Textile Students Visit STOLL Flat Knitting Machines Producer

As part of their study abroad experience during the summer of 2016, six students from NC State’s Wilson College of Textiles visited the headquarters of STOLL Machine Works in Reutlingen, Germany, a traditional center for textiles and textile machinery. STOLL, a manufacturer of flat-knitting machines, has been in business for over 140 years.

During the tour of the facilities the group – Katie Albert, Sabrina Baker, Samantha Casey, Grace Drescher, Lindsey Greene, and Peyton Hartis – had the opportunity to see how the machines were built and assembled. In the Fashion Center, the company displayed a wide range of products that were made on STOLL machines, including Nike’s FlyKnit sneakers, medical textile products and high-end fashion products.

The six textile students were part of a study abroad experience organized by NC State’s Poole College of Management via a course called “Accounting, Finance, and the EU”. During the six-week intensive program. they took an accounting class, a financial management class and a course on the history and issues of the European Union at Reutlingen University in their ESB (European School of Business). As part of the program, all participants visited with local and international companies and many cultural sites in Germany.

As the student group included participants from many discipline outside of textiles as well, the visit yielded many discussions on how a machine producer is also active in other business activities, like developing products for their machine customers, technical service offerings, financing services, electronics and the development of software programs.

Learn more about study abroad at the Wilson College of Textiles.