Hong Kong Social Enterprise Challenge teaches students to think outside the box

If it looks like wool, and it feels like wool, then it must be wool, you might think. But the silky, fluffy hat, scarf and gloves made by Wouf are in fact made with recycled dog hair sourced from grooming salons. The throwaway fur has been cleaned, spun and knitted, all by hand, to the design specifications of knitwear specialist Seth Yeung for Wouf's debut fashion collection.

Wouf is the brainchild of former design students Anita Lam Mun-yee and Margaret Lok Mei-yee, who got the idea when they took part in a social enterprise competition while studying at Polytechnic University.

"The first principle we learned at university is not to design for design's sake. Design is meant to find solutions," Lam says. "So we wanted to use something that is neglected, rather than new resources. I had six dogs at home, so I thought dog hair could be a solution. Primary research showed it is a potential material."

Lam says the process of making "chiengora", as it is called, is more environmentally friendly than producing cotton, which is a thirsty crop, and nylon, which is derived from petrochemicals. It's also "kinder" than the use of other animal fur. Plus, chiengora is 80 per cent warmer than wool and highly water-resistant.

Wouf, originally called Woof, proved to be no hair-brained scheme. It was a 2012 winner of the Hong Kong Social Enterprise Challenge, run by the Centre for Entrepreneurship at Chinese University's Business School. The contest is open to 27 post-secondary institutions in the city, has seen participation from 4,600 students and generated more than 800 social enterprise ideas since 2007. It's now in its eighth year and the deadline for submissions closed this month.

Wouf is exactly the kind of innovative and sustainable enterprise of which the challenge is hoping to encourage. Of the hundreds of ideas to spring from the contest, just 17 are still in operation.