Since the worldwide structural shift in the textile industry, only a handful of companies remain in the former textiles heartland of the Swabian Alb. One of these companies is the Albstadt-based underwear manufacturer Comazo GmbH + Co. KG, who have managed to combine tradition and innovation with 130 years of experience in textile production. Around 10 million items of underwear a year are sold by this fully integrated family business – and the entire range is certified in accordance with the human-ecological requirements of OEKO-TEX® Standard 100.
Nowadays, underwear is synonymous with a cultured lifestyle and can contribute to a sense of individual well-being and personality with styles for every taste and occasion. The range of requirements for good underwear goes far beyond pure practicality: they should be comfortable, attractive, stylish and functional, durable and as low-maintenance as possible. They should also feel as soft and pleasant as possible on our skin. And in no way are these requirements restricted to the ladies – men and children also increasingly value a stylish set of "undies". It was different before: underwear served to provide protection and warmth and remained more or less untouched by trends in fashion. It was in this era that the merchant and farmer Conrad Maier founded his little underwear enterprise in his living room in Albstadt. When the company was founded in 1884, there was no precise postal address system like nowadays – the post would typically be addressed to the nearest inn with the name: "Conrad Maier zum Ochsen", or "Conrad Maier by the Oxen Inn". The abbreviation derived from it, "Comazo", gave the young enterprise its name.
(c) Comazo - Headquarter
The distinguished factory building built thereafter is still the headquarters of Comazo. The modern Ox sculpture at its entrance commemorates its origins. One of the last German underwear companies, Comazo continues to handle its own production: all of the manufacturing steps are carried out by around 470 staff in a number of operations in Germany, Romania, Croatia and Russia. Production is in-house and includes finishing, cutting, sewing, packing and shipping facilities. In its textile facilities in Albstadt, fabrics are bleached, dyed, finished and cut using the most modern of processes. The production volumes amount to roughly 55,000 pieces of underwear for women, men and children per day, and the focus is on lingerie and functional underwear of all kinds. Their buyers include nearly every major European retailer. The company also sells its products directly through its 31 shops in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, and through an Internet Shop. "We want to be as close as possible to our end consumers," explains Dr. Christoph Maier, the company director, elaborating "and we want to find out exactly what our customers want at first hand."
The Comazo product range encompasses hundreds of items. The selection ranges from basic underwear (comazo) to classy lingerie (comazo black), functional underwear for sports and leisure (comazo active) as well as underwear for the specific requirements of the young at heart (comazo platin) and fair trade underwear (comazo earth). Special collections have also captured new clientèle: For example, the work underwear and protective underwear produced by Comazo provide protection against burns for fire-fighters. The specially developed health care underwear produced by comazo med is tailored to the specific requirements of a range of medical conditions such as neurodermatitis. Dr. Christoph Maier is confident that this set-up allows them to satisfy the needs of as many of their customers as possible: "In line with our motto We make favourite underwear, feel-good factor is our driving force. For a special 'feel-good factor', the manufacturing process is also of primary importance. The sustainability of our planet and its preservation for future generations must be our most important concern. That is why a part of the philosophy of Comazo is that the production of our underwear meets the highest social, human and ecological standards. For this reason, Comazo places maximum emphasis on environmentally-friendly manufacturing processes in the company production facilities. Waste water is tested, pre-treated and then fed into a separate purification system. In 2009, a heat recovery system was introduced at their headquarters in Albstadt, improving the balance of CO2 on a sustained basis through optimising their level of energy efficiency. "At Camazo we take pride in the fact that we use the most up-to-date technologies available worldwide for environmental protection," says Michael Nädele, the company director. Their most recent promotional campaign, "Staff as Models", received a large amount of media attention throughout Germany: The Comazo Online Shop exclusively uses pictures of its staff in their favourite Comazo underwear. This fantastic idea came about in 2009, when Comazo celebrated its 125th anniversary. "A typical photo with the best fabrics, suits and gowns was exactly what we didn't want!" explains Yasmin Kozuha, Marketing, "Under the motto We make favourite underwear – We wear our favourite underwear, we instead got pictures of many of the people who work for Comazo in their favourite pieces from the Comazo underwear collection." The money that was saved for the costs of professional models was used for social projects. "This idea that was originally a one-off campaign ultimately became a part of the company culture," says Yasmin Kozuha. There was so much enthusiasm for the campaign that even store employees and customers applied to take part in the photo shoots to get a chance to be near the action. "Here, there is no such thing as too small, too fat, too big or too thin," says Yasmin Kozuha happily, "Our motto is simple: "We live our favourite underwear – so get involved!"
Underwear manufacturer Comazo is honoured with the Fair Trade Public Award 2014On 20 March 2014, Comazo was honoured with the Fair Trade Public Award in Berlin. The company was awarded for its commitment to fair trade and for its employees, who modelled the bio-underwear from the comazo|earth collection themselves and who talked about their world of underwear in company video clips. Comazo|earth is the first widely available underwear collection for men, women and children in Germany that is produced from Fair Trade-certified, organic bio-cotton and that also complies with the strict GOTS criteria. Comazo is the sole manufacturer, producing the underwear fully itself. The fabric is created and cut in Germany, and the items are put together and packed in Croatia and Russia. The collection is required not only to be socially and environmentally sustainable, but also chic and sexy. Underwear from comazo|earth is manufactured using only the highest quality and finest yarn and materials.
