How WeatherWool Is Made
OK ... this page is long overdue, but it's going to be a giant amount of work. I'll get to it.
Here is a list (and no doubt it will grow) of the areas in which our Partners help us make WeatherWool. The list is in the rough order of involvement in our production processes.
My original ideas have not changed since 2009 when I founded WeatherWool.
Hardcore Luxury® ... meaning garments that offer very hardcore performance that will be favored by people doing really intense things. But that performance must be delivered in a luxurious garment that is a pleasure to wear.
So step one was finding a person who believed that such garments could be made, and that actually took quite a while ... probably 100 phone calls and emails and several months. But finally I found International Wool Consultant and now WeatherWool Advisor Bob Padula. Bob understood what we wanted to do, believed it was possible and knew the type of wool we needed ... because it's the fiber he's been breeding on his ranch! Essentially, we want very strong fiber that measures 21 microns thickness and is close to 4 inches (10 cm) in length.
Next we had to find a place to get the fiber that met our specs, and Mike Corn, who is also now a WeatherWool Advisor, is a rancher producing the fiber we need (although that depends on the weather in New Mexico). Mike also is a partner in America's largest fine wool auction house, and can help us find more of the fiber we need.
The following list shows the people involved in our production chain, from start to finish
- Ranchers
- Shearers
- Truckers ... the wool needs to get from the Ranches to the Auction House. The wool, the Fabric and the garments do a lot of traveling.
- Wool Auction House ... Roswell Wool
- Wool Samples Taken ... the bales of raw (greasy) wool must be sampled in a very specific way, with specific equipment. Only a few places can do this, and Roswell is one of them
- Wool Testing Labs. The wool samples must be tested by an independent lab, and we purchase the greasy wool based very detailed analysis of very lengthy lab testing ... USA is in transition now ... new testing lab opening in 2021???
- Wool Scouring (Cleaning) by Bollman and Chargeurs
- Fabric Engineers ... Advisor Rob M. Stuart
- Wool Dye House
- Wool Yarn Spinning Mills ... Kentwool Yarn, American Woolen Company, Burlington Fabrics, Crescent Woolen Mills
- Wool Fabric Mill ... American Woolen Company
- Dye House
- Wool Weaving Mill ... Material Technology and Logistics of Pennsylvania
- Wool Knitting Mill ... Tailored Industry of Brooklyn, NY
- Suppliers of Thread, Buttons, Zippers, Zipper Pulls, Cords, Cord Locks, Labels, Mouton Furs
- Garment Design and Production Consultants ... The Factory8
- Tailors ... Better Team USA, The Factory8
And there are others, too, that are critical but not directly part of production:
- WeatherWool's Advisors (Your Advisors, too!)
- Accountant
- Information Technology Support by Steven Martinez
- Carriers:
- USPS ... Hooray for Bernie!
- UPS ... Troy is fantastic
- FedEx
- DHL
- YRC (formerly Yellow Freight)
- Intellectual Property Lawyer ... Polson Intellectual Property Law
- Models (both for "fit" and for photo shoots) ... Fazon Gray, Fisher Neal and Chase Burnett are all WeatherWool Advisors
Lot of work to do ... many of the pages I've linked to don't have much info. Working on it ... For example, TheFactory8 has lately sent me a lot of photos detailing the steps in putting together the All-Around Jacket ...
24 February 2021 --- Ralph