From windswept beach walks to post-surf campfires, crosstown commutes and city socializing, there’s one fabric that we feel confident throwing on 365 days of the year. An all-natural, sustainable performance powerhouse you possibly weren’t expecting: organic merino wool.
Oldie but a Goodie
Across history, from the Stone Age to the world’s first farms, outfitting WWI to leading the charge in luxury fashion, wool has been a staple in functional and stylish clothing for millennia. The world’s first unintentional technical performance fabric, worn long before the modern day mass-production of plastic-based activewear.
The rise of merino wool over coarser variants has left us with a seriously-soft rather than scratchy experience. Its abundance of covetable sustainable qualities are widely celebrated internationally, with The Campaign For Wool launching in 2010 as a nod to the contribution of this incredible fibre in the textile industry and beyond.
Don’t Be A Sheep
But not all wool was created equal. Picking up an ecologyst Fisherman Sweater, running your fingers along the soft bubble-knit Merino Sweater, you’re putting your money where your mouth is when it comes to ethical choices. Follow us from sheep to shirt open-eyed along a supply chain that is traceable to its source. Our wool comes from farms that only raise non-mulesed sheep, and we’re working towards ensuring every piece we encounter is certified as such through organizations like ZQ. Most recently, we're stoked to have had our 195 Merino Collection be the first to tick all of ZQ's boxes. Have confidence in the ethical origins of our wool, from animal welfare to the home-turf production of our products in Canada. Join our passion for reading clothing labels like food labels and head out for your next nature immersion with peace-of-mind.
Weather Life’s Storms
Wild fact: human sweat has no odour, it’s the bacteria that builds up on your clothing over time that smells. Able to hold up to 35% of its weight in water, wool is naturally odour-resistant. The moisture that bacteria thrives in is wicked away from your skin, soaked up and eventually released as vapour.
On the flipside, feeling cold in the mountains? As an active hygroscopic fibre that reacts to changes in body temperature and the humidity of the surrounding air, wool is thermo-regulating. It provides effective essential warmth when you need it most. Cozy up close to the crackling fire without fear of bursting into flames, this often-overlooked impressive little powerhouse is even largely naturally fire-resistant thanks to its chemical structure. Weather life’s storms quite literally; undoubtedly a good thing in the rain-centric PNW. Our all merino collection is just the range to stand both the test of time and weather here in Canada.
Go The Distance
Superiorly durable yet remarkably lightweight and with a need to be washed far less, wearing merino wool takes the decision-making away from adventure-worthy attire. And when it eventually gets round to needing a good wash, you won’t be contributing to the 0.6-1.7 million tons of microfibres that are released into the ocean every year. Less than 2% of our products are made with plastics (we’re working on making that 0% stat), and wool falls firmly into the plastic-free 98%.
So why not embrace wool’s 100% natural, renewable, and biodegradable longevity with us? We choose recycled wool where possible, so you can expect a few adventurous stories amongst the stitches of your garments. And when all is said and done, wool starts to biodegrade in soil in as little as three to four months, avoiding adding to the 350,000 tonnes of used clothing that go to landfill every year in Canada alone. Returning to earth’s natural cycles, and helpfully adding nitrogen to the soil as a slow-release fertilizer for those green-thumb inclined, wool is undeniably a planet-friendly option.
Malleable Merino
Convinced? From chunky knitwear to lightweight layers we’re hard pushed to head out on any epic adventure without at least one merino piece. Come delve into our Quilted collection - made here in our own factory, or feel the soft layers of the ecologyst merino wool collection for yourself. We promise your grandpa’s itchy sweaters are a thing of the past.
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