Blog-2025
If there is anything you'd like addressed here, please let me know.
THANKS FOR BEING HERE!
-- Ralph@WeatherWool.com / 973-943-3110 (Voice and email preferred ... I lose track of texts!)
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:
- 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)
- We're making some Anoraks and Blankets from the last of the Batch 9 Fabric
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Debby, Ralph,
Thank you for taking valuable time to visit Friday afternoon. Give my best to Alex, too.
I truly appreciate and thank you for bringing high quality 100% wool clothing to us out here in hinterland. The following are a few thoughts regarding our discussion.
- Authenticity
- Always stay true to your principles.
- WeatherWool’s principles drive your brand, selection of vendors, garment choices, quality control methods, expression of customer satisfaction and service, etc.
- A WeatherWool community exists. We chose WeatherWool because of your principles as expressed by the garments. Degrade the principles and the garments will suffer.
- Compromising one’s principles can be insidious. A slight relaxation of a principle can always be justified. And then it happens again and again. With time much is lost without our realizing what is happening. Customers will notice, however.
- I love your goal to bring wool back and develop and grow the industry.
- WeatherWool to me.
- Hardcore Luxury, indeed.
- No compromises.
- Attention to details.
- The importance of functionality, durability, strength, and comfort.
- A commitment to the highest quality across the process: vendors, wool, QC, design, customer service
- Quality takes time.
- Artisans, craftspeople, and masters never rush because to do so compromises their principles.
- Order a top-end Steinway piano and it’ll be at least one year before delivery.
- Order a high-end aircraft today and it’ll be a few years before you take delivery
- Order a custom piece of furniture and it’ll be finished when it’s finished.
- Have a custom home build and it could take years before you move in.
- Customers who desire the highest quality are willing to wait. It’s that simple because they (me) understand the value. No rushing is fine.
- Function over form.
- Continual innovation – “how can we improve”.
- Always learning. Pursuing deeper understandings of all aspects of wool, fabric, and garment production.
- A sense of community
- This is expressed through the connection with us out here in the peanut gallery with all the people associated with WW.
- Ralph’s blog
- The website’s content, links, and videos are windows into the entire design and production process.
- A feeling that “I’m with you on the WW business adventure and journey.”
- Aspiration & Inspiration
- Customers aspire to own and wear the highest quality 100% wool clothing
- Vendors aspire to be part of the WW supply chain community because the people know they are an integral part of producing the highest quality 100% wool clothing.
- Inspiring those who desire to follow their deeply held principles by providing a model of that behavior.
- Ethical
- Produce the highest quality 100% wool clothing with no shortcuts.
- Sustainable for all parties.
- Ecologically friendly for all parties.
- Healthy for all parties.
- Ethical treatment of all parties – both with two and four feet!
- Succession.
- Finding the correct person to take over WeatherWool is vital.
- How does the person express through her/his actions the desire and commitment to carry on your idea and principles?
- Has the person developed a personal relationship with the ranchers and other vendors? This is critical to WW’s continued success.
- Does the person’s mindset fit with what is necessary to keep WW succeeding? WW is a marathon endeavor rather than a sprint.
- Is the person excited about the day-to-day, week-by-week, month-by-month, year-by-year process.
- Some people are. Some people aren’t. Both are fine. It’s important to match the style to the goal.
- Ex: I’m in the latter group. I run hard and fast. I do my best with high speed and intensity. Get in, get it done, and move on. This mindset and style is why I became a systems and software “firefighter”. I was called in when a system was in the “crash and burn” phase. I’d work 18 hours a day, 7 days a week to get a system back on track ASAP. Then I’d move on.
- Will the person volunteer to jump in and help with any task that needs to be done?
- This characteristic expresses a commitment to success.
- Ex: Twenty years ago on Thanksgiving, I went to the local Whole Food Market. I recognized the bagger in my lane. I asked him, “So, John, why is the Chairman and CEO of Whole Foods, a multi-billion dollar business, bagging groceries on Thanksgiving?” He replied that he was single and management does their best to allow married employees to take the day off to be with their family. He was doing his part through his actions to make the company a success for customers by making sure the employees were treated well.
