When Jill Shuman started pitching retailers her natural blister prevention product, eNZees Foot Soother, in 2016, Backcountry Experience was her first stop. Having built his business on expert bootfitting, Ben Rockis, the store's owner, was immediately all in. "She looked at me ...read more
Mt. Airy, North Carolina (September 17, 2018) — At its 5th Anniversary celebration at Outdoor Retailer, Farm to Feet premiered the first film in its American Made video series which brings the personalities profiled on Farm to Feet’s packaging to life.Today, the North Carolina ...read more
Cliff Cox, plant manager of Chargeurs Wool, is an anomaly in the workforce. In an era when the average U.S. worker occupies 12 different jobs before age fifty, he’s held onto his job for four decades. “When I interviewed here, I said that I was looking for something that I ...read more
Farm to Feet celebrates its fifth-year anniversary, and it’s difficult to believe that such a well-oiled company was introduced as recently as the 2013 Outdoor Retailer winter show. Despite the brand’s choice to specialize in what was perceived by many as a saturated ...read more
REI is holding brands accountable to sustainable practices. On Monday, the cooperative debuted Product Sustainability Standards that will soon apply to more than 1,000 small and large brands sold by the outdoor retailer. “Some, like prAna and Patagonia, are on the leading edge ...read more
Eight years after becoming the first wool company in the world to incorporate traceability into its products (with its innovative “Baacode”), and just two months after announcing its acquisition by VF Corp., New Zealand’s 22-year-old Icebreaker turns the spotlight on its own ...read more
There’s a place, way down east in Jamestown, South Carolina, where wild wool goes to get scoured, spiffed up, and ready for a transformation. It’s a factory on the banks of a river, and it smells like a potent cocktail of farm animals and grease. It’s called Chargeurs Wool USA, ...read more
It can be confusing to understand the true differences between socks when comparing multiple brands or even styles from the same brand. “We make socks on over a half dozen different types of machines,” said David Petri, Farm to Feet’s VP of Marketing. “The amount of wool in a ...read more
Way out here in the middle of southwestern Wyoming, a massive operation is under way. Sheep rancher Jon Child—plus two of his sons, their wives, and their children—create a ruckus. It’s shearing day. By sundown, some 1,100 Merino Rambouillet sheep will have been liberated from ...read more
In the outdoor industry, wool has been gaining popularity for several years, as more and more apparel brands start to incorporate it into everything from undies to puffy jackets to shorts to shoes. But the reality is that as a global commodity, wool has been waning in ...read more