NORSEWEAR

We were recently featured on Shepherdess. Read the interview as told to Sionainn Mentor-King below.

Sarena: I’m from the Dannevirke-Norsewood area. I turned up at Norsewood School in standard one, or whatever that is now, too many years ago to remember.

Michelle: We were already there. My brother is the only boy in the family.

Sarena: That’s my husband. So we’ve known each other – as sisters or in some way or another – since then.

Michelle: Norsewear has been around for a long time. It was started in Wellington by Ola Rian, the acting Consul General of Norway. He came here for Norway Day, and moved the company to Norsewood. I’ve been at Norsewear for thirty-two years. I started off in the sock department, pressing socks, packing socks. And then I moved all around the factory dyeing socks and hats and sewing, overlocking and packing hats, gloves and scarves. When I was pregnant with my first child, I worked in the office part-time doing filing, and that’s how I got myself into administration. Now, I do the accounts.

Sarena: I worked at Norsewear, way back in 1993, in the hat department, then the sewing department, sewing all of the leather patches on the elbows and shoulders of the jerseys, and then I went off hairdressing for nearly thirty years. After the Covid outbreaks, circumstances changed, and I ended up back here, working in the sock department. Now, I’m site supervisor. We employ about twenty people at the moment.

Michelle: I have a sister that works here – another sister – and a cousin. And my niece.

Sarena: There are probably not many of our family members that haven’t worked here, or had something to do with the company in some way. We’ve had several other staff members whose kids have also worked here. So it’s very family oriented.

Michelle: I think with us all being connected in some way – we are either literally blood related or community related – we’re able to have that really lovely banter, where you can give each other heaps and laugh about our mistakes, or about good things.

Sarena: But at the end of the day, we are all like family.

Michelle: When I started, there was like a hundred people here. Then ‘Norsewear’ the name got sold and most people got made redundant. We carried on with seven people, and just climbed from there. In 2023 Tim Deane bought the company and purchased the Norsewear name back – it was a big thing for our little village knowing that the Norsewear name came back to town.