- Is the person driven to maintain a connection to the principles, quality, and the WW community?
- A potential warning sign is if the person talks about expanding the market to make more money. This mindset can easily lead to a lowering of standards and the abandonment of principles.
- Organic growth is great as long as WW keeps to its principles. The brand could become quite large. This is also fine if the connection to the principles and the customer is never sullied or forgotten for growth’s sake.
- One person vs. a committee
- I strongly recommend you select one person to take over vs. choosing two or more people, i.e., a committee.
- I guarantee a committee will lead to disagreements regarding “what Debby and Ralph” would do. This can lead to inaction, political wrangling, factions forming, complacency, tension, lower morale, and focusing on a ‘how to get my way’ vs. a focus on the business fundamentals.
- A selected person can have many advisors, but one person is the final decision-maker.
- Providing support after selling.
- Providing support after the sale makes sense if boundaries are set and respected.
- The new owner will have ideas. This is good. Let the person explore them.
- Situations will occur where the new owner will ask what to do. Be careful how you respond.
- Being directive, e.g., do this or that, is easy because you’ve been making this type of decision for years.
- Being directive shifts responsibility to you and takes away initiative from the new owner. Be careful.
- I suggest using a Socratic method. Ask open-ended questions to help the new owner learn how to access and synthesize a decision.
- Mistakes are good.
- Allow the new owner to make decisions you know will be wrong unless the decision is likely to be catastrophic.
- Much of what you’ve learned is by making a mistake and adjusting. Provide the new owner with the same opportunity.
- If the correct person cannot be found, then gracefully bring WW to a conclusion. This will be emotionally difficult; however, it will be the best option if the correct person cannot be found.
- Buttons vs. Zipper.
- Choosing a button vs. a zipper is more a fashion vs. function choice.
- Buttons provide an elegant closing mechanism for jackets/shirts and pockets.
- Zippers provide:
- Significant air infiltration protection vs. buttons.
- A more secure closing method vs. buttons.
- An easier closing method when fingers are less nimble, e.g., cold or wearing gloves.
- The best option is a zipper (double zipper for jackets) with a flap closed by buttons.
- This provides an elegant “finish” with the best function. An example is the All Around Jacket (I believe).
- The person wearing the garment can choose the situation’s best option: zipper, buttons, zipper and buttons, or none.
- Hooded jacket ideas.
- Putting my money where my mouth is:
- I’ll buy the prototype hooded jacket that incorporates my ideas. I know the prototype will cost more than the current hooded jacket.
- My purchase can offset some of your development costs.
- Make it Medium with black or lynx full-weight fabric.
- I believe Cody wears a medium. Send the prototype to him for testing. Then send it to me when he’s finished.
- Ideas:
- Purpose
- Functionality
- More space when needed.
- Example:
- A vehicle accident
- One may only have time to get out without retrieving any items not on the person, e.g., a fire.
- An outer garment that has adequate pocket space to carry essential items is key.
- Example:
- Hiking in colder weather
- Wearing a WW hooded jacket, WW neck gaiter, wool hat, gloves/mittens
- Climbing a hill, one gets hot, needing to temporarily store items.
- The current hooded jacket’s pocket space makes storing the items challenging. It can be done by jamming the items into the pockets. Retrieving them takes a fight that puts unnecessary wear and tear on the items and the pocket’s zipper.
- Lower pockets:
- Extend the pocket up 1”.
- Extend the zipper 1” to allow easier access to the pocket, e.g.,. for a gloved hand.
- Make the pockets a “cargo” style like the pants so larger items can be carried
- Chest pockets:
- I’d rather have a pocket I don’t use than not have a pocket I need/want.
- Useful for protecting items prone to damage: smartphone, satellite phone, PLB, sun or eyeglasses, food, e.g., energy bars, etc.
- Locations:
- Both left and right.
- Both exterior and interior.
- Secure zippers vs. buttons
- The external pocket zippers could have a covering flap with a button to:
- Add a touch of elegance.
- Provide weather protection.
- Protect the zipper.
- Mid-weight Lynx hooded jacket.
1. You mentioned that mid-weight Lynx fabric was left from the production of other garments.
2. Hooded jackets are now being (will be) made with this Lynx mid-weight fabric.
3. I’m in! Reserve a medium for me.
- Love my WW wool!
