2025-04-27 .... On the Beach until May 12

  

       

2025-04-25 ... Polyester-Cotton Recycling
Headline/lede from today's Apparel Insider:  "Study reveals microplastic release throughout recycling process / NEW SOUTH WALES – A new Australian study found the chemical recycling of polyester-cotton blended textiles releases large quantities of microplastic fibres (MPFs) at every stage of the process. This includes shredding, washing, dye removal, and chemical treatments such as acid and alkaline hydrolysis."

Not at all surprising.  I'm guessing the recycling folks would have a different perspective.  Between 1969 and 1976 I worked at and visited quite a few chemical and textile factories and they were not "clean".   The textile plants I visited when I was a trucker's helper were filthy.  All kinds of slop on the floor and nasty air.  I worked at a plant that tried hard to reclaim, retain and recycle elemental mercury -- that stuff was valuable!   But I heard the State of New Jersey basically shut them down and went after them for a bunch of money to clean the soil in their area.   One of my jobs was operating "the still".  We'd get cartons of extracted teeth (human teeth with mercury fillings!) and put them in ovens so the teeth disintegrated and the mercury was distilled and re-used.  Kind of crazy.   Also kind of crazy is that iron floats on mercury.  You could sort of use an open vat of mercury as a table ... nuts, bolts, pipe wrenches ... it all floated on the mercury and did not mix whatsoever.

The textile-recycling guys are probably more advanced than we were way back when.  But the waste and recycled textiles have very little actual value, so who is paying for serious cleanliness?  Before seeing today's headline, my guess would have been DIRTY.  But I'm waaaaay biased ...

And THANKS AGAIN to Apparel Insider!

  

  

2025-04-24 ... Jersey Wildfires
It's not often that we have big fires here in New Jersey, but we do now.  Advisor Mark Esposito is a Firefighter in Ocean County, New Jersey.

   

 

 

Mark sent me a couple of photos from the fire and a T-Shirt!  THANKS MARK!
A young man was arrested and charged with arson.

     

Best Wishes to Mark and everyone on the scene.  We have several customers who are Firefighters and a BIG TIP OF THE HAT to all of them!

  

   

2025-04-23 ... Ideas for Wrapping and Packaging?
After final Quality Control inspections and before actual shipment, our products need to be wrapped and packaged.  We're trying to figure out the best materials for wrapping and packaging.  And although we are doing all we can to produce garments that are free of chemicals and plastic ... WOW, when it comes to packaging and shipping, plastic can do some great stuff!

If anyone has input on these ideas, please send!

Wrapping

• Mostly cosmetic, I think … make the garment look/feel lux and neat and new.  We’re using a medium-weight green paper now, wrapped once around garment and secured with a WeatherWool sticker
• Hold garment in a nice, folded position
• Disposable after initial opening by customer
• Nothing noxious!

 

Packaging

• Cosmetic … even better cosmetics than the wrapping (people post unboxing)
• Protection of garment … The garment comes out of QC and can sit for a year or two (but I hope not!) until we grab it out of inventory and put it in a shipping box
• Packaging also, ideally, would protect garment if cardboard box is damaged in shipping
• Something customer can use for storage?
• Should packaging be moth resistant and repellent?
• Breathable?    Perplexity.ai said to avoid plastic bags or anything that can trap moisture
• And all this without being noxious
• We have some HEAVY-gauge resealable plastic bags that are highly functional.  BUT … kind of ugly … and plastic!
• Commercial garment bags?  Nothing turned up in a quick search had any appeal

 

 

  

2025-04-22 ... More Keywords ... ShirtJacs 17-high
Following up from yesterday's entry ... Cody had a few more companies using our name as an advertising keyword, and I added them to yesterday's list.

 

ShirtJacs in progress at Factory8.
This is a single pattern piece from a single size, in two colors ... 17 layers of Fabric cut at once.  Note the three "inverted notches" that will serve as markers during sewing.
We will probably ship ShirtJacs in June.  If you want to reserve, please LMK!

  

      

2025-04-21 ... Using Our Name as Keyword ... Lending Closed ... On the Road
Debby and I will be away from the office and mostly away from email beginning this Thursday until Monday, 12 May.  I will generally be available by phone -- 973-943-3110 -- (And I will spend the rest of May trying to catch up.)

The Lending Library is closed (for outgoing, not for returns) until about May 12.

The subject of advertising came up today, and the surprising methods and budgets used for ads.  Putting WEATHERWOOL into Google's search engine turned up advertisements from the following companies:

• Altitude Sports
• Anian
• Atorie
• Big Bill
• Billy Reid
• Canada Goose
• Everlane
• Filson
• Gost
• House of Bruar
• Icebreaker
• Ivanhoe
• Kenai
• Noronna
• Poshmark (Used)
• Proper Cloth
• Reigning Champ
• Tilley
• Todd Snyder
• Unbound Merino
• Varusteleka
• Wynn Carter

As I understand it, these results mean that whoever handles advertising for these companies is paying for their name to pop up when someone searches for us.  Interesting.

The Poshmark ad was annoying because they copied our Anorak narrative word for word from our website, without attribution (let alone permission).  And the Anorak page, like most of this website, is written in first-person.  So the Poshmark ad gives the impression it was written by us.

We do not advertise.

   

  

2025-04-19 ... POM-POM?
Vlogger and Friend of WeatherWool, THE IRON SNAIL (Michael Kristy), has a big following on YouTube.  Recently, Debby flagged his Pom-Pom Short to me.  In about one minute, at his usual double-time speed, The Snail covers the WHY of Pom-Poms atop Beanies (Watch Caps).  Michael suggests the pom-pom may be decorative, functional, or cosmetic.

Our own Watch Cap does not have a pom-pom because Tailored Industry's Shima Seiki knitting machines make such a sweet join at the top of the hat.  Also because ... no pom-poms for me.

BUT!!!! .... In 1925 (not a typo) a pom-pom likely saved my life.  Grandmother had knitted for my Dad a wool cap with a big POMPOM.  Dad's parents ran a roadside vegetable stand.  One day when Dad was 1 or 2 years old, he was in a play pen while Grandmother worked the stand.  But when Gran looked over at the playpen, Dad was gone!  Grandma spotted the POM-POM in the back seat of a car, and snatched Dad out the rear window as the kidnapper-customer drove off.

If not for Grandmother's quickness and that pom-pom?   Maybe pom-poms are also intended to be conspicuous.

  

  

2025-04-18 ... MidWeight Black Anoraks ... Fitting Jeans
For the first time, we have some MidWeight Black Anoraks.  We dyed some Batch 9 MidWeight Natural White.  People have been asking for MidWeight Black, so ...  Right now, Small and Medium are available from the website.  Other sizes are in final (the third of three) Quality Control Inspection, and will be available online very soon.  If you want to reserve, just LMK!

We're working up another round of Denim Jeans.  We have been mostly an above-the-waist company, and Pants are quite a different thing from shirts an jackets.  But the Denim makes terrific Jeans, and we want to make them in earnest this year.  Last year, we only made a handful to gain some experience.  I'm useless at "fittings" and today was typical.  Five people talking about -- mostly -- VERY TINY changes.  I'm glad nobody expected any input from me!  If you are tall and lean and athletic, like the "fit model", everything looks good on you!!  They spent quite a bit of time on the J-Seam, which I'd never heard of.  It's the seam that secures the flap over the zipper ... shaped like a J.  It's going to be moved slightly and made slightly bigger.  The level of detail is somewhat amazing to me, and I'm very glad to not have to understand it.  But I do understand the zipper has to be right.

Trying to fit flat pieces of fabric onto three-dimensional human forms that move is a very difficult proposition!!

 

  

  

2025-04-17 ... Imports?  ZERO (At least from my point of view!)
Amazing how things can get complicated.  All our labor and all components from which our products are made are USA.

But with the tariff turmoil, we are sometimes assessed IMPORT duty when an international customer exchanges or returns a garment!  Another joke on me.

Also, we have recently purchased two used Jacquard Looms, now in transit to us.  Near as I can tell, the type of looms we need are not made in the USA.  And people that I trust told me this was a good transaction for us.  The looms are made by Lindauer Dornier, a German company, and I think they are shipping to us from Italy.  Maybe we are importers after all.  Georgia Meloni, the Prime Minister of Italy, is in DC today, negotiating a trade deal.  Used German looms, coming from Italy, with no remotely comparable American alternative ... ??

   

   

2025-04-16 ... Chinese OEM Markups
People are asking regularly how the tariff brouhaha is affecting us.  I don't know for sure.  It seems like our export business, which is 10% of sales, has fallen off.  But it's too early to tell.  Plus, we normally slow down every month from January through July anyway.

A couple folks have flagged to me this piece about the markup added by importers selling goods made in China and various actions and reactions:

• $100 Lululemon leggings cost just $5-6 to produce
• a $38,000 Birkin bag cost only about $1,000 to produce
• Chinese suppliers use TikTok to reveal production costs and offer direct sales
• Videos compare branded and unbranded products, claiming minimal differences
• Chinese Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are revolutionizing their sales strategies by adopting direct-to-consumer (DTC) approaches, effectively cutting out traditional middlemen. 

I wonder if Lululemon and Birkin had any idea their acquisition costs, whatever they may be, would be publicized as a result of tariff changes.  None of our materials or products are imported, so I don't have any firsthand knowledge regarding markups.  However, someone I trust was working closely with a famous clothing maker, and he told me the same thing, years ago.

It's remarkable that cost of manufacture could be as little as 5 or 10% of the retail price!

  

  

2025-04-15 Again ... MidWeight Black Anoraks
We have never before made MidWeight Black Fabric.  This Fabric started as Batch 9 Natural White.  We dyed it Black.  The dyeing process shrank the Fabric a little, so it will weigh more than typical MidWeight.  But anyhow, people have been asking for MidWeight Black so I decided to make a small number of MidWeight Black Anoraks.  We expect to begin shipping these in about a week.  We didn't make many, and only in sizes Small, Medium, Large and XLarge.  If you want one, please get in touch with me directly to reserve.

  

  

2025-04-15 ... Brown Anoraks
We have some FullWeight Brown Anoraks on hand now, with more coming as we complete Quality Control checks.   At this point, we have (or will soon have) stock in all sizes from XXS through 4X.  If you want a Brown Anorak that is not available now, phone me to set up shipment.

   

  

2025-04-14 ... WarriorWool
WarriorWool (subsidized purchases of Anoraks for First Responders and Military individuals spending personal funds for Active Duty kit) has been part of our company since the beginning.

Today, someone in the US Military purchased his 3rd Anorak.  His first and third Anoraks were thru the WarriorWool program, but the 2nd Anorak was a regular purchase because the color was not acceptable for Active Duty.

  

   

2025-04-13 ... Denim Shipping for One Year
I first learned that Denim could be wool in May of 2023.  We shipped our first Denim pieces less than a year later, beginning 10 April 2024, almost exactly a year ago.  So today seemed the right time to update our WeatherWool Denim page.

   

2024-04-10 … Tariffs and International
The tariff situation is on everyone’s minds.  My own guess is this situation will calm down very quickly.   (I also wrote that two months ago.)

  

According to the news, USA exports about 11% of production.  For WeatherWool, it’s about 10%.   Our international customers are subject to a wide variety of tariffs, taxes, customs-processing fees.    We would surely export more if all this were zeroed out.  

   

But if the tariff situation goes completely crazy and we stop exporting altogether, it would not have much of an economic effect on us.  For WeatherWool, exports are mainly a source of personal pleasure.  It’s an honor that people in dozens of other countries want our product!!   And interacting with them is a great pleasure.

