Sustainability of our Wool

Sustainable for the Planet.

Wool and cashmere are rightly considered highly sustainable natural products with a low environmental footprint. They are renewable raw materials that require very little water to produce.

And yet, wool has some downsides: Most wool processed in the apparel industry today does not come from small farmers or shepherds, but from large flocks of sheep raised industrially in confined spaces, compacting the soil, displacing natural vegetation, and contributing to desertification.

When developing our functional clothing, performance was clearly our top priority. Yet we never lost sight of sustainability.

By using yak and camel wool, we base our product line not only on the highest-performing functional fibers but also on two of the most sustainable wool types available. This is because neither yaks nor camels are raised industrially in large herds. We source our wool primarily in Mongolia from small-scale farmers and herders who, as nomads, travel with their animals across Central Asia's steppes and plateaus.

By eating only the upper blades of grass without damaging the roots, camels and yaks rejuvenate vegetation and help preserve the delicate ecosystem of Central Asia's steppes and plateaus while counteracting desertification. A beneficial side effect: In doing so, they also help protect the climate.

Wool from happy animals.

Our yaks and camels spend the entire year outdoors on pasture, grazing and roaming freely in the fresh air of Central Asia's steppes and plateaus.

A large portion of our wool production comes from nomadic herding. The people follow the rhythm of the animals, not the other way around.

We harvest yak and camel wool from the animals’ dense, fine undercoat. These hairs are the softest, fluffiest, and warmest. Yaks and camels shed this part of their coat every spring during the molting season. Nomads usually pick up shed tufts of camel wool directly from the ground. Yak hair is harvested by gently combing the shed undercoat from powerful, majestic yaks by hand. The animals do not need to be restrained during this process; combing causes them neither stress nor pain. Neither yaks nor camels are sheared for wool production.

This unique harvesting process makes yak and camel wool two of the most sustainable types of wool available, produced entirely without causing any animal suffering.

Preserving the Mongolian Way of Life