- I wore my hooded jacket continuously from 4:45 am to 10:15 pm on Friday. Great all day.
- The neck gaiter is wonderful. I use it often – nice and warm. The long length is great, too.
- The mid-weight Lynx hooded jacket will be an excellent companion. I look forward to wearing it while cycling.
- The prototype hooded jacket (!) will be a wonderful addition to the family, too!
- The new Mountain SkiJac with the pit zips may be the best for cycling. We’ll see! The SkiJac webpage doesn’t do a good job of explaining the garment’s details. It appears the SkiJac has a double zipper with a flap secured by slot buttons. True?
- Suggestions:
- The Shopify webpages need better garment details. The pants webpage is a good model of adequate detail. It details the pant's features, e.g., the pockets. This contrasts with the jacket webpages that don’t provide significant feature detail, e.g., the type of pockets and how they close.
- QC consideration. The pull cords, e.g., on the hooded jacket, have a toggle used to loosen or tighten the cord. The toggle has a lock feature that holds the spring open which makes it easy to insert the cord during garment construction. It’s important that this lock is released when the garment is finished. Not doing so makes it easy for the toggle to fall off the cord. This occurred to my hooded jacket. Luckily, I found the wandering toggle in the shipping plastic bag. This is a small detail but goes to quality. You don’t want a customer calling/emailing that the toggle is missing.
Ralph’s recent blog post about sampling took me into another aspect of wool production. I read all oft the links plus all of Bob Padula’s information. I hope someone is apprenticing with him. His wool knowledge is encyclopedic. That knowledge needs to be shared and carried on.
Again, thank you for all you’re doing. I realize it’s a huge amount of work. It’s good work.
Regards,
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!
- 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
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.
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.
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.
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!
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 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 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
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.
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.
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.
- 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.
I'm not sure about the US/Canada tariffs coming back into effect on Monday, March 3rd. Maybe wool will continue to be exempt.
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.
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!
- Quality over quantity
- Sustainability
- Durability
- Versatility
- Non-polluting product and manufacture
- Natural
- 100% USA
- Time-tested
- Interesting story, sincerity, passion
- Transparency
- Clear Sourcing / Origin of Materials
- New York City Tailoring
- Small business
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.!
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.
- 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!!!!
I hope Torleif isn't kvetching too often about my designs!!
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".
Over the last two weeks, I've posted a few times about a MidWeight Lynx Pattern Anorak that has been sitting in the weather.
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.
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.
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!!
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.
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.
- FullWeight Brown: 268 running yards
- FullWeight Natural White: 330 yards
- Whipcord Black: About 70 yards (Shirts)
- 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.
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.
A little more snow fell overnight. The Anorak has been in the weather for a week now (entry from 2025-02-09).
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.
And we love that Olie is kin!
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.
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.
2025-01-23 ... Wyoming ... Batch 10 Warp
Last night I arrived in Casper, Wyoming, where I will remain on semi-vacation for a couple of weeks. Until i am back in the office I'm working on my cellphone, so any keyboard work, such as this page, will be limited.
It's kind of amazing how we rag the airlines for late departures and baggage fees but take SAFETY as a given. My flights were completely forgettable. YAY!!!
This morning I learned that Tintoria has completed dyeing the Black Warp for Batch 10 Denim. This significantly advances the schedule for Charcoal Denim!! Another YAY!!
2025-01-20
THANKS to the Alaska Tappers Association, the History Channel, and particularly Ivy O'Guinn and Bret Bohn for this Instagram story/photo!
There is a lot for me to love here ... the photo was taken during the filming of History Channel's very popular Mountain Men series. Bret and Ivy are among about a dozen people on the show that have our wool, mostly in Lynx Pattern. Here, Brett and Ivy both wear Lynx Pattern Anoraks, and it is terrif to see our Lynx Pattern paired an actual Lynx Pelt,, from which Ivy made her hat!
2025-01-19 ... "Open House" Video
We usually hold Open House at the end of the month, but younger son Zack, and Carla, his Missus, are expecting a daughter in a few days. Grandmother's presence is highly desired ... Debby has been in Wyoming for a week, and I'll be headed West shortly. So, no Open House until Sunday, 23 February.