   

We are also honored that The Nikkei, the huge and venerable Japanese news and media company, contacted us about the tariff situation.   My responses to the reporter’s email are basically what I have written here.   And as soon as I finish this Blog, I will refer the reporter to this space.  Hopefully, she won’t need me to change this post.

    

I spent most of the 1980s working at Bell Labs (young people will have to look that up!), the research/technical arm of the unified Bell Telephone, which was, essentially, the telephone company of the USA.  “The Labs” slogan was MISSION:  COMMUNICATIONS.   This still seems to me as a very worthy mission.  And I do strongly believe that actual human communication/interaction is a very good thing and basic to our nature.   Here are a couple of great examples of why I love to export our wool:

  

My grandchildren will all have to endure a GRANPA-NAME.  When my grandson was several months old, he was extremely tall, and I was looking for a name appropriate to a big kid.  I was calling him KONG, but that was just a working name, I did not expect to stay with it.  However, a guy in Thailand named KONG placed an order with us.  I asked him if KONG is a common name in Thailand.   He explained KONG is his nickname, given to him by his grandfather!!!  

   

Yesterday, I made a run to American Woolen Company to pick up some Denim for a run of Charcoal Chore Coats that should ship in June.  AWC is not so far away, but particularly pulling the trailer, there is no good way to get there.  Best bet is to leave early in the morning.  As usual, anticipation of an early start kept me from getting much sleep.  I’m too sensitive to caffeine to drink coffee, but good chocolate has about the right amount of caffeine to keep me going.  Last week, two very kind customers in Switzerland sent us some wonderful Swiss chocolate – THANK YOU BENEDIKT AND LINDA!!! – and I saved it until yesterday.   Seven hours behind the wheel gave me the opportunity and the need to enjoy some great chocolate!

 

 

2025-04-08 ... Back in the Saddle ... Superwashed (Machine-Washable) Wool
I'm back after a long weekend with friends from school days.  I definitely needed some rest, but didn't get much, if any.  However, the time away from the screen was good.  The downside, of course!! ... a whole lot of catch-up is needed.

The subject of superwashed wool has been coming up lately.  As everyone knows, potential shrinkage during laundering is a disadvantage of wool.  Superwash eliminates the shrinkage from typical laundry treatment.

The shrinkage is a result of the scales on wool fiber:

I don't know who to credit for this great photo of a strand of wool

The scales are a key to some of the great performance abilities of wool.  BUT, the scales are also the key to shrinkage.  Superwash eliminates and/or covers the scales.  What's the whole story on superwash?

I just rewrote our page on Superwash.  It has some intro-level technical info.  People who wear wool will probably be interested.

 

 

2025-04-02 ... Paper Power
Quite a few of our customers run their own businesses, and this entry might bring back memories.  Hope not.  People starting their own businesses should plan better than I have.

The following is my best understanding of what the tax pros are telling me.  Could be wrong or misleading.  But hopefully a little bit amusing and worth a minute's read.

Until 2003, even though I was mostly self-employed, I was kicking blips for a living.  Beyond our phones and personal computers, we had was no capital tied up, and there was no long production cycles to finance and wait for payment.  I would do some stuff on a keyboard and get paid pretty quickly, and my expenses were virtually zero.

But I had started to fiddle a little bit as a wool dealer ... just a little bit.  However, the USA being what it is, we had a business account for the wool, we kept track of sales and expenses ... the usual stuff.  Then one day our accountant told me my hobbies were actually business expenses now.  Buying a pair of boots, the mileage when I went to the woods ... a bunch of expenses I would have incurred anyway, were suddenly now, essentially, 50% off.  WOW!!!  This was great.   Plus, I liked the wool biz.

Also in 2003, Debby decided she wanted a bluestone patio out back.  The mason gave two prices ... one for labor alone, and one for labor plus the mason's cost of the bluestone.  A friend of mine was in the bluestone business, and I bought the stone from him.  The mason was shocked at the quality of my buddy's stone.  My friend treated us (Debby!!) right for sure, but also, my friend was buying the stone directly from the families that were doing the quarrying.  Bluestone tends to be a very down-home kind of business and knowing the family quarrying the stone made a real difference.  The mason liked the stone so much he asked us to be his supplier.  Cool.  It was kinda fun having another thing to mess with a little, and, like the wool, completely different than typing for a living.  Then the accountant called again and told me the original patio Debby wanted was now a business expense ... it served to show people the quality of our stone.  ZOW!!  Shortly thereafter, she called again and said there was a rule, about to expire, that would let me immediately write off 100% of the cost of a pickup truck.  The bluestone business didn't need that much write-off, but we did move stone around by truck, and she explained it the cost of the truck would net against the income from the financial work I was still doing.  Chevy was offering their Avalanche pickup at 0% financing for 5 years.  So, we bought an Avalanche, wrote off 100% of the cost immediately, and paid the truck loan over 5 years.  It was like a free truck!  And the Avalanche was a great truck.

Those paperwork wrinkles were really great 20 years ago.

A lifelong friend of mine is big in business.  At his level, he tells me you always have to talk to specialized lawyers and accountants and even consultants and lobbyists who know the ropes.  It's not enough to recognize a strong need for whatever business you want to do.  Your actual business plans have to be sidelined while the paperwork -- the legal, regulatory and tax environments -- are researched and evaluated.   It truly doesn't matter what you want to do.  Corporate structures, tax and regulatory considerations must be understood fully, and your plans can only be properly implemented when you are structured to deal with external forces that would seem to a layman (me) to have nothing to do with earning satisfied customers.

 

The main complaints people have with WeatherWool are our lack of inventory and our prices.  We'd love to lower prices, but not at the cost of quality.  So, there isn't much we can do about pricing, except maybe to compress our production cycles, which are extremely long.  In order to increase our production and inventory, we've been keeping the capital within the business and buying more wool, making larger production runs.

But our production is still painfully slow ... Batch 9 fiber was purchased beginning in April of 2022, and we still have not turned all of that fiber into garments.  We still don't have any Batch 10 or Batch 11 Fabric, and that fiber was purchased in 2023 and 2024.  From the IRS (America's federal tax collectors) point of view, none of the expenses incurred during production of our garments can be considered a tax-deductible expense until we sell the garments.   So, all the steps in our production, fully three years for Batch 9, are regarded as inventory acquisition.

I understand now (DUH!) why almost everyone else in the garment biz buys their fabric.   Similarly, almost everyone who makes fabric sells fabric, not garments.  I also understand better why interest rates are so crucial.  Because we've been using the proceeds of our sales to grow our business, we need to pay income taxes even though we have kept the money within the business.  We have also used borrowed money for growth -- at least, now, we have a track record and some lenders like us! -- but interest rates are very high.

It seems as if, so long as we are putting sales proceeds back into the business, we will need to keep paying taxes on money that is held in inventory. 

These tax laws make doing business a lot more expensive than I think it should be.  And obviously, the customer must pay the costs of the business.

The powerful paperwork worm has turned against us lately!

I saved the first crack at this Blog a few hours ago, before a customer stopped by to join us for dinner.  A reader sent me a note before I got a chance to finish writing.  The reader suggested we consider forming separate companies to handle the different stages of our production (wool acquisition, cleaning, dyeing, spinning, weaving, finishing, tailoring).  I ran that exact idea past the accountants earlier today.  THANKS for the helpful suggestion, and it is a possibility.

  

  

2025-04-01 ... SHIPPING!! -- No Joke
No April Fool Joke, I mean.  As mentioned yesterday, we've been trying to upgrade our international shipping services.  DHL pitched some great stuff to us.  DHL has always been really good at international deliveries, but they have some newer tools that could only be offered to customers if we added a DHL app to our webstore.  The app would have enabled customers outside the USA to conveniently create return/exchange labels that would have displayed the import/export codes that would avert extra fees and even create refunds.   Sounded great AND we've been really impressed by DHL's attention to our account.  BUT ... implementing these enhancements crunched our domestic shipping and we've been struggling for a few days to get this fixed.  About 5:30 AM EST (on April Fool's Day) today, I think I removed DHL entirely from the domestic shipping menu and things seem to be working OK.

It looks like FedEx is also gone ... I didn't intend that.   But UPS (normally about 90% of our shipping) and USPS are there, seemingly back to normal.

Please let me know -- ideally, phone me (973-943-3110) -- if you have any problems placing an order!! --- Sorry for the inconveniences and THANKS for reporting problems!! -- Ralph

  

  

2025-03-31 ... YouTube Fine Print ... Website/Shipping ... Fabric Fire/Heat Tests
With the tariff turmoil affecting our exports and our returns/exchanges from other countries, we were loving the proposed solutions from DHL.  BUT ... something went very haywire when we installed the DHL app a few days ago and it clobbered domestic shipping.  We've been struggling to get back to normal.  People reported problems to me today, still.  But I am hoping those problems were caused by older information stored in browser history, or something.   Please, if you have any trouble shipping, let me know.  We can get it done over the phone, and knowing the details may help us get closer to normal.

YouTube is such a dominant force that we are almost forced to play-ball with them.  Cody is on top of the details.  But the gist of it seems to be that if we want YouTube to host our videos without inserting their ads, we need to be some kind of partner.  I asked Cody to do whatever he thinks necessary and best to avoid ads running during our videos.

Speaking of which, Cody is about to make a new video public ... Fabric Showdown: Wool vs Other Clothing over Fire & Under Heat!!! ... Please LMK your thoughts!   Thanks for Great Work, Cody!

  

  

2025-03-20 ... Prep for Open House ... Batches 10, Innes-1, 13 and 14
Open House today is the last until late August.  But we are still available by appointment at almost any time.

We actually have eight Batches in process/planning now:

1. We're making some Drab Green Mountain Jackets/SkiJacs from the last of the Batch 8 Fabric and Batch 9Y (Batch 9 Warp and leftover weft from previous Batches)
2. We're making some Anoraks and Blankets from the last of the Batch 9 Fabric
3. Batch 10, which will be all (unique to us, 100% Wool!!) Denim, is well under way.  We expect to deliver to Factory8 some Charcoal Denim for South Shore Chore Coats.  So, probably ship the first Batch 10 garments in June
4. Batch Innes-1 (aka Batch 11, our first single-ranch batch of Fabric!) is going into weaving this week, but probably August or later before we have any Innes-1 garments.  MidWeight Lynx up first, probably for Anoraks and Hooded Jackets.  We should be weaving some of Innes-1 on our own looms, purchased earlier this month.  Last I heard, these looms are still in Italy
5. Batch 12 is yarn purchased from Meridian Specialty Yarn Group.  This Yarn is reserved exclusively for knitting.  Mostly Watch Caps and Neck Gaiters knitted by Tailored Industry, but also, for our Hooded Jackets, cuffs, knitted by Fleck Knits
6. Batch 13 is in planning stage, and we expect to purchase the greasy wool in April or May of 2025, pending test results of the greasy. Batch 13 is anticipated to be a mix of Geis (our first purchase from Geis Ranch in Gillette, Wyoming), McMurry Genopalette Ranch in Missouri, King Ranch in New Mexico, Cravens Ranch in New Mexico, Jones Ranch in New Mexico, PM Ranch (Padula) in Minnesota and Jewell Ranch in Colorado.
7. Batch Innes-2 (aka Batch 14) will also start this year.  We plan to buy the Innes Clip and save it until 2026, when it will be combined with the 2026 Innes Clip and then made into Fabric

Debby needs to get Batch Tags made!!

