Loopwheel Crewneck Sweatshirt - NavySome of the very best sweatshirts in the world are made with loopwheeled fabric from Wakayama, Japan. 400 loopwheel knitting machines remain in Japan, with about 200 running at any time. Each machine can only produce about 12 meters a day roughly 8 sweatshirts worth. These machines were the standard from the 1920's until the 1960s when higher speed (and higher tension) knitting took over for the sake of efficiency at the cost of softness and comfort.