We have more work to do now than ever before. It's great, but also daunting and chaotic. We work from home, and the house has taken on the look of a mail-room running far above capacity. This short video will give a sense of WeatherWool headquarters today:
A quick video tour of the first floor of our house, which is now mostly WeatherWool headquarters.
All of the "actual production" of WeatherWool, happens elsewhere. At our home we do everything that does not involve growing or processing wool or making garments ... planning, designing, testing, customer relations, inventory, financials. AND SHIPPING!
It's great working from home, and I hope we can continue to do that. But I also hope we can relocate to a home that physically adjoins a proper, dedicated workspace. I can't express adequate THANKS to Debby for allowing all this.
2025-01-18
Advisor Cliff "Canoe" Jacobson is certainly one of the best-known personalities in the world of North American Canoeing. Kurt Warnke, on the left, has been wearing our wool on his Wilderness Canoe Trips for several years. I had no idea (should have guessed, tho!) he was friends with Cliff until Kurt sent this photo, taken today at Tom Anderson's "Life of Adventure" presentation.
Cliff is in his mid-80s now, and isn't getting out on the wild rivers anymore. He gave his wool to someone who will make more use of it. Kurt's first CPO was stolen a couple of years back, but he grabbed another. Kurt and two friends will be on the Hart River this coming summer. Cliff's book, Canoeing Wild Rivers, now in its 30th Anniversary edition, is full of amazingly detailed information gathered from personal experience. I think Cliff must have filled notebooks while in the field.
2025-01-17 ... Long Day in the Anorak ...
It's after 1AM now. I got dressed about 6:30 AM yesterday. A cotton T-Shirt and then a MidWeight Anorak. When I put on an Anorak first thing, I'll usually wear it all day. Whatever I was doing in the past 19 hours, the Anorak seemed just the ticket (except maybe packing a Black Hooded, as mentioned in previous entry). Sitting at my desk, toting firewood and working outside (temp a few degrees below freezing all day), quick trip into NYC, walking around the neighborhood while on the phone. I could definitely feel the cold through my light cotton pants. But no chill on my arms, despite short sleeves under the Anorak. The wool was also good in the office, where the fireplace sometimes had the temp cranked up over 80F/27C.
Good to see things moving along with Batch 10 and Batch Innes-1 (Batch 11). REALLY looking forward to getting some more Fabric. There is so much we want to make!
I needed to drop off a couple of things at Factory8 in NYC's Garment District, plus make a pickup. The round trip took only 90 minutes, including 5 minutes or so for the usual short sidewalk session with JR. The new All-Around Jackets are looking really good! About 10 days ago, the city enacted "congestion pricing", which means any vehicle that enters lower Manhattan during peak hours is automatically charged $9 (they read all the license plates). Governments here in the northeast are always looking for more ways to take money from working people. The idea is the fee will reduce traffic, and it certainly seems to have made a difference, although I'd guess traffic will soon be back to normal. But I've been in and out of Midtown a couple of times under the new $9 plan and traffic was lighter and parking was easier. If I have to go, I'll go (or Alex will!), regardless of traffic or congestion fee. We were already paying around $16 to go through the Lincoln Tunnel.
Earlier today (well, yesterday), someone phoned to change his order from Black to Lynx because he read the previous post. I should have anticipated that!
2025-01-15 ... "Well, DUH" Strikes Again
I normally don't do the shipping because I'm really bad at it and I have a lot of other things to do anyway. BUT we have a lot of shipping to do now that we are getting CPOs and Pants and even some Hooded Jackets out the door.
But if I'm going to be on the phone, may as well do something with my hands and get a Black Hooded Jacket shipped. So the Hooded looks great, but it's got some very tiny bits of brown paper or something on it. I clean it off with a lint roller, which is standard procedure. I turn it over and work the roller on the other side, then flip it again, and the tiny brown bits are back. Hmmmm. Table is clean. OK, lint roller again, flip again. More little brown bits. It looks to me just like tiny pieces of corrugated cardboard. Makes sense, the Hoodeds were packed in brown corrugated boxes. I do the lint roller again ... flip again ... same story. What?