 

 

2025-03-29 ... Shipping Enhancement OOPS!!
On Thursday, 2 days ago, we tried to enhance our international shipping by adding an APP to our website that would make returns/exchanges much smoother for our customers.  Somehow, this disabled most American destinations.  We should be back to normal now.  We'll try adding the international facility again, probably, on Wednesday.   Please LMK if you have any problems ordering!   Thanks -- Ralph

  

  

2025-03-28 ... New Video from Cody and Engelmeyer
Advisor Mike Engelmeyer has been wearing WeatherWool about as long as anyone.  Mike and Cody are both professional photographers/videographers and have significant common ground.  Mike was doing a shoot in Florida and Cody did a shoot based on Mike's shoot.

     

Please click here for 10 Essentials to Being a Successful Outdoor Photographer with Michael Engelmeyer.

 

 

This photo of Engelmeyer from 2018 shows that HARD WORK is part of the kit!
The temp was just above freezing and Mike spent a lot of time under that dock.

     

BIG THANKS TO BOTH OF YOU! 

  

  

2025-03-26 ... Remnants ... Return?  We Don't Care
I just changed the way we offer Fabric Remnants.  The Sewing Pros cut our Fabric quite efficiently, but nevertheless, a lot of remnants are generated.  And as our production grows, we'll generate more and more.  We offer the Remnants based on the cost of shipping, which varies widely depending on the quantity and the destination.  With today's update to the website, people will basically select how much they want to pay for shipping, and we'll send as much weight as we can based on the destination and shipping fee selected.

     

We are based in the NYC Metro area.  Anyone who wants to stop by and pick up Remnants can have them for free.  We normally have hundreds of pounds/kilos on hand at any given time.

    

The Remnants are our true production Fabric, but the only use we have for them is making Fabric Sample packs.  And that leaves a lot of extra Remnants.

  

I just learned that some countries will NOT refund import-related fees if a customer returns a garment.  That is ... suppose a customer decides a garment is not what is desired, and returns to us.  We will of course refund.  But some countries will retain any tariff, duty, tax and fee paid by the customer in the course of importing the product, even if returned.  I don't yet know which countries operate this way.

  

  

2025-03-25 ... Handling Reservations
THIS POST MIGHT BE MORE BORING THAN USUAL.  But people tell me they enjoy the insider-detail.  Maybe they are retired businessfolk thinking "Glad I'm done with that kind of stuff!"

Given the length of our production cycles, it's important that we accept reservations.  But everyone knows where the devil resides.

Recently, we accepted pre-payments for a couple of items when production was imminent.  That was OK with almost all the customers, but not OK with me.  It took too long to fill orders and I don't want to owe customers.

We will reserve pieces for people who leave credit cards on file with us.  And charge the cards when we ship.  This works pretty well, but there are problems:

• Some people understandably don't want to leave their card info
• Some don't have credit cards
• Credit cards expire or change frequently.  So a lot of the time, the card we have on file is no longer valid
• Even when the card on file is valid, banks decline about half the transactions as a defense against fraud
• Some people use debit cards, and want me to call them before running the charge so they can replenish the account
• Shipping and billing addresses are frequently different

All these little gremlins slow us down, although to resolve I frequently wind up speaking directly with the customers, and that's great.  But that can slow us down even more.  For these -- and other reasons -- I'm trying to figure out better ways of handling reservations.  Here is another idea we will try soon:

• We will accept reservations as always, but no need to leave credit card on file
• When the garments are ready, we'll send a link to a password-protected page
• People can then purchase the reserved item by credit card, debit card or PayPal

This will require some extra prep from us (mostly by Lindsay King, our web-support) but will hopefully save a lot of churn here.  But I can already see drawbacks:

• People will reserve one size then pay for another
• People will buy two sizes to make sure one of them fits
• People will buy a second one as a gift (we're honored by how often our wool is gifted!) ..... so we'll need to make extras
• I will want to notify people by email, so we can do a large number with one mail ... everyone except me will be a BCC (blind carbon copy)
• But some people don't have email, or check it seldom
• Some people want texts, and I don't even know if it's possible to send a bulk text with BCC
• Some people have only a land-line phone, with no email
• There will be people who don't respond.  How many times should we try to reach them?  How long do we wait before making any unclaimed pieces generally available?

Good problems to have ... first-world problems.  And another little taste for me what it's like to scale-up a business.  Particularly a business making a physical product, each with many variants (size, color, Fabric).  

Suggestions welcome!!

  

   

  

2025-03-24 … Communications Policy
Since day one, our policy has required that communications will always be direct and truthful and as complete as possible without extending into numbing detail (that’s Debby throttling me down).  Although it turns out some people are interested in ALL the detail.  

          

But another kind of comms policy is on my mind from time to time, and it came up a few days ago.   Cody has made a video about our Jacquard Pants, and he said THESE PANTS ARE FANTASTIC.   Everyone will understand that FANTASTIC is an opinion … so you can’t really argue with it.  Nevertheless, I would, MAYBE-MAYBE, say I THINK THEY’RE FANTASTIC, but I wouldn’t go as far as Cody did.   So, I throttled him down (!!) and he changed to I THINK THEY’RE FANTASTIC.

    

But (again) I don’t like telling people what they can or can’t say.   Even when they are working for WeatherWool, which Cody is.   So, Cody’s upcoming video on our Jacquard Pants will have an initial message written by Cody and approved by me:    

    

Everyone who works for WeatherWool is encouraged to speak freely their own opinions in any manner they wish about any topic.  They are also never asked to say anything that doesn’t align with their own genuine opinions.   These opinions may or may not be the official position of WeatherWool.

    

  

2025-03-23 ... US National Agriculture Observance ... Denim Colors ... Visitors ... Shearing
On the Geis Ranch in Wyoming, shearing is scheduled to begin Friday.  I'm guessing shearing on the neighboring Innes Ranch will follow.  This year we intend to make our first purchase of Geis fiber.

  

We continue to have customers/visitors here regularly.  And our final Open House of the season is next Sunday, March 30.  In the last few days, visitors have been surprised that Debby and I spend time with them, consider their suggestions and openly deliberate possibilities.  I take this to mean, at least from some viewpoints, that we appear as a larger and more corporate entity than we are.  I don't know if this is good or not, but I do know that interaction with customers will always be high priority.

   

Something (among many others!) I still have not figured out is why so many people seem to go immediately from never having heard of Wool Denim to viewing Charcoal (as opposed to Indigo) as the obvious color choice.  My original thinking was that DENIM IS (almost always) BLUE.  So, if we're going to make Denim, even though ours is 100% wool, it ought to be the typical blue/indigo color.  But NO!  Customer preference is Charcoal by maybe 3-to-1 over Indigo or Natural White.  One nice bonus of the Denim, which I had not anticipated, is that the Denim, with the tiny flecks of Natural Undyed showing through the face of the Fabric, hides debris much better than actual solid colors.  I've been wearing a Charcoal Chore Coat a lot lately (indoors as well as all kinds of outdoor conditions), and I've been carrying a lot of firewood.  TMI, maybe, but normally I load up my left arm with quite a bit of firewood and so there is a lot of sawdust, bark, assorted debris on my arm and against my chest.  After moving a few armloads, I'll just brush off the Chore Coat and it appears clean.  If I was wearing a true black garment, all the residual bits would show.  A nice surprise.  Upon writing this para, I realized I should mention this on the Our Colors page.  Much to my surprise, that page covered only our Jacquard Fabrics because I had not updated it for 18 months.  So ... detour to update Our Colors and then return to finishing the Blog.  This happens a lot ... one website update initiates a sequence of updates.

   

I should be embarrassed, I guess, because I was not aware … In the USA, March is National Agriculture Month.   We also have National Agriculture Week (March 21-27 this year).  And we have National Agriculture Day (March 18 this year).  I just looked it up to make sure that AGRICULTURE includes production of wool.  Here is one definition:  “Agriculture is the practice of cultivating the soil, growing crops, and raising livestock to provide food, fiber, and other commodities for human use. It encompasses everything from farming to the preparation and distribution of agricultural products.”   DISTRIBUTION?   That must mean WeatherWool is an agricultural company.  This would never have occurred to me.  My parents, grandparents and great-grandparents were farmers, and I’ve always felt that I should be living on a farm.  Ideally, a farm on a beach in New York City, if such were possible.   It is a foolish pleasure to know that, at least technically, we are still doing agriculture.

2025-03-21 ... Hooded Jackets ... Dog Bites Man, and Anorak
As mentioned yesterday, we have some more Hooded Jackets available now.  We're just starting to ship the Hoodeds in Indigo Denim, in all sizes from XXSmall to 4XLarge.  We also have just a couple in MidWeight Lynx Pattern, size Medium.  We continue to ship the Hoodeds in FullWeight Black Fabric.  And we have one left in FullWeight Drab Green, size Large.

   

A customer working in Canine Units of Law Enforcement phoned recently with an interesting story.  One of the dogs went out of control, and chomped his forearm pretty hard.  He needed medical treatment for lacerations.  But his Anorak was not damaged. 

Here in the Northern Hemisphere, Winter turned to Spring early this morning.  "Dolly" the Mourning Dove started sitting her nest on our kitchen porch about a week ago.  Being in the wool biz, I guess I should root for permanent Fall/Winter.  But I love the roll of the seasons and I still remember the feeling of actually earning Spring by getting through a tough Winter.  Recent winters seem a lot milder than they used to.  And I've got much better clothing than way back when.  Still love Spring's arrival, tho.

   

These past twenty years or so, the end of Sugar Season (that is, the end of our Maple Syrup Season) has coincided very well with the beginning of Spring here in North Jersey.  And more recently, the beginning of Spring also means the beginning of shearing.  I just got a text from Andy McMurry at Genopalette McMurry Ranch in Missouri that he started shearing today.

   

We have some very thoughtful and energetic customers.  A bicycle-riding (many thousands of miles annually) customer stopped by last week and just sent me an email, which I post with grateful permission (anonymity requested):

Thanks Again to this thoughtful -- VERY thoughtful -- writer/customer!!!   He surely understands us!  And now, very timely, it is my pleasure to let him know that his Medium-size Hooded Jacket in MidWeight Lynx Pattern Fabric is available.  We made only a handful in MidWeight Lynx (we found some extra Fabric), and these are all spoken for, but we made a larger quantity in Indigo Denim.  

2025-03-19 ... More Partners ... New Boxes Only! ... Growth
I do very little of the shipping because Debby and Alex don't approve of my folding and packing.  I'm most likely to ship pieces from the Lending Library because I've always thought we could be a lot more casual in that case.  A couple of days ago, Debby grabbed one of my boxes off the UPS-outgoing stack, scolded me, refolded, rebagged and reboxed the piece.  Then she decreed NO MORE USED BOXES, even for Lending Library shipments.  THE BIG BOSS.  LA GRAN JEFA!

   

New entries on our Partners Relations Page:

• Paul Blanos, a customer, just wrote me that he and Peter Wiltse (another customer) are the moderators of the Reddit WeatherWool page.  I didn't know there is such a page.  I've only been on Reddit once or twice ... a year or two ago.
• Peter Wiltse is also the admin of the WeatherWool Discussion Group on Facebook
• In the last few months, three people have been helping us a great deal with Quality Control Inspection.  First was Ashley Pachay, a student at Fashion Institute of Technology.  Next, Tufan Nadjafi, who is building a career as a standup comic.  And in the last month or so, Steven Martinez ... NOT the same Steven Martinez who has been doing our IT work for years

An indicator of growth that amuses me is the names of our customers.  Alex and I once went kind of crazy trying to figure out what happened to an order I asked him to ship to CRAMER.  We eventually found he'd shipped the order to KRAMER, who had the same first name as CRAMER.  We have two customers IN IRELAND with the same name.  We have 30 customers named NGUYEN and 85 named Johnson.  And now there are two guys named STEVEN MARTINEZ who work with us.

