But he has forged a career in the trade while staying based in Dunedin, and his business, Otago Knitwear, is one of the city’s quiet manufacturing success stories.
In December last year, the company celebrated 20 years in its Hope St premises and, while Mr Keogh acknowledged it largely went under the radar, it had customers throughout New Zealand and also in Australia.
He believed its survival — in what was undoubtedly a difficult industry — was due to several factors.
Not only was it great at it what it did and had some "amazing" people involved in the business, but it also offered knitted products in a few different markets.
Most New Zealand manufacturers tended to specialise in one particular area, usually either fashion, the tourist trade or schoolwear, he said.
Otago Knitwear had its own developed and designed labels, including Zaza and Xquisite for women’s fashion, Silverstream men’s knitwear, Silverstream and Wildfusion Possum tourist knitwear, club and corporate supply for the likes of golf clubs and workplaces, school knitwear, and contract manufacturing services for other designers and wholesalers.
The fact it was a smaller manufacturer helped it to adapt and change to different customers’ requirements.
"If one area is down, we have other areas that can keep us busy," he said.
Mr Keogh’s foray into the industry came when he got an after-school job at Tamahine Knitwear, mainly to fund his cycling.
That led to a permanent job when he left school and, at 19, he was dispatched on an overseas trip to be trained in the technical design of knitwear.
Tamahine had some "huge contracts". It was a large operation, employing more than 150 people, and it was to give him a very good grounding in the industry.
An opportunity later arose for Mr Keogh and a group of merino farmers to take over Bowens Manufacturing, another Dunedin knitwear business, with Mr Keogh as factory manager.
He later took it over in its entirety and moved the business to the Hope St site, living on-site upstairs for the first three years.
Technological advances meant manufacturing was a less labour intensive process and the business now employed 12 staff, compared with 22 in earlier years.
Producing 15,000 garments a year, it was doing similar numbers — "maybe more" — with fewer people.
Two years ago, a whole garment machine was installed.
It was "quite a clever piece of machinery" and getting to grips with it had taken a while.
At the moment, the company’s biggest growth was around contract work and babywear — including cardigans, hats, mittens and booties — was an area that had seen increased growth.
Otago Knitwear produced West Ridge jerseys for Lawrence farmers Murray and Julie Hellewell, who teamed up with wool buyer John Milne, of Ken Milne Wools, to find their own answer to the beleaguered state of New Zealand’s strong wool industry.
The Hellewells’ Perendale lambs’ wool was used for the outer shell of the jersey which was lined inside with merino wool.
The company also manufactured accessories — hats, gloves, socks and scarves — and that included merino beanies for the Edmund Hillary Collection, an outdoor clothing brand created in memory of Kiwi mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary which debuted at New Zealand Fashion Week in 2018.
The collection was inspired by clothing worn by Sir Edmund on his 1953 expedition to Mt Everest, when he and Tenzing Norgay became the first to reach the summit of the world’s tallest mountain.
Historically, school knitwear was produced from a wool-nylon blend but now schools were looking for a softer handle; the company had submitted some merino samples to King’s High School, which it supplied directly.
There was no assistance from the Government to stay in business and competing against imported product while wages continued to go up was a challenge, Mr Keogh said.
When it came to the demise of New Zealand manufacturing, the sector simply could not compete against the labour costs of a Chinese-manufactured garment.
He encouraged people to buy New Zealand made and help manufacturers; there was increased support from independent designers wanting their products manufactured in New Zealand which was encouraging.
Much had been made in the media around the origins of food, and the origins of clothing had been "a bit fuzzy" but he reckoned that could well be the next focus.
While everything produced at Otago Knitwear was "100% New Zealand made", sadly, because of the demise of the wool-spinning industry in New Zealand, a lot of raw material had to be bought offshore.
When it came to the future of the business, Mr Keogh said his biggest concerns were around getting people to come into the industry to take over from those retiring.
Dunedin might have been a big textile city over the past years but getting people with that experience was now difficult and it was only going to get harder.
As for his own longevity in the industry, Mr Keogh — incidentally still a keen cyclist — said it had definitely developed into a passion.
"I can’t see myself doing anything else."