I might have figured it out sooner (maybe not!) if I hadn't been on the phone. But eventually I realized the problem. I carried a lot of firewood in my arms today, working indoors and outdoors in a Lynx Pattern Anorak. Lynx Pattern hides everything. We ALWAYS tell people if they want something that never looks dirty, get Lynx. And Black is the opposite. Black shows everything. Each time I flipped the Black Hooded, tiny bits of sawdust were knocked off the Lynx Anorak onto the Black Fabric. Completely invisible on the Lynx, but amazingly conspicuous on the Black.
I needed someone to train me how to pack boxes.
We have the full range of sizes in FullWeight Black Hooded Jackets. And we have a few in FullWeight Drab Green, sizes Medium and Large only. If you want one, please contact me directly. We won't be offering these on the website in the usual way until we catch up with shipping the CPOs and Pants.
2025-01-13 ... Shipping and Managing Expectations
Here's a photo of our front porch at about 8:30 PM today.
That's only about half the packages that Troy from UPS picked up. Troy was moving amazingly fast, as usual, and was working alone. He's had a helper sometimes lately, and working very long hours, because of some glitch with what the Post Office will pick up. I could not keep pace with Troy for an hour, let alone a 13-hour day. When I was a teenager, working freight, I was a trucker's helper sometimes. I was in high school, helping guys in their 50s, and they would tell me to take it easy. Even at age 16, I think Troy would have worn me out! I think he turns 50 this year ...
Alex and I and Debby were working all weekend, as usual, and today we had plenty of enthusiastic help! Big difference!! We'll keep on truckin' tomorrow, and getting these "pre-orders" for CPOs and Pants finally shipped ... plenty more to do.
One of the changes for us, as we get better known, is that we are getting orders from people who are very, very focused on fit and style much more than anything else. I think maybe the give us a try because we are something new and different for their wardrobe. But we're not a good match for people who are uninterested in versatility of function (or, increasingly, non-toxic clothing). We'd love for our garments to please the eye, and to fit everyone. But that ain't going to happen. And we want people to be very happy with whatever they get (keep!) from us. With this new type of customer, I'm getting returns because a garment is just a little too long, because of "the styling", because medium is too small and large is too big. In the last couple days I've explained to a few people that we are a FABRIC company and that if medium is too small and large is too big and the Fabric doesn't matter, they should probably shop elsewhere.
2025-01-10 ... Clarifying Yesterday ... Sheep Industry Convention
Next Wednesday through Saturday is the Annual Meeting of the American Sheep Industry. I do have plans and reservations, but I am probably going to cancel anyway. Too much going on here at the office for me to take five full days away, particularly given that I'll need to be in Wyoming for family a little later in the month.
Regarding yesterday's entry, I should have made clear that New Jersey has a thicket of deer hunting regulations which basically add up to extremely liberal bag limits. There are many parts of Jersey that have no limit on antlerless deer. A friend donating a deer to a friend is entirely within the law and common.
Because of WeatherWool, I speak with folks in every US State and Canadian Province and many other countries. A lot of people think of New Jersey (the Garden State!) as completely industrialized. We do have a lot of industry and the densest human population in USA. But Jersey is also undoubtedly one of the best venison States. Guys in Colorado tell me they may have to apply for three or four years to draw a deer-tag, and are shocked to learn it's very much the opposite here.
2025-01-09 ... Coming Full Circle?
Decades ago, I was startled when a rural Canadian told me he'd killed hundreds of moose. Rural folk sometimes really rely on wild meat. Some of my own family have taken hundreds of whitetail deer. But hundreds of moose? Moose are about six times bigger than whitetail. And this guy was probably around 30 years old. He explained that he loved to hunt, loved moose meat and was considered the best moose hunter around. The local folks all applied for moose tags, and they drew quite a few of them ... each good for one moose. But most of them didn't really want to hunt, or didn't have time, or were physically unable. (Hunting the moose can be physically demanding. But properly caring for the meat can be downright brutal. WHAT'S THE BEST PLACE TO SHOOT A MOOSE? NEXT TO A ROAD!!!!) So, people arranged with The Moose Hunter to do the hunting in exchange for a quarter (meaning either a front- or hind-quarter of the animal). I'm pretty sure that arrangement was not legal, but also pretty sure it was traditional and well-known by the game wardens.