2025-03-17 ... Tariff Wars Heating Up ... Shearing Starting
Shearing is starting in New Mexico this week, and the rest of the country will follow closely.  Last week I spoke with Marae King, whose family purchased the sheep that had belonged to Mike Corn.  The Kings had actually acquired Mike's sheep sometime prior to our purchase of Batch 10 greasy (a year ago).  But the sheep grew most of that wool while Mike owned them.  I remember Mike telling me that Marae and John King have four young sons who are full of fire for this.  Perfect.

   

Around the end of March, Innes will be shearing in Wyoming.  We plan to buy Innes again.  And this year we plan to also buy the clip from the neighboring Geis Ranch.  Innes and Geis have extremely similar fiber because their sheep share significant genetics.  I met Gerry and Gwen Geis when I was in Wyoming for the 2024 shearing, and look forward to working with them.

   

I plan to use the greasy (raw wool) purchased this year for Batch 13 and Batch Innes-2 (Batch 14).  The way we do things now, we need 40,000 pounds (18,000 kg) of greasy for a Batch.  Hopefully, the Geis clip plus the fiber from New Mexico, Padula (Minnesota), Genopalette (Missouri) and Jewell (Colorado) will get us to the 40,000 magic number.  Or, at least, close enough that Diego, who runs the Chargeurs scouring plant, will let me slide.  This year's Innes clip will be put aside until we can combine it with the 2026 clip, which should reach the 40,000 total.  The plan also sets aside the 2026 Geis clip until 2027, making Batch Geis-1.

   

This year, I won't be in Wyoming for shearing or sampling but #2 son Zack will represent WeatherWool on the scene.  Zack lives a couple of hours drive from Innes and Geis.  In Wyoming, that's a short ride.

   

The tariff wars are getting hot.  I foolishly thought it would be over by now.  Fact is, tariffs and quotas are just about everywhere, on all kinds of stuff.   In 1983, after enjoying some fantastic and remarkably inexpensive ice cream in the Dominican Republic, I looked into import possibilities.  At the time, it was all but illegal to import ice cream in the USA.    I just added a little info to the Import Duty page.

2025-03-15 ... Sampling (of Greasy Wool)
This time of year is crucial in America's Wool Industry.  Mid-March marks the beginning of shearing in New Mexico, the State from which we originally purchased the great majority of our wool.  We're moving more toward Wyoming now, partly because the growth of our company makes the larger ranches of Wyoming more compatible with our needs.

  

We are very particular about the fiber we buy.  We base our purchases on the thickness (in microns) of the fiber and on the length and strength of the fiber.  American buyers mostly don't focus on length and strength, but we do.  At present, equipment to test for length and strength is not available in the USA, so we send our Samples to the New Zealand Wool Testing Authority.

  

Taking small, representative, trustworthy test samples from many thousands of pounds of wool is completely critical to us, and there is a large body of knowledge -- and of course, some controversy -- built up about how to do the Sampling.  I've been corresponding over the years on this subject with Padula, and it occurred to me that I'd may as well include  information about sampling on the website.  I still need to distill and organize it, but in this rough form it definitely gives a sense of how what might seem a simple task is NOT a simple task.

2025-03-13 ... Canadian Tariff ... FIT Job Fair ... Fitting
Yesterday and today we attended Job Fairs at the Fashion Institute of Technology (part of State University of New York system).  What a great pleasure to see the enthusiasm these young people have toward their future careers and work!  Also, what a great pleasure to see the interest in wool, and in the potential of wool to help make clothing healthy.

    

After the job fair we had a good session at Factory8, working on some designs and issues of sizing.

    

A customer in Saskatchewan sent me some information on the newly imposed Canadian tariffs on American woolens.  I didn't think we'd get to this point, but, we have.  And it's a big deal for us and our Canadian customers.  In this case, we sent wool valued at CAD $1763.  Here are the associated fees:

    

The HST/GST and PST are nothing new, but the "Other Government Charges" is the 25% tariff.  We still have not figured how if/when UPS will charge Customs Brokerage fees.  It seems kind of random, and when we've asked about it, we feel we haven't gotten clear information.  But anyway, a total of $718 in fees were put on top of a $1763 transaction.  About 41%.  Basically the same as importing to Europe.  Although Europe may have also increased lately.  

2025-03-12 ... JOB FAIR Today and Tomorrow
Today and tomorrow I'll have a table at the Job and Career Fair at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC.  First time WeatherWool has ever done anything like this.  There might be a lot of people interested in what we are doing.  ... Fabric design, development, testing, starting with the ranchers and the sheep ... dyeing, spinning, weaving ... clothing design, manufacture, marketing (??) and sales ... 100% USA ... 100% Wool ... 100% Wool Denim ... sustainable ... looking to be as healthy as possible ... We'll see!

2025-03-11 ... Upgrade Not Complete ... YouTube Numbers
System upgrade still in progress.  Incorrect cabling needs to be replaced.  Another day or two of strange/distorted video.  Makes me appreciate what a minor miracle these newer screens are.  Older IT folks will remember the days before flat screens.  A display device (CRTs we called them) would weigh 100 pounds (45 kg) and they were far from flat.  The old screens were frequently deeper than they were wide.

         

I don't usually pay attention to YouTube stats, but Alex gets a YouTube report every month automatically.  In February, our channel was watched a total of 37,400 minutes.  The month of February had 40,320 minutes.  I feel like that's not bad, although friends of mine, friends of WeatherWool, exceed our viewership by an order of magnitude (or two!).

2025-03-09 ... Offline Until Tuesday ... LOOMS!!

I will be mostly offline another couple of days ... working without my usual tools until my new system is up and running ... or at least, joggng, until i get used to everything.

Big news for us!  We have just purchased two Jacquard Looms.  The looms will be installed at American Woolen, and we hope to have them weaving our Fabric by May.  We should be able to move more quickly with two looms dedicated to WeatherWool.   Since 2012, our Fabric has been woven by Material Technology and Logistics of Pennsylvania.  Mike Hillebrand, founder and owner of MTL and now also a friend of ours, advised us on the acquisition.  MTL will probably continue to advise and weave for us.  Huge Thanks to Mike and MTL.  It will be great to have our looms at AWC, where we do so much other work.  Thanks to Giuseppe of AWC and Raffaelle of Ellerre Tech for finding the looms we need. And now begins a new stage in the development of WeatherWool. 

2025-03-04 ... System Upgrade Postponed Until Thursday/Friday ... Perspectives
I won't be much on the wires tomorrow, Thursday and Friday.  Probably good to step away from the screens for a little bit anyway.  New setup scheduled to be in gear by Saturday.

   

I saw this meme last night.  Thanks to Robert Sterling, whoever he is.

   
I don’t want to include a Teams link on the calendar invite. I don’t want to pay 50 different monthly subscription fees for all my software. I don’t want to upgrade to TurboTax platinum plus audit protection. I don’t want to install the Webex plugin to join the meeting. I don’t want to share my car’s braking data with the actuaries at State Farm.

   
I don’t want to text with your AI chatbot. I don’t want to download the Instagram app to look at your picture. I don’t want to type in my email address to view the content on your company’s website. I don’t want text messages with promo codes. I don’t want to leave your company a five-star Google review in exchange for the chance to win a $20 Starbucks gift card.

   
I don’t want to join your exclusive community in the metaverse. I don’t want AI to help me write my comments on LinkedIn. I don’t even want to be on LinkedIn in the first place.

   
I just want to pay for a product one time (and only one time), know that it’s going to work flawlessly, press 0 to speak to an operator if I need help, and otherwise be left alone and treated with some small measure of human dignity, if that’s not too much to ask anymore.”

   
~ Robert Sterling

All of these points landed comfortably for me, and I enjoyed reading through them.  The last one made me think of WeatherWool.  Our products can't really be flawless, although that's a goal.  But you won't even have to press 0 (funny that we press ZERO instead of O for Operator) to speak with us.  Make the call and a person will almost always answer.  As for the last, "to be left alone", that also appealed to me.  I've been feeling remiss that we don't publish a newsletter.  And we've been planning to do that for a long time.  Other priorities.  We don't send any emails at all, except the ones people specifically ask for, such as a product-availability notice.  Now, I'm thinking to forget about a newsletter, too.  Anyone who wants info about us can come to the website.  Nice to cross an item off the TO-DO list!

   

The following is a post I just saw on social media.  I'll replace the name of the marketing firm with XXX and the name of the client with YYY because I don't want to cause any hard feelings.

 

YYY is a new global brand that offers a broad range of accessories, gear and tools for men who want to make the most of their free time. XXX helped our client build the YYY brand from the ground up, designing the logo and tagline, developing the persona, website and tradeshow designs, photography, videos, catalogs, social media—you name it, we did it. Visit our website to see more examples of our work for YYY and other clients.

      

WOW!!! ... What's going on here?  I guess it's good that these companies are forthright about all this.  But ... XXX developed the persona for YYY?   To me, this sounds like an impersonal company with an inauthentic persona.  The tagline is "built on the spirit of individualism."  Well, doesn't really seem like it.  Maybe a group of investors hired a marketing firm?  People keep telling me that THE STORY is vital.  Doesn't seem like a good story. 

   

I wonder, tho ... if I had a bunch of money to throw at WeatherWool, if I could have hired people to get us off the ground, would I have followed the same path? 

2025-03-03 ... New System
Soon, Steven Martinez, our IT guy, will be here to replace our server and my desktop machine.  Steven expects to complete his work by Wednesday, the 5th.  I'm not sure what we'll be able to do without our server, and I'll be limited mostly to my phone.  

2025-03-02 ... More is Less? ... No More Commercial Sales of Fabric
We've been contacted a bunch of times by other companies interested in using our Fabrics.  A couple of inquiries came from huge companies that could have easily purchased our entire output.  Based on their overall behavior, we're probably better-off not having worked with them.  This weekend, we were very flattered by another inquiry that caused Debby, Cody and I to huddle up a little bit, and we ultimately decided that we will no longer offer our Fabric for commercial/resale purposes, except for our friend Ruby Spring at Phenix Threads.

        

A few people had comments about the entry from 2025-02-27 and the perceived warmth of clothing.  And now that I've written the words "perceived warmth", I am wondering if there is a meaningful difference between perceived warmth and "actual warmth".  And if there is a difference, wouldn't it be crazy to claim that the result of some lab testing is more significant than personal experience (perceived warmth) while out in real weather?

        

Lab tests (of clothing) are AOK in my book, but I think mainly as a way to try to understand what we personally experience.  When people tell me something must-be or can't-be because of some lab tests or because of physics, I may be intrigued, but I don't heed.  After having done a lot of lab-work in school, I know it is easy to mess up lab results.  And that assumes the lab-test is really testing what it is intended to test.  I feel the same way when people tell me (their understanding of!) chemistry or physics precludes or necessitates some result.  Nature does what She does, and it's up to us to try to understand it.

             

And now I'm thinking maybe I'm guilty of doing just what I claim we shouldn't do.  Why would someone be cold in relatively warm temps with two layers under our Denim?

