What Wellensteyn is known for

Wellensteyn is a German outerwear company based in Norderstedt near Hamburg. Thomas Wuttke founded it as an independent firm in 2001 on the roots of his grandfather Adolf Wuttke's 1940s business, which supplied waxed-sailcloth parkas to shipyard workers. Its jackets pair windproof, water-repellent fabrics with breathable membranes and are made to be machine washed at home. Production has been based in China since shortly after 1998.

Wellensteyn International GmbH & Co. KG is a German outerwear company based at Mühlenweg 150 in Norderstedt, outside Hamburg. Thomas Wuttke founded it as an independent company in 2001, but its roots run back to a business his grandfather Adolf Wuttke started in the 1940s. The elder Wuttke was a Hamburg welding-rod dealer who also sold instruments for deep-sea research and robust parkas for shipyard workers, cut from waxed sailcloth that stood up to North Sea weather. Thomas Wuttke joined the family firm in 1986. From 1998 he developed the Wellensteyn logo, a white cross on a red ground, and the brand name itself, which joins the German words for wave and stone to suggest movement and permanence. Fashion jackets followed from 1998, first produced in India and soon afterwards in China, where production remains. By 2008 the jackets were stocked by 1,500 German retailers, and the brand sells through its own stores as well. The jackets are built to be washed in a household machine and use windproof and water-repellent fabrics with breathable membranes. The first Canadian store opened in Niagara-on-the-Lake in 2024.