In those days, I was much keener to hunt than I am now. These days, it's the pleasure of being out there, and the great meat is a reward for the time and effort and, maybe, skill. But this season, although I was fortunate with a couple of deer in October in Pennsylvania, Debby mentioned to Advisor Fisher Neal that I wanted another deer or two for the freezer. Fisher is a busy hunting guide, and a "Huntin' Fool" (his big brother told me HE CAN'T HELP HIMSELF!), and he volunteered to get a deer for me. He texted Debby that he'd enjoy a Busman's Holiday and shoot a deer for us last night. And danged if he didn't take a nice fat young buck, hunting from the ground with a crossbow. After several years of guiding here in New Jersey (sometimes literally within sight of NYC), Fisher is very dialed into the whitetails. THANKS FISHER!!
One thing on my mind, tho ... I'm almost certain we've gotten deer meat from The Swamp every year since we bought it in 1998. So I feel like I still need to get out there. But right now, with so much wool-work to do, I'm unwilling to give up the half-day it will take me to hunt a whitetail and get it to the butcher. And of course, there is no guarantee of a deer. Odds actually are against making meat on any given day, at least for me (not Fisher, evidently!). So WOW, Fisher hunted a deer for Debby and me!
2025-01-08 ... Budget ... Fit ... Perspectives
When we started this company in 2010, I was almost completely focused on performance of my Fabrics and garments. I wanted durability, weather resistance, comfort, versatility ... with versatility encompassing a wide variety of weather conditions, activities, natural and social settings. This was my perspective. Debby's perspective was/is that the tailoring has to be equal to the Fabric. I didn't focus on the quality of the tailoring at all. And that stuff still sort of bounces off me. Lucky to have Debby on it. But in the early days, the customers were a lot more like me than Debby. Our customers were all outdoorsmen (very few women in those days), Military, survivalists, farmers/ranchers and other people who worked outdoors. And they all seemed focused on comfort and performance.
But more recently, particularly with the introduction of our 100% Wool Denim (Sorry to keep repeating "100% Wool Denim", but that's important and very unexpected to most folks.), I am talking to people who are very focused on "the fit". We're now getting people who don't even mention the Fabric or the performance when they contact me. They'll say IT FITS TERRIFIC!! Or, shudder, LARGE IS JUST A LITTLE TOO BIG AND MEDIUM IS JUST A LITTLE TOO SMALL.
This is definitely a different mindset, a different perspective from our early days. I'm not sure, frankly, someone should buy from us if the Fabric is not central to the purchase. But, we feel honored by (almost!!) every customer.
I've mentioned before that governmental agencies, at least when the question is a purchase from us, become very cost-conscious. We've been nixed for cost probably dozens of times. I mention that now only because it came up again this morning. A large federal agency thought we were too expensive. But I bet the plastic stuff they issue is not a whole lot less costly. I've decided to develop a piece with/for them, anyway, and we'll see what happens. These guys are expected to run into burning buildings or pull people from burning cars or do whatever is necessary to safeguard the public. They shouldn't be in plastic, whether or not it is treated with (noxious) flame retardant chemicals. I'm pretty sure whatever we come up with will have wide appeal. BTW, Military and Law Enforcement folks from many countries have all told me the same thing ... that their governments are extremely price-sensitive when it comes to clothing. I don't know if they are price-sensitive or not when buying fighter-jets. I remember once visiting a US Air Force base, standing amongst hundreds of millions (if not billions) of dollars of aircraft that cost many millions of dollars annually just to maintain, and having an officer tell me he didn't have the budget for $3000 of wool. He was serious, too.
Advisor Ron Spomer did a video-review a little while ago on an extremely powerful handgun ... difficult to shoot because of the recoil, and very loud. Mostly people were commenting YEAH, FIRED THAT THING ONCE. ENOUGH. And, kind of short of practical purposes, too. Great to stop a charging grizzly, except in that situation you want to have a firearm (yes, bear-spray may well be more effective!) with which you have practiced a great deal, and nobody wants to deal with extreme noise and recoil. Ron was wearing our All-Around Jacket, and a bunch of the comments flagged the price of the jacket as outrageous. But nobody seemed bothered by a $1500 handgun (and $5/round) that's seldom going to be used. Another perspective.
