SAN DIEGO — On a farm near El Cajon just outside San Diego, Kris Cody usually starts his day by staring into the eyes of one of his alpacas.
“Just seeing yourself in the reflection of their eyes," he said, his voice trailing off in wonder.
Cody keeps his alpacas at A Simpler Time Alpacas & Mill. He is the founder of Paka, an apparel company focused on sustainability and ethically sourced goods.
“Everyone talks about sustainability, right? Nature’s inherently sustainable, it knows what to do," Cody said. "We’re just trying to put more of it into our products.”
Cody took a one-way flight to Peru in 2015 where he purchased a handwoven alpaca sweater from a Peruvian grandmother.
Astonished by how lightweight and soft the material was, he became fascinated by how one of the most sustainable fibers on Earth had developed through thousands of years of evolution in such a dynamic and rugged climate.
He kept the sweater close while traveling throughout South America, using it as a pillow on overnight bus trips and wearing it through the fluctuating temperatures of deserts, beaches and jungles. Back in the U.S., the sweater received such a surprising amount of attention that Cody saw an opportunity.
He immediately flew back to Peru and began creating a team of Quechua female weavers. While living with them in their homes and working on prototypes while cooking breakfast with their kids, he helped the women earn up to eight times more than they normally would have.
Within three months, he launched an e-commerce site from his dorm room.
Cody says he hopes many people turn to alpacas as a sustainable fabric choice in the future. It takes four goat shearing to make one cashmere sweater. It takes just one alpaca shearing to make four alpaca sweaters.
“In the fashion industry, two out of every three pieces of clothing are made from plastic,” Cody said."Polyester makes up 65% of all clothing and disperses over 700 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere each year."
Paka sources their fiber from alpacas that roam free in the Peruvian Andes, where they have evolved for thousands of years. Because alpacas are innate to this environment, they're inherently sustainable.
Alpacas nibble only the tops of grasses and other plants; they do not rip plants out of the ground, allowing the vegetation to grow back. Unlike goats and sheep, which have sharp hooves that damage pasture and soil, alpacas have paws that leave no footprint.
Cody says the clothing made from alpaca fiber is softer than cashmere, warm as polar bear fur, lighter than sheep’s wool and water resistant – all traits of the animal living in the harsh conditions of the Peruvian Andes. Each sweater is signed by the woman who made it.
Cody hopes people appreciate the connection between alpacas and the indigenous people of Peru, and how it can lead to more sustainable choices.