Londonderry firm, Hunter, wins £150,000 contract to produce uniforms for new UK electric rail service Lumo

Launching on October 25, Lumo is a 100% electric rail service that aims to encourage greener and more affordable travel and has bold ambitions to reimagine rail for the 21st century.

Lumo sought a partner that could design, source, and produce a sustainable uniform that would minimise the company’s carbon footprint.

Following an extensive and collaborative design process, attire for over 100 staff is currently in production at Hunter’s factory in Londonderry, which will help create apprenticeships, and preserve jobs and legacy skills in the region.

Helen Wylde, managing Director at Lumo, said: “We firmly believe in ethical manufacturing, and we wanted to give our colleagues quality attire that they were proud to wear. We have even consciously moved away from the word ‘uniform’ because our approach isn’t uniform, it’s unique and thoughtful, and we wanted garments to reflect that. We wanted gender-neutral apparel options that showcase our wholistic and inclusive approach to business.

“Collaborating with Hunter means we’ve been able to design pieces that are totally bespoke to our needs that have been produced ethically and sustainably in the UK and EU. We’re extremely proud of how this process has been a true reflection of Lumo’s ambitions and that our attire doesn’t look like train uniforms you’re seen before!”

Hunter is renowned for its bespoke approach and Lumo’s own employees played a significant role in the apparel development process by providing feedback directly to the Hunter team about what they wanted from their workwear. Easy maintenance, ethical production, and ‘feeling proud to wear it’ were cited as the three top considerations.

With this information, Hunter’s award-winning design team created eight items for Lumo’s staff to select from: an overcoat, a jumper, a shirt and blouse, a skirt, and pair of trousers, and two hats. Team Hunter took inspiration from catwalk design experience and cutting-edge fabric innovation, in addition to the Lumo team’s desires. The garments’ production has also blended traditional manufacturing skills with high-speed manufacturing robotics.

Hunter designer Thomas McLaughlin explained: “The Lumo team is taking on a unique challenge. They’re reimagining rail travel, so our goal was to reimagine the rail uniform. Their clothing needs to be durable and comfortable and reflect their inclusive and sustainable values. Rather than taking inspiration from historic examples, we started this process completely from scratch. Instead of producing a generic garment that would be assigned to everyone, we have designed a gender-neutral, inclusive wardrobe of professional attire the whole Lumo team can select pieces from.”

The garments’ materials are sourced exclusively from fabric mills that employ the bluesign® system, which excludes environmentally harmful substances from the manufacturing process, ensuring that each piece has been produced sustainably. Each item is also imbued with unique properties that improve performance and longevity. For example, the overcoat is made from highly technical blended fibres, and uses a NanoSphere® textile finish which produces a ‘self-cleaning’ effect, making the coat water, oil, and stain repellent.

The design process also incorporated innovative fitting technology powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and wearer trials that allowed Lumo employees to feed comments back directly to the Hunter team, who were able to make necessary adjustments to fit, details, and choice of fabric. The final garments will be worn not only by Lumo’s on-board staff, but also by their head-office team who will be given professional attire from the range to wear when they visit stations and work alongside Lumo on-board staff at special events.

Simon Hunter Esq, M.B.E., CEO Hunter, added: “This has been a truly collaborative undertaking with a brand that we have great synergy with. We value investing in our employees’ skills and development and throughout the design process it has been clear that Lumo value their employees’ needs in the same way. We’re very proud of the final selection of attire and the positive feedback we have already received from Lumo staff.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper whenever you are able to do so.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper when you can safely.

You can also enjoy unlimited access to the best news from across Northern Ireland and the UK by subscribing to newsletter.co.uk

With a digital subscription, you can read more than five articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.newsletter.co.uk/subscriptions now to sign up.

Thank you