About Outdoor Knitwear

                                                                        

Knitwear for the great outdoors

T W Kempton have produced premium quality knitwear since the 1920's.

Our range of country sweaters, reflects the traditions of country life and proves that hard-wearing woolen clothes can also be stylish and attractive. Our success is based on using only the highest quality materials - as 1000’s of satisfied customers around the world can testify.

Functional and hard wearing, the Niffi,Niffi Ecosse, Niffi Nautical and Wooly Pully ranges are suitable for both men and women.

In addition to a range of dyed shades, the "Classic Outdoor Sweater" is available in natural undyed Welsh mountain wool, utilizing the beautiful colours and hues that are only produced by nature.

The jumpers and sweaters you will see on this website are all made to our unique designs, and are the result of almost 100 years of knitwear design and manufacture. We still make the knitwear ourselves to our exacting quality standards.

All knitwear is produced using 100% pure new British Wool  (with the exception of the work wear sweater). The country sweaters are made with washable real suede shoulder and elbow patches.

We have also partnered with Harris Tweed which has become the back bone of our new Niffi Ecosse range. Combining hand picked Tweeds to go with unique styles of sweaters to really give a stylish finish. 

All products in the Outdoor Knitwear range come with T W Kempton's satisfaction guarantee.

History 

 Outdoor Knitwear is a trading brand of the parent company TW Kempton Corporate Clothing who's history goes back over a 100 years.

Known as one of the original famous names of Leicester's knitwear manufacturing, alongside others in the 1960s and 70s. TW Kempton represented what the height of the British textile manufacturing looked like.   

Originally a manufacturer for British Fashion and military TW Kempton once held contracts for shops such as M&S in the 1980s. This stature and fashion style brought a lot of attention to TW Kempon so much so that we even had a visit from Princess Diana in 1984. Below is a small snippet from the paper at the time. 

"She got a late start after greeting everyone at the airport, but was soon on her way to the T. W. Kempton Knitwear Factory where crowds had been waiting since before dawn.   She toured the factory and confided to factory worker, Brenda Meason, that morning sickness was taking its toll. “I haven’t felt well since day one,” she told the quality controller as if she had known her for years. She also told her, “I am hoping for a girl.Finally, the workers had arranged a special gift for her: A very lovely framed portrait of the Princess and a large special chocolate Easter egg with William’s name on it were given to her at the end of the visit.

After a brief buffet lunch of vol-au-vents and wine with other company officials within the factory,  she continued her visit to the Belgrave Neighborhood Centre in Leicester."

Later History

Reformed as an independent company:

In 1989 TW Kempton was sold and reformed as an independent company, to which it stands today. Through the 1990s into the 2000s TW Kempton kept manufacturing in Leicester for military contracts and fashion customers throughout the world. We still retain contracts for the MOD, Police forces, Airlines, Merchant Navy along with major wholesalers and distributors worldwide. 

It wasn't until we purchased a company called commando knitwear that we opened up our world of trade manufacturing to the general public through the newly formed name Outdoor Knitwear. 

It was then that a new flame was lit in our company. Following our experience and knowledge of knitwear we have developed the range of knitwear you see for sale today. Our new ranges have become so popular that we now also sell these styles to distributes and independent shops worldwide.