• By Lauren M. Whaley
• Photos by David A. Gonzales

When I return from skiing, I throw my
gray wool crew from Backcountry.com in the dirty clothes pile, only to take it out again the next morning. I’ve done this about five times and it doesn’t stink yet.

My new favorite base layer is also soft, breathable, machine washable, has the coziest thumbholes I’ve ever stuck mine into, and looks sexy aprés ski at the Stagecoach while drinking margaritas. Best of all, it’s made of Merino wool. Like the burly mountain New Zealand sheep that produce it, merino thrives in cold, wet and warm temps. It’s also one of the few technical fabrics in the outdoor industry that can actually be called “sustainable.”

Backcountry.com, which has been selling its own branded clothing for about a year, uses wool from Designer Textiles International for its athletic garments. So just how green is my gray crew?

On DTI’s “Merino Advanced Performance Programme” website, the Supply Chain and Eco explanations are basically the company’s stab at green business practices; they “guarantee the source, processing and functionality of this exclusive 100% natural Merino fabric” which they supply to a growing number of clients worldwide.

There does seem to be a common theme among the companies producing clothing from Merino. They’re proud of its sustainability, and go to pains to tell you, the net-surfing gearhound, how the Merino goes from sheep to shop. Or they want to look like they’re going to pains. The videos and blurbs on the MAPP site show interesting details, like shearing, dying and cutting, but it’s hard to discern what chemicals they use, how far the garments travel and what working conditions are really like — key aspects to a green business. Same for Icebreaker - the company that claims to have popularized Merino. In its Transparent Supply Chain, Icebreaker gets points for effort, but never talks about how much fuel they use in transporting their hyperhip woolie togs. The interviewer mentions the happy workers, yet none are interviewed in the videos.

Compare that to Patagonia’s Footprint Chronicles, which takes transparency to ‘11.’ They admit that their Wool2Crew shirt travels 16,200 miles from New Zealand to Malaysia to Japan to the States, and is therefore not a truly “sustainable” product. (Admitting any sort of negative connotation to a product on one’s own website — amazing.) Nau’s Wool and Fabrics page also does a good job at honestly describing the challenging ongoing quest to make the production process more environmentally friendly.

Kudos to these companies for using transparency to vie for customers. C’mon, you other major industry players — what does your supply chain look like?

While all outdoor clothing still leaves a footprint/jet contrail, Merino wool does, overall, seem greener than its synthetic sisters Lycra and Polypro; it comes from animals - alive throughout the process - and will decompose faster when we’re done with it. And while I’m not sure if chlorine was used to wash the backcountry.com hoodie I’ve come to love, nor the exact path the wool took from the sheep’s body to mine, I’m stink-free, sleek, and perfectly temped when hiking up and skiing down. If you’re going to buy stuff, buy Merino. It’s the greenest stuff we got.