Our World
The Power of Love
At MUNAYKI, a Quechua word meaning 'the power of love', we celebrate a love of nature and sustainability. Our alpaca wool comes from the highlands of Peru and is prized for its luxurious softness, warmth and durability.
Each piece is carefully selected to become a timeless staple in your wardrobe. Our biodegradable and recyclable packaging ensures that every step of your purchase honors our planet.
The Alpaca
The alpaca (Vicugna pacos) is a humpless camel species that originates from the South American Andes and was domesticated around 6000-7000 years ago. There are two breeds of this species: the fluffy Huancayo, which makes up over 90% of all alpacas, and the long-haired Suri. Alpacas are unique fiber suppliers, providing the most valuable natural fibers in over 22 certified colors and over 85 shades. As a result of their adapted lifestyle to the conditions at an altitude of between 3000 and 5000 meters above sea level and the associated temperature fluctuations of 30° C during the day and down to -25° C at night, as well as intense rain showers in the rainy season, alpacas have a coat with outstanding properties.
Unique quality
Despite its fineness - due to its long fibers - alpaca hair is hard-wearing, is antibacterial and, unlike sheep's wool, does not contain lanolin (wool fat), making it suitable for allergy sufferers. The structure of the individual hairs has other special properties. The hair is covered in small scales that form a smooth, highly reflective surface and give it a special silky shine. In addition, a large part of the hair is hollow inside, which enables it to have exceptional thermoregulating properties, cooling in hot weather and warming in cold weather. The thermal insulation capacity is five times higher than that of sheep's wool, but only one fifth of the weight.
Alpaca in comparison
The special, soft comfort of products made from alpaca hair is also essentially explained by the fiber thickness, more precisely by the mean fiber diameter (MFD for short). This is typically measured in microns - thousandths of a millimeter. The fewer microns, the finer and softer the wool.
High-quality alpaca has a fiber thickness of between 14-22 microns and is therefore just as soft as cashmere. Only the hair of the Shahtoosh Tibetan antelope, whose production, sale and purchase are prohibited, with an MFD of 8-13 microns, and the exclusive and highly priced hair of the vicuña, the non-domesticated ancestor of the alpaca, with an MFD of 11-13.5 microns, are even finer and softer. While cashmere hair is usually 4cm long, alpaca hair is more than twice as long at 8-12cm. The short cashmere hair tends to pill (lint formation), which is often observed, and cashmere sweaters often have the so-called “worn look” after a while and also lose their softness.
Sweaters made from long-haired alpaca, on the other hand, do not pill and remain soft. Furthermore, sweaters made from alpaca insulate a little better than sweaters made from cashmere. The reason for this is the hollow hair structure of alpaca, which allows small air pockets to be trapped. The fibers therefore heat up more quickly and insulate heat for longer.
exclusivity
There are an estimated 700 million cashmere goats in the world, but only 5 million alpacas. This makes clothing and accessories made from alpaca an exclusive rarity. Your purchase of MUNAYKI products is not only an investment in your wardrobe, but also has a positive impact on the environment and on indigenous communities in South America.
Alpacas are kept in the Peruvian highlands by local farmers in small herds of an average of 80-100 animals; there is no intensive livestock farming. The animals there have natural access to water sources and endless grasslands. Alpacas use their feed efficiently and produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions than other farm animals. They also conserve the resources they need with their special paws and teeth.
Instead of hooves, they have two toes and a cushion, and their soft tread protects the pasture. With their special teeth, they pluck the grass so that it can grow back. Cashmere goats, in comparison, trample pastures with their hooves and also pull out the grass completely, including the grass roots. This makes it difficult for the grass plants to regenerate and in many cases leads to the pastures drying up.
The enormous breeding progress of the Incas becomes clear when you consider that while a cashmere goat produces between 150-200 g of fiber per year, an alpaca can produce up to 6 kg per year. Another astonishing breeding success is the ability to breed such a variety of colors. This means that the fibers need less treatment, such as with chemical dyes, and the environment is protected in this way.
