Web Sites Knit Together Traditional Crafts and Modern Consumers

LONDON — They are Lisbeth, Annelies, Trudi, and Brida — all sweet-looking Swiss grannies with knitting needles at the ready.

They or another member of their 15-member Netgranny collective will gladly knit you socks in your preferred color or a "surprise" design. Just click on their photo at www.netgranny.ch, and within weeks, a fresh pair will be delivered to your doorstep for the price of about $38.

The popularity of Netgranny is just one part of a growing trend of Internet-based ventures that peddle handmade items.

One needs only to look at the rise of Etsy to see the strong craving for handicrafts. The marketplace for buying and selling all things handmade has attracted more than 100,000 sellers since its launch in June 2005.

"Most people I know would rather support a small business than buy something from a large impersonal corporation," said Shannon Newby, an Atlanta resident whose hot-wax paintings — currently showing at the Roswell Teahouse — are sold on the site. "Etsy is all about rooting for the underdogs, and this is resonating with more and more people."

Becky Howard of Georgetown, Texas, near Austin, sells her vintage fabric handbags mostly through the Internet on sites such as Etsy.

"I have seen an increase in handmade goods because of the popular desire to have something that no one else has," she said.

Perhaps that is why customers are flocking to Netgranny. The site's photo gallery of little old ladies includes personal information such as why they like to knit, so that customers can get a real feel for the people behind the business.

"Until recently hand-knitted socks have been mainly sold only in rural markets or in handicraft shops," said spokeswoman Fabienne Hoch. "Online distribution appeals to the modern urban person who is used to fulfilling their needs on the Internet.

"So forget (gene-modified)-free, additive-free, and preservative-free, granny power is the new organic," she said.

Manuel Rieder said Netgranny is now better known than his Tarzan fashion label that founded the site in December 2006.

"There are already copycats of the business coming out on the Internet," he said. "And we have over 100 grandmothers on the waiting list for Netgranny. We never expected this."

Gerald Celente, director of the Trends Research Institute, says there's a growing appetite for authenticity in a world that seems increasingly artificial.

"There's a turning away from corporate clothes, corporate foods, and corporate thinking among, as we can best determine, about 20 to 30 percent of the population that will put their money where their mouth and mind is," he said.

Reinier Evers, founder of the Amsterdam-based www.trendwatching.com, agreed that consumers are likely to see more Web sites purveying handmade and traditional fare.

"In a world that is seemingly ruled by globalization, mass production, and 'cheapest of the cheapest,' a growing number of consumers are seeking out the local, and thereby the authentic, the storied, the eco-friendly and the obscure," he said.

And perhaps no business is riding on this desire as high as Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Etsy at www.etsy.com.

In November 2006, its sales totaled $550,000. A year later sales were up to more than $4.3 million.

Spokesman Matthew Stinchcomb said Etsy takes consumers back to a time before mass production and chain-store consumerism existed.

Supporters of Etsy's push for handmade products can even sign an online pledge to buy them at www.buyhandmade.org. Already more than 14,000 people have vowed to buy outside the big box.

Other Web sites with similar business models are pulling in a growing number of customers, including www.bigcartel.com and en.dawanda.com.

"The handmade revolution has been growing for a while," said Jennifer Perkins, a founding member of the Austin Craft Mafia in Texas, an organization of independent business owners who represent various creative disciplines.

Perkins runs a craft show in Austin called Stitch that has gone from a coffee shop and 500 people five years ago to the Austin Convention Center and 3,000 people today.

"Let's just hope the trend stays," she said.

Another business emphasizing authentic fare is the Danish company Mormor at www.mormor.nu — Danish for "Grandma.now". Some 50 grandmothers, ranging in age from 68 to 86, make handmade baby and children's clothes that are sold on the site.

"We are the biggest company that produces and sells handmade children's clothes made in Denmark," said spokeswoman Nina Brandi.

Brandi said that the company's concept is nothing if not social in spirit.

"The grandmothers meet once a week for coffee and cake, which is important to many of them — that they begin to have a social life and that someone appreciates their knowledge," she said.

"They do most of the knitting at home because they can't watch TV without knitting, but they always bring the piece they are working on to the weekly meetings," she said.

Founded in 2003, the company has grown rapidly over the past year.

"The feedback that we get from customers is that they really appreciate handmade items and the story behind the product, as opposed to mass-produced clothes made in China under poor conditions," Brandi said.

"The items we make are inspired from 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s clothes, so they also bring out a lot of nostalgia," she said. "Over all the business has been growing tremendously."