• Several years ago, another company bought some of our FullWeight Fabric and made Peacoats, which they offered to the public.  I was dismayed that they sewed a synthetic liner into the Peacoat, but they said their urban clientele would not understand a Peacoat without a liner.  One customer of ours bought one of those Peacoats, and told me the Peacoat offered noticeably less warmth than (I think) our Anorak, even though the Fabric was the same.  He said the synthetic liner always felt cold to the touch.
• Way back in my jacket-and-tie work days, I remember clearly all those winter mornings and how my starched and pressed cotton dress shirts always felt cold when I put them on.  The shirts couldn't have actually been cold.  They'd been in the heated house all night.  But they sure FELT cold.
• On the flip side ... the wool or brushed cotton I'd wear on the weekends felt warm when I'd put it on, even though they must have been the same temperature as the dress shirts.  And for a long time we've been saying the warmest base layers we know of are the merino terry-knits from Woolpower.

          

The foregoing isn't exactly new here, but I think a re-focus.  And it underscores the importance of finish on a fabric.  I'm going to need to speak more to people about the particulars of their base layers.  And ... hoo-boy ... we need to keep thinking about how we can offer base layers ourselves.

2025-03-01 ... Up Early for NYC Run ... Canadian Tariff Back?
I'm not sure about the US/Canada tariffs coming back into effect on Monday, March 3rd.  Maybe wool will continue to be exempt.

   

Heading to NYC shortly to pick up some more All-Around Jackets at Factory8.  Second-level Quality-Control inspections is definitely important.  Our garments are relatively complex and expensive, and we need to get the problem rate of domestically-shipped garments below 1%.   Garments for export will be inspected at least three times.  We need the export-failure-rate to be 0.   So, all the garments are inspected at least twice.  Once by the tailors, and then again by us.

    

The problem with Quality Control Inspections (the QC checklist for the Anorak, for example) is that, although critical, they are boring and tedious ... testing every zipper, every button, all the seams, measuring size, etc., etc.  For me, the hardest part of QC is focus.  I'm terrible at it because my focus always drifts to other things.  Same reason why I'm terrible at packing, and should not be doing either of these vital tasks.  We have several people doing QC now, under Alex's direction, and it is helping a lot.  Although also, very expensive.  Which seems to be the story with everything these days.  At least, we are finding people who want to do the work!  Mostly these are young, recent graduates or students at the State University of New York's Fashion Institute of Technology (in Midtown Manhattan).  BIG THANKS to the people who are helping us with QC, and THANKS to FIT for the Job Board!!  Also THANKS to Denali for posting!

2025-02-28 ... Don Nguyen At It Again
Advisor Don Nguyen is an outdoors pro who spends a lot of time leading groups of people (mostly "regular" folks) to the summits of mountains around the world.  Don posted this photo today from Pico de Orizaba, the highest mountain in Mexico and an active volcano.  At 18,491 feet (5636 meters), Orizaba is the third highest mountain in North America.

   

 

Don posted to the WeatherWool Facebook Discussion Group:  "My CPO shirt on Pico de Orizaba. The high point of Mexico. Early this winter. A true performance garment and material for harsh conditions." 

    

Don has been a great Advisor for WeatherWool for a bunch of years.  I think it was Don who first suggested we rename the SkiJac the Mountain Jacket because he wears it for all kinds of activities.   Don is one of those very rare people who always sounds as if he is having the best day of his life.  Like a lot of my "WeatherWool friends", I've still never met Don face-to-face.

Alex spent some time yesterday and got the Lending Library opened again.  Closing it down didn't reduce our workload appreciably.  And of course whatever time we might have saved was expended yesterday anyway.  Starting to look like we have our first-ever Library deadbeat.  No response to phone calls, texts, emails.  Next step is to leave messages with his employer.

        

Much of the dyeing for the weft fiber of Batch Innes-1 has been completed by Bollman in Philadelphia.   This is the same Bollman that did our scouring in previous years.  If (when!!) we start working with Natural Colored Wool, Bollman will probably be scouring for us again.  Thanks to the efforts of Jacob Long and his team at American Woolen, the office of United States Senator Lummis of Wyoming is aware of our single-source (Innes Ranch of Gillette, Wyoming) plans.  We made some leather coasters (Blog of 10 Feb) that echo the labels that will be sewn into the Innes-1 garments, and Jacob sent some to the Senator's office.

         

Yesterday, a customer wrote me wanting to return a Chore Coat and get a CPO instead.  He wanted something longer than the Chore Coat.  But I was unnerved by his comment that the Chore Coat, with two base layers, was insufficient for temperatures <50F/10C.  My response was that I didn't see the point in sending more wool.  Why would anyone want more wool offering so little protection from the weather?  We've been testing the Chore Coat for a year at this point, so I know what the Fabric can do.  I suppose I need to relax and send wool to anyone who wants.  But I very much disliked the idea of someone wearing our stuff and saying THE WOOL IS SOFT, BUT IF THERE IS ANY CHILL AT ALL, YOU NEED TO WEAR SOMETHING ELSE.  But he'll say regardless.

   

When I was in Wyoming last month, there was, of course, WIND.  But one night the weather services were putting out high-wind advisories.  In that area, if there is a wind-warning, it means serious wind.  We could feel the wind hitting the house.  So I went outside and filmed a low-quality-but-fun video.  This seems a good time to put it online.

         

2025-02-26 ... Readers and Ideas ... Wool Allergy ... "The Trend ..."
A few people lately have told me they follow the Blog daily.  That's very flattering, and THANK YOU.  It makes me feel like I should come up with something every day.  If you have any ideas or questions, please LMK!

   

Yesterday, a guy phoned to say he'd evidently developed a wool allergy very recently.  He'd had our wool for five years, but now, whenever he wears WeatherWool or other woolens, he has a severe skin reaction.  The sources will usually say that the allergy is not really to the wool, but to the tiny amounts of lanolin still present in the wool.  (Turning raw wool into finished garments removes almost all lanolin.)  Regardless, the caller has a real problem.  He can avoid the hives by not wearing wool.   But, at east until lately, he loved wool.  He's not sure what he will do, and doesn't even want to return the wool.  I have read that allergies are very tricky, and can come up even though you've spent decades NOT allergic to something.

    

There is an old saying among stock-market players:  THE TREND IS YOUR FRIEND.  Meaning, go with the momentum.  It's very difficult to find market tops and bottoms, but it is not hard to spot a trend that has been building for months or even years:

    

Nothing that we do was planned to ride the trends.  It's just who we are, what we do, how we do it.  Another old saying:  BETTER TO BE LUCKY THAN SMART.

2025-02-25 ... Geography ... THANK YOU
For a long time, I've been guesstimating about our exports.  I was pretty confident that we exported about 10% of our sales to Canada, and another 5% to other countries.  WRONG.   It turns out, very much to my surprise, that in 2024 we exported only 3% to Canada.   But we exported another 7% to other countries.  So exports total 10%.   Exports went to 35 different countries in 2024.  Over the last five years, the profile is almost identical ... 90% USA, 4% Canada, plus 38 additional countries.  I am guessing that I overestimated the exports because they are kind of memorable to me.  We are grateful for every order, regardless of the geography.  MANY THANKS to Claudia A of Better Reports for this and for other reports, too.!

        

Something that really keeps us going is the feedback from customers.  We really need to hear about problems, and I still suspect people are reluctant to give me any bad news because WeatherWool does have  a face on it.  Please tell me what could or should be better!  And of course we really appreciate positive feedback, which I sometimes share with my family and sometimes even the many WeatherWool Partners.  But this might be the first time on the Blog.   It's not often we get handwritten notes!!

           

        

One other reason I'm posting this note ... more and more, I want to be an advocate not only for WeatherWool, but for WOOL.  Americans wear about 95% less wool than in 1950.  I hope to help the wool industry grow because I think woolens are great to wear.

         

2025-02-22 ... Maple Syrup How-To ... AAJs Still Shipping ... Design Kvetch
Maple Syrup Season is in gear now, so it's a good time to flag this HOW-TO video from Nikki Boxler, the Maple Farmer.  I think Cody will be doing a video with Nikki next month.

Nikki Boxler is a Maple Syrup Professional from Western New York State

I really like sugaring as a way to mark the passing of the seasons.  In normal years here in mild-winter New Jersey, I tap the trees around January 10th, and Sugar Season continues until March 10th or March 20th -- Spring!  The sap flows when nights are below freezing and days are warmer.  So, the farther North, the later the Sugar Season.  A friend from Derby Line, Vermont, right on the border of Quebec, may not tap until April.  Sugaring is a great thing to do with youngsters, and anyone who hasn't seen it first hand will get a kick out of it.  It still sort of amazes me.  

  

This morning I was in NYC to pick up some more All-Around Jackets at Factory8.  We will continue to ship these for another week at least.  We have a lot of them to get out the door!

    

I mentioned a couple of days ago that design is a big deal to me ... design of our Fabrics and garments but also even the design/procedures of our Customer Service.

   

• We have three utility trailers here, and I use frequently the enclosed one for transporting wool.  The larger trailers weigh about 1200 pounds (540 kg) empty.  They are pretty-well balanced over the wheels, so one guy can maneuver them by hand over a flat, level surface.  But EVERY TIME I lift the front end of the trailer, such as this morning when hitching the closed trailer to the truck, I wonder WHY DID THEY NOT WELD HANDLES ON HERE?  And I have no answer.
• This morning I noticed American Express has redesigned their monthly email.  The mail used to tell me the balance on the card and the due date.  The new statement DOES NOT tell me the balance.  I need to log in to AmEx to see that.  I don't think this change benefits the customer.  It certainly does not benefit this customer.  I would have REPLIED with thoughts, but the note came from an unattended account.  That does not seem to serve the customer either.  AmEx mail solicited my input, so I hit the comment button ... which took me to the website/login.  I hope people will please tell me how WeatherWool can improve our service or products.  And if we ever send out mails to which people cannot simply REPLY, somebody please slap me.  We try to be always available for customers, although I do prefer email to text because I can respond much better with a real keyboard.  And because texts are "alarmed", whereas emails arrive without bells.
• We get a lot of ideas/suggestions from customers.  We consider them all, and I save them all.  We are about to make some FullWeight Brown Anoraks, and the first piece we make (for eval) will include a suggestion from Torleif in Norway, who suggested a way for us to tighten the bottom sweep of the Anorak.  We will try adding three Slot Buttons at the bottom, in front of the side zips.  And we'll move the elastic tab to the rear.  We'll see how it works before we commit.  THANKS, TORLEIF!!!!

    

2025-02-21 ... Lawsuit Against Gore ... None of My Business
I see in the press today that a Class-Action against W.L. Gore has been filed in Seattle, alleging that Gore deliberately uses and sells environmentally harmful PFAS ("forever chemicals" with fluorine).  I have no opinion on the legal basis for the case, but culturally, it seems like sentiment is really building against PFAS and toward "healthy clothing".

   

My Mom frequently would tell me I had "beer money and champagne tastes".    My folks came of age in the 1930s Depression, and were extremely frugal when I was growing up.  I definitely never learned their self-control, but I do see a lot of people who make me look thrifty.  I frequently speak with people for whom some of our wool is clearly aspirational, and that's extremely flattering.  But I feel like some of our customers should use their money in other ways.  I've discussed this with Debby, and she agreed it's not my place to tell others how to spend their money.  "It's none of my business." is something I heard every day when I was of an age to "be seen and not heard".  BUT ... it turns out, it actually IS my business.  Yesterday, a fellow was here wanting a hardship refund on an All-Around Jacket and Anorak.   And I remember thinking, when he bought the wool six months or so ago, that this was not a wise expenditure for him.  It would have been better for both of us if he had not bought the wool.  But I doubt I will ever say that to someone.

2025-02-20 ... Anorak in the Weather
Over the last two weeks, I've posted a few times about a MidWeight Lynx Pattern Anorak that has been sitting in the weather.

