaven had been making all sorts of garments for the films since the beginning, reflecting the different colours of the Hogwarts School houses – burgundy for Gryffindor, yellow for Hufflepuff, blue for Ravenclaw and green for Slytherin.Amazingly, it seemed no one had considered the marketing potential of making these available to the public.”"

They ended up buying the company, saving all the jobs, and transformed it into a success. The company made items for a variety of companies and then got a licensing deal in 2010 to make wizard wear available to the public. One of their first customers was Universal Studios who wanted replica costumes for staff to wear at Wizarding World Orlando and led to selling them to visitors in park gift shops.

Next: EXCLUSIVE: Photos of the Cursed Child Carvings Outside the Palace Theater

So if you make it to one of the parks, you can check out the knitwear that made a difference in Lochaven’s sweaters to riches story.

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