Let’s get back to nature. They are using a type of wool for high performance athletic wear. My first thought is running in my grand ma’s wool scratchy sweater. Ugh! The wool from these sheep in New Zealand are producing an extraordinary product. All the biggest and most well- known brand names have found the wool and are using it in all their styles of clothing. The brave new wool comes from Marino sheep. It is a unique breed of sheep that produces a unique coat that is so soft and so fine that is having consumers redefining how and what they wear.

It is revolutionizing the world of performance outerwear. Visit the farms in New Zealand’s Southern Alps and not only witness a beautiful landscape, meet fine wonderful people but meet the sheep that graze the area and run your fingers through their amazing coat of wool.  You can understand why and how you can just wear the stuff against your scalp and skin because the fibers are so thin and yet so soft.  The thick fibers of normal wool can be itchy and uncomfortable. Marino wool is light and breathable but warm.  Icebreaker is a New Zealand clothing company that not only specializes in Marino products but helped pioneer them. How nice to discover something new and great at Christmas time, the time to give sweaters.

Rob Fyfe is the CEO of Icebreaker and remembers when it was just his company telling people to use this lighter better natural wool rather than synthetics for clothes. Lots of competitors are switching and making athletic wear using the new wool now.  It is much more than cold weather clothing with an appeal   and feel. Many manufacturers from Smart wool to lululemon, Patagonia and The North Face all are touting the durability and green ability of the natural product that is even odor-reducing not like all that polyester outer wear out there. Unfortunately it is still more expensive than synthetic fibers.  Now that shoppers have caught onto the benefits of this new wool, they are buying it more bringing the prices down.

You can cozy up in Marino wool from head to toe including your underwear.  It breathes, doesn’t hold odor and is great for dealing with moisture.  Some people wear the underwear nonstop for 40 days without needing a wash. The hope is that not just the extreme outdoors man will want the product but that environmentally savvy consumers will want the product too.  We need Eco-friendly clothes. Boor from nature.  We need to connect back with the land again.  Stop covering yourself in synthetics and plastics.  Tell a marathon runner to run wearing wool sounds crazy but they are doing it now.  Nature’s miracle fabric is just at home in the mountains of New Zealand and at home in cities on marathon runners backs.  Try it!