   

On January 25th, someone sent us an Anorak for the Lending Library that smelled like strong cologne.  So Alex put it on a table on the deck behind the house, and the wool has been sitting there, soaking up the weather for 26 days.

    

A few days ago, we got a little snow and then a heavy ice storm followed eventually by  heavy rain and warm weather.  The Anorak got pretty-well soaked.  Around here (Northern New Jersey), if we get heavy rain in winter, it will usually be followed by heavy wind and a cold front.  And that's what happened.  So the wet Anorak froze.  And I don't think the daily high temp has reached the freezing point since then.  This morning, I checked the Anorak.

    

The wool was completely dry and fresh, so I put it on and walked a mile (1.6 km) in temp of 16F/-9C.  I didn't detect any smell or moisture.  I was wearing one of our Ball Caps (which we will eventually make again!) and had the Hood over the top.  That temp would normally have been cold on my ears, and without the Hood I would have tucked them under the Ball Cap.  But the Hood created a warm microclimate around my head, and my ears never felt a chill.

  

It's a little bit of a mystery to me how the wool could have become soft and dry after snow, sleet, rain and a stretch of freezing weather.  The temp has remained below freezing since the rain cleared out.  I checked the Anorak a couple of days ago, and parts of it were frozen and stiff.  A number of people have insisted that for wet wool to dry, it must pull heat from the person wearing the wool.  I can say I've never felt my wool was pulling heat from me.  And the Anorak sitting out back certainly wasn't pulling heat from anyone.  Wool will automatically gain or lose moisture according to the humidity in the air and the amount of moisture already trapped inside the wool fibers.  And I think/guess that the stiffness I attributed to being frozen came from water that was held between the woolen fibers, although I don't know.  The texts say that water vapor can condense into liquid water inside the wool fiber (the condensation releasing a lot of heat), so maybe the frozen-feel was also coming from ice within the fibers.  That seems like a stretch, but then again, the whole thing seems like a stretch.

   

Whatever minor miracles were happening inside the fibers and beyond my understanding, it seems clear that, even in sub-freezing weather, wet wool can dry out with no heat source other than the sun.

   

It was also nice to find that a 2X Anorak is comfortable for me ... I've been wearing 3X lately.  So I guess I'll keep this one for myself for a while.

Twenty-six days sitting outdoors in winter weather -- snow, sleet, rain, freezing temperatures, high wind and sunshine -- renewed this MidWeight Lynx Anorak!

2025-02-19 ... Fabric Pickup
Today I will be headed to American Woolen Company to pick up the last of the Batch 9 Fabric.  We'll use this FullWeight Brown and FullWeight Natural White for Anoraks.  I'll also be meeting with the brain trust at AWC to discuss our standards and specifications.  The 268 yards (244 meters) of Brown I'm picking up today averages 16.5 ounces per square yard (559 grams per square meter).  Our most recent spec calls for 18 opsy (610 gsm).  And the previous tranche of Batch 9 Brown, 780 yards picked up in December, was exactly 18 opsy.  (Elsewhere on this website I may have a higher number but I did lighten the spec and I don't think I've made all the needed website updates.)  I doubt this is enough of a difference to be a problem, but I don't like drifting this much from spec.  The Fabric is already completely finished, so there is really nothing that can be done about it now except let people know.  As it happens, a while back I was dismayed to get a quantity of MidWeight Lynx Pattern that was also lighter than spec, but after some real testing, I was delighted with the performance and decided the lighter opsy was in fact a better spec.  But lighter MidWeight is a different story than lighter FullWeight.  We shall see.  Anyone unhappy with the Anoraks is of course welcome to a refund.  Also, this tranche of Batch 9 FullWeight Natural White weighs 17.0 opsy (576 gsm), whereas previous tranches met the 18 opsy spec.  These tranches are lighter because they are wider.  The finishing processes "full" the greige fabric ... meaning the greige is tightened/shrunk somewhat.  These bolts of Fabric are 4 or 5 inches (10-12 cm) wider than previously.  Wider fabric enables improved yields when garments are made ... but ONLY if the marker is made for the wider fabric.  I think these extra inches will be wasted, but ... maybe not.

     

OK ... 4AM ... time to hit the road to reach AWC by 7 ... so I can deliver the Fabric to Factory8 in NYC before the elevator operators take their lunch break at noon.

2025-02-17 ... International Denim ... Sulky Cellphone
I'm not much of a marketer, but I readily admit that 100% Wool Denim is/was partly inspired by marketing.  I am very happy with the Denim, or we would not be offering it, but the marketing aspect was important, and seems to be working.  I've not collected any actual data, but my impression is that Denim is attracting more international interest than our original FullWeight and MidWeight Jacquard Fabrics.  And we have found that people whose first order is Denim will frequently follow with an order for something in our original Jacquard.

DESIGN has always been something I enjoy, and something I wonder about.  Debby is sooooo tired of hearing me ask WHY WOULD THEY DESIGN IT THAT WAY?  DID THEY EVER USE THEIR OWN PRODUCT?  Given that I use my cellphone a great deal, it's attracted a lot of my design complaints/questions.  Everyone knows what a mess autocorrect can make, and a few days ago I asked Alex to turn off autocorrect on my phone.  But it turns out that if you disable autocorrect, you also disable the suggested corrections and anticipated words.  I type my email address into the phone many times a day.  With autocorrect turned ON, I need to type only ra and the phone would suggest Ralph@WeatherWool.com ... it even gave me the idiosyncratic capitals that I think make the address easier to read.  For some reason, I frequently type webiste instead of website, and the phone would helpfully suggest the obvious correction.  Without autocorrect, the phone does not even OFFER any help.  It's as if the phone is sulking.  Why would the software be designed that way?  It seems like there should be a setting for "AUTOCORRECT OFF, SUGGESTIONS ON" ... maybe there is and we haven't noticed it yet.  Samsung phone ...

2025-02-16-Again ... (Plastic followup from 2025-02-13) ... Wool in Weather
I just rec'd a note from a customer pointing out that many substances other than plastics will fluoresce under ultraviolet light.  Indeed, the woman who is returning her WeatherWool knits due to suspicion of plastic used her rockhound light to detect what she thought was plastic.  When rocks fluoresce under her light, I expect she is happy and does not assume the presence of plastic.  Thanks, Scott!!

     

I need to learn a ton on the subject of all sorts of potential contaminants, but as it is, I can't keep current with what I need to do.  So I'm delighted to use this space as a means to generate input!  Also thanks to Clay who has sent me for review some material on this same subject, but I have a ton of shipping and still hundreds of mails to process.  (Taking some time off/away can be really nice, but the work piles up!)

   

The Anorak that's been out in the weather on the back deck is still there.  Yesterday, we got a skim of snow, then this morning we got a brief period of intense sleet.  This can be the worst type of storm we get around here.  Most winters, the season-low is about 12F/-11C, which is not seriously cold.  But we do sometimes get sleet ... and if the temp is right (wrong!), we'll get a coating of ice over everything.   If we don't get a thaw, that can cause some real trouble.  This morning we were lucky ... we got the sleet, but then rain -- forecast to be heavy --- and warming temps.

    

Here's what the Anorak looked like after today's sleet turned to rain.  Our company name hopefully suggests that we make woolens that withstand weather.  This isn't exactly what I had in mind, but still relevant.  This demo will conclude when Nature dries the Anorak completely -- I'm sure the wool will be in AOK condition.  When this demonstration/test is done, I should consolidate these Blog entries onto a single page. 

    

The same "Scott" (THANKS again) mentioned above also wrote that his Hooded Jacket provided "Excellent" protection during 2+ hours of hiking in "continuous light rain", with temp just above freezing.  To me, HIKING means exertion, and in traditional rain gear, at least for me, such an outing would have resulted in sweat-saturated garments and moisture having no way to escape.  Wool's ability to keep rain out is great, but maybe more important is wool's ability to handle the moisture generated by the body.

2025-02-16 ... Secondary Market and Repairs
Once a week or so, it comes to my attention that people are buying and selling WeatherWool on secondary markets.  I know a lot of people enjoy doing this ... it's not just the potential savings.  Some folks have a hobby of visiting garage sales, just to see what's around.   Our wool changes hands on ebay, Poshmark (!), etsy, online forums.  We have no right to control what anyone does with our garments ... BUT ... we won't have anything to do with wool not purchased from us.  And this comes up regularly.  People ask us to alter or repair or even buy back or exchange something purchased from a third party.  We won't do it, partly because our garments are sometimes stolen, and we don't want to make it any easier for thieves.  At least one guy sold his WarriorWool.

   

A fellow wrote us last week, wanting repairs on something he'd bought elsewhere.  I explained why we won't do it.  He suggested we sew serial numbers into each garment, and create a registry of sales and resales.  No, no, no, NOPE.  We are definitely not adding more administrative overhead.

   

We actually don't have any definite standards on what we will repair or not ... how long a garment is our responsibility.  We've always done it on a case-by-case basis, and it's never been a problem.  But we do have a bright line with respect to NOT supporting pieces purchased elsewhere.

   

Repairs on clothing are not such a big deal anyway ... there are millions of people who can do some sewing.  I even did some sewing myself as a young guy away from home.  It's not that hard if all you want to do is stitch things together.   But I also still remember in 1973 or 1974 when Debby sewed patches onto the elbows of a favorite shirt that I'd worn nearly to death.  Her work was about 100 times better than mine, both functionally and cosmetically, and it occurs to me now that my red flannel shirt with the fancy leather elbow patches was the first step toward WeatherWool.

2025-02-14 ... Expanding Our Scope ... NYC QC ... Batch 9 Fabric Complete
Since we started the company, I've been saying we're making the best All-Purpose Outerwear we can figure out.  And we will continue to do that.  But I've also become a whole-hearted advocate for wool, and this is leading me in unexpected directions.  We're going to make a small run of semi-dress Shirts from our Batch 9 Black Whipcord Fabric (Wikipedia link).  And although these shirts actually are warm enough to serve as jackets, they will match very well with a necktie.  I need to add another couple of pages to the website.  One page on Whipcord Fabric and another on the Whipcord Shirt.

    

Speaking of Batch 9, all of the Batch 9 Fabric is now complete.  It will be another two months, at least, before we complete all the Batch 9 garments, but the last of the Fabric is now available for pickup at American Woolen Company.  I'll make a run to AWC this coming week, and drop off the Fabric at Factory8 so we can get it into production pronto.  We have (what are now) smallish quantities of several different Fabrics, and we need to decide right away what to make.  Suggestions welcome!!  Our bolts of Fabric are about 54 inches (137 cm) wide, and, for our metric-friends, a yard is 91 cm.  A garment requires something like 3 yards:

    

1. FullWeight Brown:  268 running yards
2. FullWeight Natural White:  330 yards
3. Whipcord Black:  About 70 yards (Shirts)
4. MidWeight Natural White:  258 yards

     

We need to be careful to keep the FullWeight and MidWeight White physically separated else we risk chimeric garments. 

    

The White is an interesting color (White is not a color?).  Some people are loving it and a handful of people have returned it upon opening the box.  White was the first of the Batch 9 Fabric we completed, in June of 2023.  We made the White because it saved us the dyeing step, which saved us a lot of time.  We were in a hurry to get the White done because Batch 9 involved some changes to the way we do things.  And we are very happy with the results.  But anyway, the first purchases of Batch 9 greasy were made in April of 2022.  So we will be a full three years in manufacture of Batch 9 garments.

     

Starting Monday, we will be doing our Quality Control inspections at Factory8 ... any fixes can be done immediately.  A big advantage.  The first pieces for on-site QC are All-Around Jackets in Black, Lynx Pattern and Natural White.  And we'll be shipping (continuing to ship) them right away.