And now we have an issue of still another type of perspective. All the garments we've made since the purchases of raw wool in 2018 have had Batch Tags. This enables us to trace the entire history of a garment. It's kind of a trend now, and I like that we've been at it for seven years. We're shipping Batch 9 garments now. Our Batch Tags have always been repurposed size tags ... And the people who make the size tags are probably happy that 9 and 6 are the same shape. But the tailors sewed-in the 9 upside down, at least in relation to the other tags. If you ask me, the 9 and the 6 should have been made more dissimilar a thousand years ago. (Debby tells me I've gotten too temperamental and cranky. And she's right!) I should have foreseen this problem. But so should untold numbers of others, including the people making the size tags. Anyway, now we are underlining the 9, like they do on billiard balls. Even tho the 6 ball is a solid color and the 9 is a stripe, they still underline the number.
2025-01-07 ... Animal Instincts??!!
For a long time, people have been sending me photos of their animals sleeping on WeatherWool. It's been 5 years since we had any animals here, but I remember my old dog would always sleep on my original All-Around Jacket on the back seat of my truck. Cody was telling us a few days ago that his kittens (a few months old) seem to deliberately, always choose to sleep on our wool. He's begun testing them a little bit to see how much of a preference they have. A few minutes ago, a customer wrote me that his dog slept all night on his new Blanket.
Everyone knows animals can sense things that people do not. I've been wondering if maybe there is something significant here. I'd be very interested, please to hear from anyone else who has animals, and whether they seem to exhibit any preferences for textiles. If animals avoid something, we should probably take their advice.
I remember some years ago, speaking with a wrangler who handled both horses and mules. He told me that mules have an undeserved reputation for being stubborn. He said the mule is smart, and cautious, and that if a mule doesn't want to do something, it's probably best to take the animal's advice and don't do it. (The stuff I learn from customers has been great! Unfortunately, I remember the stories but not the names! ... THANKS ALL!)
With so much product here at home (we still operate out of our house, but we are pushing the limits!), we decided it's best not to have any dogs or cats at home. So I can't experiment. But I'm wondering ... Cats are well-known for resting in the warmest, sunniest spot in the house. Would wool entice a cat to choose a less-sunny spot?
This might be an appropriate time to mention that many woolens are not 100% wool. And that some of the 100% wool products are superwashed (meaning the wool has been somewhat denatured chemically and/or physically. Hand-knitters tell us they can feel the difference between superwash and non-superwash wool. So maybe animals will know the difference somehow.
Anyone with animal-wool input, please LMK! (Ralph@WeatherWool.com ... +1-973-943-3110). Thank You. And Thanks also to Samuel T and his dog, both (I hope) enjoying the new Blanket.
2025-01-05 ... Starting a Sustainable Fashion Brand
We never intended to be "sustainable". But, 100% USA and 100% (Ranch-Sourced) Wool does indeed make us a Sustainable Brand. We also never intended to be a Fashion Brand, but we've always intended to be suitable for social and business settings. And particularly now with our Denim, we can be viewed, at least in part, as a Fashion Brand. This seems pretty strange to me, and if someone asked me to describe WeatherWool, "Sustainable, Fashion Brand" would certainly not be my response.
A little while ago I was reading the latest from Alden Wicker's EcoCult (link is to SubStack), which I really value. Today, Alden wrote a piece entitled "So you want to start a sustainable fashion brand... You sure about that?" Exactly!! And the subtitle: “My soul truth is: do it. My mind truth is: I hope you have a lot of money." Indeed. Debby and I have joked (semi-joked) ruefully that if we had known what we were getting into ... if we had known how time-consuming, expensive and difficult it would be ... we would not have done this.
About a dozen years ago, a young, tech-savvy relative told me we should run our store on Shopify. It took me five years to follow his advice. But what he really should have told me was TAKE ALL YOUR MONEY AND BUY SHOPIFY STOCK!