2025-02-13 ... Plastic? ... Mountain Men, Wolves, Wolverines ... Winter Washing
This morning, a customer phoned to add a little info to the "Anorak in the weather" I wrote about the last few days.  He said there is a well-known outdoorsman who regularly "washes" his wool with snow.  I've never tried that.  Maybe if we get an accumulation of fresh powder.

   

We've been slightly above freezing, with a little bit of rain.  Here's what the Anorak looked like this morning:

  

    

We are honored that our wool is worn by a bunch of people on the Mountain Men TV Show.  Mason Gertz, below, is a cameraman.  Right now, Mason is 175 miles (280 km) outside Fairbanks, Alaska (REMOTE!!), for filming.  Mason had some very flattering things to say about the wool, and the Mountain Man he is working with intends to get in touch with us.  I think something like 15 people associated with this show are now wearing our wool.

To his Natural White FullWeight Anorak, Mason added wolverine fur around his face, and wolf fur around the wolverine.  I've read that a wolverine ruff is choice in truly frigid weather because it will not ice up from your breath.  That always puzzled me until I heard the wolverine fur is too slick for ice to stick.  I hope Mason will update me.

   

As mentioned below, a few days ago I heard from a rockhound who is intent on eliminating plastics from her life.  She ordered a Neck Gaiter and Watch Cap from us.  Yesterday she phoned to say she is returning the wool because her fluorescent lamp shows it is infiltrated by plastics.  I have no doubt the yarn is 100% wool.  Our customer suggested the plastic could be contamination from synthetic fibers that had been processed on the same equipment.  I need to learn a lot about this.

   

2025-02-12 ... Detecting Plastic Bits ... Natural Anorak
A little more snow fell overnight.  The Anorak has been in the weather for a week now (entry from 2025-02-09).

I got a call yesterday from a customer who is very intent on removing plastic fabrics from her life.  She already has a Watch Cap and Neck Gaiter, and is interested in getting more 100% wool.  She said she is a rockhound, and that her hobbyist ultraviolet lamp shows plastic bits everywhere.  Does anyone know about lamps that will cause microscopic bits of plastic to become visible?

     

Spring is coming ... migratory starlings and grackles are back ... it's a feeding frenzy on the leftover pizza ... they will ignore the bird seed until the pizza is gone.

We believe/hope/feel that a focus on quality and service will reduce or eliminate any need for advertising and marketing.  Nevertheless, IP (Intellectual Property) is important to us.  We must protect our name, of course, so WeatherWool is a registered trademark in the USA and elsewhere.

    

Although I've always felt our name strongly suggests that we make woolens for protection from the weather, I've also always felt the name alone was not an adequate descriptor.  And so we began to use "Hardcore Luxury" ... suggesting luxurious garments offering hardcore performance.  Yesterday, Polson Intellectual Property Law sent the welcome news that they had received from the US Patent and Trademark Office a "Notice of Acceptance of the Combined Declaration of Continued Use and Incontestability" with regard to HARDCORE LUXURY.  We had originally registered this mark years ago, but the mark is now considered "incontestable", which I think means it can no longer be challenged in the USA.

    

Our Lynx Pattern is distinctive, and is copyrighted in the USA (again, THANKS to Polson).  Many people have told me they first noticed and identified us because of Lynx.  But most of our Fabric is solid color, and not nearly so distinctive.  Back in about 2013, Shannon P (THANKS, Shannon!), a customer, told us about Slot Buttons, and we have used Slots ever since, in almost everything we make.  The Slots are much more robust than usual buttons, but because they are also much more expensive than standard four-hole buttons, they are used by only a few garment makers.  And so the Slot Buttons have come to be a distinguishing feature of our products.  Quite a few people have told me they'd been intrigued by a garment they'd seen somewhere, and knew it was WeatherWool because of the Slot Buttons. 

   

For a long time, I've been impressed that Christian Louboutin was able to trademark the red soles of his famous high heel shoes.  It made no sense to me that such a thing could be trademarked.  But it's stuck in my head since I first learned of it.  Encouraged by the Hardcore Luxury news, I asked Margaret Polson if we could trademark our Slot Buttons.  Margaret said NO.  The red soles can be protected as a trademark because the color is not functional, whereas our Slot Buttons are all about function. ...... However ...... I wonder ..... We're experimenting with Whipcord Fabric, which we intended only as an element for use in construction of pockets and backings.  But this Fabric, made from the same fiber as all our other Fabrics, is so nice we made a few dress shirts.  And these Whipcord Shirts have been performing remarkably well ... so much so that I've decided to make a small production run of Whipcord Shirts.  If we used RED Slot Buttons, secured by RED Ribbon on the center-front of the Whipcord Shirts, could we get trademark protection?

   

2025-02-10 ... WeatherWool Swag?
Well, almost ... We made some Batch Innes-1 coasters.  It's going to be several months more before we complete any Innes-1 garments, but I wanted to send something to Rancher Bob Innes sooner than that.  So, we had some laser-engraved leather coasters made.

I'm as keen as ever to make Single-Source Garments, and the Innes-1 garments will be the first.  The greasy wool for Innes-1 was purchased in 2023 and 2024.  We plan to buy the 2025 and 2026 Innes clips, pending lab-test results, and begin work on Batch Innes-2 in 2026.

   

2025-02-09_Again ... Smelly Anorak
On Friday (2 days ago) I noticed Alex had placed an Anorak, to which he'd affixed a tag reading SMELLY, on a table on the back deck.   I haven't spoken to him about it, but I am guessing someone sent it to us for the Lending Library and he decided to air it for a while.  Fresh air and sunshine can work all kinds of wonders.  It's not that unusual for us to put wool outside (the Brad Veis treatment), so this piece wasn't on my mind.Well, 24 hours ago, it started snowing.  Here's what the Anorak looks like now, after about 3 inches (7 cm) of WET snow, with a crust of ice on top.  Only a little bit of the Hood and the ends of the sleeves are visible.  I'm going to let Nature do her thing, and watch what happens.  The forecast calls for three more snowstorms over the next week. 

2025-02-09 ... AAJs ... Street Meet ... Snow 
Yesterday, I made a highly unusual afternoon run to NYC/Factory8 to pick up the first tranche of All-Around Jackets (XXSmall, XSmall, Small in Black, Lynx Pattern and Natural White).  I'd expected to make the pickup today, but a winter storm was predicted so we did things a little early.

    

I personally did not expect much of a storm ... the air didn't feel heavy enough for a big storm.    My niece, who lives with Debby and me, sometimes works at a pizzeria, and often salvages pizza and other items that are unsold at closing time.  Usually she brings the food to police stations (!!!) or homeless shelters, but sometimes she brings it here, and I'll put it out for the birds.  I keep our bird feeder stocked, and our feathered neighbors seem to keep a close eye on me.  When I replenish the feeder, they are usually on it before I get back into the house.  Before I left for NYC, I put out about 18 full-size slices.  The birds much prefer the toppings to the bread.  They love the meat and cheese.  The squirrels also love the pizza, and it's comical to watch them try to run off with a slice.  But the slices are too large for that.  Within a few minutes, mobs of birds were on the pizza.

    

There was an unusual level of activity in NYC.  A lot of people and a lot of cars.  Whenever a storm is predicted, it brings people out.  New Yorkers are not used to snow!

    

Advisor JR Morrissey and I had a great sidewalk meeting ... talking about upcoming production and details of design.  Besides the AAJs, JR gave me some pillows he made with Debby.   Part of JR's job is to maximize use of our Fabric, and he is always trying to push yields and reduce waste.  We surely appreciate that, but I did have a hard time sharing Debby's enthusiasm for the possibility of sewing pillowcases together from our leftovers.   However, I must admit these pillowcases are striking.  And although sewing them together took a lot of labor, I definitely appreciate making something beautiful from what would otherwise be waste.  But they aren't going to be offered on the website unless Debby does it herself.  (Or unless she really leans on me, and she is good at that.)

    

The round trip took about 2.5 hours, and approaching our house I noticed a lot of whitetail deer nibbling the shrubs.   When I got home, I was shocked that ALL of the pizza was gone.  Probably the deer made off with most of it, but even so, that was a lot of pizza to disappear in broad daylight.   Many people believe the wild ones are good weather predictors, and will feed heavily before a storm.  And they were right.  Before long, wet snow was falling.  All in all, we got only two or three inches (five to seven centimeters), but it was wet and heavy, with a crust of ice on top.  The kind of snow that is very difficult for birds to deal with.

    

I started shoveling the walkways about 90 minutes before sunrise.  Wearing Denim Jeans, an ultralight wool T-Shirt, one of our experimental Whipcord (100% Batch 9 Fiber) Shirts and a MidWeight Anorak, I knew I was overdressed for the right-at-freezing temp.  But I wanted to try out this combination.  The Anorak over a T-Shirt has become my new traveling uniform.  I like that I can put all my stuff in the pockets and pouch of the Anorak, and everything is well-contained when I take off the Anorak and TSA (airport security) runs it through the X-Ray machine.  Then, in my seat, I can unzip the sides of the Anorak and run the seatbelt under the front.  In the pouch and chest pockets I can hold the things I might want to access during a long flight, and the layers of wool are not overly warm.

    

My main issue with the shoveling, tho, was kind of tragicomic.  Until a couple of years ago, lifting my arms to get into the Anorak caused a lot of shoulder-pain, and so I avoided that piece.  Now, my shoulders don't have a problem getting in and out of the Anorak, but the pushing required to shovel snow was a different story.  I got some of it done, and came inside to check the fire.  (I really like to have the fireplace going in winter.)  It was only 6AM, still well before daylight, so I was surprised to hear the doorbell.  A guy of about age 30 wanted to complete shoveling my walk.  Given the state of my shoulders and the tremendous amount of keyboarding I have to do to catch up, I was happy to assign him the rest of the shoveling.  He didn't say anything about money, just went to work.  I worked beside him a little bit.  But he was going at least three times faster than me, so I soon went back to the keyboard.  My new buddy finished the shoveling remarkably quickly, was happy with the payment I offered, and said he'd be back next time it snowed.

    

Today will be spent updating the website, inspecting AAJs and Double Hoods and shipping orders.  Alex has had the flu for a couple of days, so I may be flying solo.

2025-02-07 ... Back at my Desk ... AAJ Progress

I'm back at my desk today, with my usual tools.  I can start putting links on this page again ... very cumbersome on the cellphone!

   

We are getting close to shipping All-Around Jackets.  The team at Factory8 has finished a bunch of them ... I don't know exactly which ones yet, but it looks like I will have more to do Sunday than watch the Supe.

   

Advisor JR Morrissey of Factory8 just sent me a 30-second vid, which he probably did not really want me to put here.  But the Jackets look great and I really like to see people who are wrapped up in what they do!

    

     

    

We reworked the collar so the throat latch is no longer necessary.  The female voice, explaining that the Jacket still needs to be cleaned (loose threads removed, etc.), belongs to Anya Ferring, Production Manager.

         

Harper Jordan DiMeo joined the party yesterday at 5:33 PM Mountain Time.  Harper and Mom, Carla, are AOK.  Harper is the second child of Carla and Zack, who is Debby and my younger son.

Debby has been here in Wyoming for a month.  I will be heading back to Jersey tomorrow (ice-storm permitting), after two weeks in Wyoming, a place we all love.

A neighbor stopped by last night to congratulate Zack and show us a trail-cam photo of five lions that are causing problems on a cattle ranch an hour South of here.  There are lions on Casper Mountain (background of photo below) and they show up even within Zack's neighborhood.  Wyoming is wild and seemingly getting wilder.  It is true that there are more antelope than people in Wyoming.

Wool and sheep are far more important to Wyoming than to any other American State, and I have been speaking with Ranchers during this visit.  We will be increasing the amount of wool we source from Wyoming.

2025-02-04 .... Canadian Tariff Gone?

The Canadian tariff on US apparel is suspended for 30 days.  I don't think it's coming back, at least not for woolens.

2025-02-03 ... Library Paused ... Tariff Effects

We have temporarily suspended outgoing transactions in the Lending Library.  Administration of the Library is time-consuming, and we need to catch up with other work.

     

When we started the Library, I think in September 2021, we didn't know what to expect.  The typical item in the Library is worth a few hundred dollars, and it can be borrowed, unsecured, for a $30 fee.  If a borrower reneged, we would have little recourse.   But over the course of hundreds of transactions, this has never happened.  How sweet is that??!!

The Library has definitely been more.popular than we anticipated.  Only a few minutes after I suspended outgoing transactions, a customer asked to be NOTIFIED when the Library re-opens.

The new tariffs between Canada and USA, which I believe will be very short-lived, will surely affect our business in a negative way.  They already have, actually.  We export about 10% of our product to Canada.  But I think these tariffs are likely going be more difficult for Canadian companies offering woolens.  I saw a notice from one such business stating that over half their customers are American.

2025-02-02 ... Taxes AND Tariffs

Last night, a Canadian customer canceled an order because he'd heard the Canadian government had just imposed a 25% tariff on US Apparel.  For all our previous experience, wool has crossed the US/Canada border in either direction without tariff.  Maybe the wool-exemption will be extended as details are worked out.  About 10% of our customers are Canadian.

      

Today, for the first time and to our great surprise, Shopify, the platform supporting our webstore, added taxes to an order.  Shopify added 6% South Carolina sales tax and 1% Spartanburg County capital projects tax.  These taxes were itemized at checkout, so at least the customer was made aware in advance of payment.  I am guessing, hoping and expecting that Shopify will remit these taxes directly to South Carolina and Spartanburg County.  We shall see.

      

Our accountants have warned us we.must comply (charge sales tax) with the tax regimes of all States, Counties and Municipalities.  The tax laws and remittance schedules are very complex, precarious and seemingly whimsical.  It would not be possible for us to comply without the enlisting a 3rd-party specialist.  It's not that we haven't complied ... more a case of the laws having small-business carve-outs.  But we are growing and, I bet, the carve-outs are shrinking as the 3rd-party tax-facilitators get their acts together. 

Please LMK about your "tax-experiences".  Thank you.

     

2025-02-01 ... Buttons and Paint

We love the look of these Slot Buttons, made from 19th Century Pine.  Our friends at Real Antique Wood, just a few miles from our home, salvaged some marvelous pine from a factory built in the 1890s.  This wood is HEAVY, with extremely tight growth rings, and remarkably aromatic from high concentration of pitch.  Alas, when sliced thin enough to make buttons, the wood becomes too brittle, and the button at lower left fractured during shipping to us.

     

Maybe our friends at Real Antique Wood, or John at Dutchware Gear, who machined the wood into buttons, will have ideas.

Yesterday, I was speaking with a Rancher who runs sheep nearby.  He has some great fiber, but he brands his sheep with paint.  That is, he uses paint that has been developed specifically to mark sheep.

    

Here in Wyoming, it's not uncommon to graze sheep on Open Range, where flocks may be mixed.  Branding with paint enables quick identification of ownership from a distance.  The Rancher I just spoke with isn't concerned about mixing flocks anymore, because so few are still running sheep hereabouts.  But he still likes to paint so he can identify ewe/lamb pairs. 

     

For us, painting is unacceptable.  In theory, the paint is removed when the raw wool is scoured (first step in our processing), but in practice, not so.much.  One of my favorite lines, courtesy the great Yogi Berra .... "in theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is."  And if the paint remains after scouring, it's my problem.  So, paint presents a risk I'm not willing to take.  And given that meat, not wool, enables sheep ranching, Ranchers are not keen to change their ways.  But maybe.  Because those who are growing fine wool want to see the wool reach its best use.  

      

Please click here for a story about painted wool.

      

2025-01-31 .... Wool and Wind

I'm in Wyoming now, probably America's windiest State.   I just searched Ameica's windiest cities, and the windiest average was under 13 mph (21 kph).  Casper, where I am, is too small to count as a city.  The January average wind speed here is 15 mph (24 kph).

     

The weather service tonight has issued high wind warnings.  It has to be seriously windy before it gets a special warning around here! Winds over 50 miles per hour (80 kph) with gusts over 70 (112 kph).  But unreasonably warm, 43F/6C.   A good night to test wool.

     

I was wearing light, but tightly-woven cotton pants as a sort of control, and was impressed by how well the cotton resisted the wind.  I could feel the wind coming through the cotton, but not nearly to the extent I expected.

     

The wind was strong enough to push me around. I had to be mindful of it to keep my balance. And I weigh 275 pounds / 125 kilos.  Walking into the wind, I had to keep my eyes closed because of airborne grit.  Nothing to mess with.

     

The Watch Cap pretty-well neutralized the wind.  I did not expect that, and that was definitely good news, considering how comfortable the watch cap is in more normal conditions.

      

Wearing our Denim (100% wool, in case someone reading this is not aware!) Chore Coat, with no base layer, did well also!   I could feel wind pushing through, but I didn't expect it to be adequate ... we design breathable Fabrics, so this kind of wind is a problem for us.  But a lot.less of a problem than I thought!

     

I also tried our CPO in MidWeight Fabric. I expected the CPO to perform somewhat better than the Chore Coat, and it did. The Chore Coat is a denim weave, and the CPO is MidWeight Jacquard weave. So a different type of weaving that should definitely be more weather resistant, and it was.  But the CPO is not designed to withstand wind anything like tonight, so I was very happy with how well it performed. Particularly given that I was not

wearing any base layer at all.

     

Next, i tried the Chore Coat over the CPO Shirt, again with no base layer. And really, I didn't feel the wind coming through! This is performance significantly beyond what I expected. I didn't have a wind gauge, but based on weather reports and the experience of the locals, the sustained winds were certainly over thirty miles an hour and sometimes a lot more than that.  Winds are strong enough that the house is creaking and even inner doors are moving from air pressures.

     

The perceived performance (the only performance that really counts, in my book!) of the wool was definitely helped by the low humidity. Or, at least, I think it was. Maybe the wool would have handled wet air pretty well even under these windy conditions, and been even more impressive. This part of Wyoming is normally very, very dry, and today certainly had low humidity.  But my bare hands really felt the chill.

     

Wind is such a factor here that people park cars facing the wind because they know these winds can rip a door off if you open it with a strong tailwind.  Also, when entering/exiting vehicles, a group of people will go one-at-a-time, because having two doors open is a no-no.

2025-01-30 .... Surprised ... PFAS Deadline

Today, I received an awfully nice message from one of our Ranchers.  He wrote me about a customer of ours.  The customer, whose identity I do not know, is a wool broker. The customer told the rancher he had no idea that wool could be as soft, and offer as much performance, as the garment he has from us.

Of course, a note like that is great to receive, but also really instructive. One thing we have learned in the course of running this business is that many people in the sheep and wool industry are not aware of what wool can do.

I'm seeing posts that New Jersey, our home state, is imposing a PFAS ("forever chemicals") ban.  American Woolen, our primary mill, has been certified PFAS-free by the Staten of Connecticut,  where it is based.

2025-01-28 ... Three-Piece WeatherWool 

Actually, four-piece ...

Usually, I don't post photos of me because I am defo not model-material.  But yesterday I was startled to find myself in all WeatherWool... Charcoal Denim Jeans and Charcoal Denim Chore Coat, Black Whipcord Shirt (a testing  / developmental piece) and FullWeight Lynx Pattern Ball Cap.  I still frequently am shocked, amazed, amused by my work, and yesterday was one of those days.

    

I will remain in Casper, Wyoming,  until February 6th.  In the background of the photo is Casper Mountain.

2025-01-27 ... Working via Cellphone

Debby and I are still visiting family in Wyoming, which means I am working via my cellphone.  For website work, it's a long way from my desktop setup in the office.  It's good for me to be reminded sometimes, though, how most people see us.  Mobile phones are about 60% of website visits.  The phones are a poor way to see our site, even though we do try to make the site as cell-compatible as we can.

     

And as an input device, such as for website maintenance, the phone is even more limiting.  But much much better than no access at all!   Blog entries made via cell are going to have very few links ... the opposite of my usual style.

    

But I was just thinking about the page that discusses Testing Outerwear, and realized there was no mention of the healthful aspects of clothing.  Well, now at least HEALTH is mentioned.  Properly addressing the subject is a whole different story!!  But it's interesting to reflect that I wrote so much on testing (previous update to the page was April of 2024) and HEALTH did not cross my mind.  I am both pleased and disappointed to have such a major change in perspective at age 70.

     

I got a couple of mails referencing the previous Blog.  THANKS MUCH!!   One writer does a lot of skiing in his Anorak, and was firmly against pitzips in the SkiJac.  I love reading that someone skis in the Anorak.  He even suggested an Anorak with a Hood sized for a ski helmet would be the ticket for him! The other writer appreciated that we are not making any exceptions to our 100% USA, NO FINE PRINT principles.

     

A few people have written to express strong support for the idea of garments made solely from wool grown on one ranch.  I love this idea, and so do the larger ranchers.  (Single-Source requires about 40,000 pounds/18,000 kg at a time.)  But when we started WeatherWool, we purchased wool in much smaller quantities, and therefore worked with smaller ranchers.  Although I expect our focus on Single-Source will grow, we will continue to work with the smaller ranchers that have been with us all along.

     

2025-01-25 ... Zipper Stop, No Exception

We continue trying to get the Mountain Jacket / SkiJac just right.  Which means we won't be shipping them this winter (unless Southern Hemisphere).

Presently, Debby is working with Ronnie at Supreme Zipper in Pennsylvania,  where we've been getting our zips since we started.

Starting in the 1970s, the outdoor world has become swept away by (non-breathable) synthetics,  and a great many people think a jacket needs pitzips.  Our Fabrics breathe much better than the synthetics, and so we don't normally do pitzips.

But when we started work on the SkiJac, Advisor Chad Borofsky, 30 years a SkiPatrol, was used to his synthetic SkiJac and wanted pitzips.  We will include pitzips in the coming SkiJacs because so many people want them.   Chad is among the few who will sometimes actually need them.  I know 0 about skiing, but I am told some people, such as Chad,  ski uphill in their downhill skis, generating a lot of heat when they do so.  Chad makes good use of the pitzips in his SkiJac.

Debby handles our notions, including zips, and she tells me the pitzips need to be Double-Closed-End.  YKK (and therefore, Supreme) has lately raised the price of these zips by a factor of 4 or 5.  Also, the zips are only sold in lots of 100, with each size or color its own lot.  So the cost of these zips was startling.  Supreme can help improve the cost dramatically by using non-American "stops" at both ends of each zipper.

But ... that would be an exception to our 100% USA history.  Legally, this would not change our status.  But to me, it would be relying on FINE PRINT.  And we are NOT going to be a fine print-company.  If we never make a first exception, we'll never make a second exception. 

We will buy the zips without stops (open/open).  The sewing pros at Factory8 will sew in stops at the correct length as a step in garment construction.

We are fortunate to work with people that support our 100% USA principles!!!