Still, we really believe in what we are doing here, and we feel good about it. All of us. We're very glad about what we've done. And looking forward with a lot of optimism and enthusiasm. It looks like WOOL is beginning a big resurgence, and it's great to be part of it.
2025-01-2 ... YouTube Content Creator
A few days ago, Debby and I were looking at some YouTube content from Steven Smith on his MyLifeOutdoors Channel. He was doing some serious gear testing, both in the field and in controlled conditions with some fun testing equipment he made himself. He was doing just the kind of stuff we are interested in ... testing both performance and chemical contamination. We decided we should get in touch with this gent. Turns out, we didn't have to. He contacted us on New Year's Eve. Looking forward to speaking with him!
2025-01-01 ... People ... New Year Reflections
Usually I don't post on the Big Days. But today, I am.
This isn't directly wool-related, but I've been thinking about how so many people I've "met" (frequently only by phone or even only by email) through work and business have become friends. Also, many people met in social settings become colleagues, employees, contractors ...
Yesterday, we got the news that a customer-friend had passed away very unexpectedly on Christmas Eve, which was also his birthday, about 70 years ago. Tim had been a customer for several years, and really liked our wool. He did some testing for us, and gave us a lot of suggestions. He'd even been in touch with other customers. We'd interacted with his family a little because they gave him a bunch of our gift certificates. He was waiting on me for 14 backorders. Always good to hear from Tim. A co-worker once said to me NOBODY HAS A LOCK ON TOMORROW. Indeed. Our sympathies to Tim's family. And to Tim, Hail and Farewell.
Friends / colleagues / friends has been a constant theme for me. And, given that my work prior to WeatherWool was all about the paycheck, my co-workers were doubly important.
I was a disaster as a student, but my roommate from freshman year was just the opposite, and landed a great job at a top Madison Avenue financial magazine shortly after graduating with degrees in finance and journalism. Fred got me a try-out as a part-time figure-clerk, and this was my first white-collar employment. None of the real journalists wanted anything to do with that work, so they let a disheveled but friendly Greenwich Village hippie take a shot. It was a great opportunity for me. I learned some very important things there. My boss eventually let me write the column that accompanied the figures. I'm still friends with Tom, almost 50 years later. It took me probably 20 years before I realized Tom was happy to let me write about my numbers ... one less chore on his plate ... and editing my writing was easier than doing the writing himself. Plus I learned a little bit about editing. One of the first things gleaned at the magazine was a professional perspective -- DON'T BE AFRAID TO SET YOUR OWN COURSE -- that is fundamental to WeatherWool. As a result of that job, we have our DOs and DON'Ts page.
About three years after starting at the magazine, although still doing a monthly column for them, I was working full-time at a financial services company with offices on the 104th floor of One World Trade Center. That was, by far, the best building I ever worked in. And I doubt I will ever look at the Manhattan skyline without feeling rage. It was a fantastic company and just as wonderful a place to work. My sophomore-year roommate was hired there when I told him about an opening, and he had a wonderful career-run with them. He and I often laughed that he never even showed his resume. They hired him based on the interviews. The Towers had huge, 55-person elevators that zoomed from street-level to the 78th floor in about 30 seconds. One day in the elevator I saw a friend from the magazine. Jackie was looking for work, and she was a perfect match for a sales-job opening on the 104th floor. She stayed something like 15 years, said it was her best job. My last piece of writing for the magazine was about nine years ago ... a contribution to a remembrance of Gil, the founder/owner, that I felt honored to provide.
Two months ago, I attended the wedding of my freshman-year dorm next-door neighbor. Bob (really, it was Angela's doing!) threw a real bash ... Debby and I were almost completely away from work for more than three days. I still haven't caught up! Bob is a real-estate developer, and when I noticed that he used WEATHER in the name of one of his projects, it hit me that WeatherWool would be a great name for this company. Bob's graphic designer did our logo.
Another friend, Bob Krause from Morgan Stanley days of 30 years ago, is an owner of WeatherWool.
A couple of weeks ago, I saw an interview with Elon Musk's Mom. She said Elon tries to do good things, and he does not try to make money. If we make great woolens, we will be doing good and we will make many more friends. We will try.