We’re unabashedly big fans of merino wool. And while we love Australia for its great wine, beautiful beaches, and glorious red center, we always wondered why the country has the monopoly on the wool-for-clothing market.  And New Zealand, its antipodal neighbor, is also big player in the game thanks to Icebreaker.  Part of the reason comes down to population—New Zealand has a lot of sheep (enough to inspire a sheep zombie move), while Australia has enough real estate to take on 80 percent of merino wool used in apparel.* But the clever folks at Ibex realized that, with all the transportation costs of sourcing wool half way across the world, it might make sense to talk to some U.S. sheep ranchers about state-side production.

The result? The White River, VT-based company has started working with Montana sheep ranches to source wool entirely form the United States in an effort to both reduce the company’s carbon footprint and to help create and retain jobs in the country. The sheep are raised in the tiny town of Lavina on a ranch run by the Lehfeldt family. For more than a century, the family has raised Rambouillet sheep (think big, fluffy, and curved horns). The breed, known for super-soft, ultra-fine wool, originated from Spain’s famed merino flock.  After shearing, the wool travels to South Carolina, where it is combed and scoured, then it heads North Carolina where it’s spun into yarn and knitted into fabric. Finally, the fabric is sent to Ibex’s factories near San Francisco, where it is cut and sewn into finished garments.

This Fall, Ibex’s best-selling Shak Lite line of upper layers are made from the 100 percent U.S.-raised wool. The tops are so versatile that you’ll wear them as a skiing mid-layer, a top layer for hiking, and pretty much every day you want to look good and feel comfortable—and they’re so well built that you’ll probably pass them down to your kids. We hope other products, like the Gearzilla All-Star Long Trail Sweater, will follow suit.

*Updated from previous post. Thanks to Eric H

Introducing Gearzilla’s The Future of Gear, a new column that will highlight some of the coolest trends in the outdoor and travel gear industry, profile industry leaders and their ground-breaking ideas, and preview some of the best new product slated to hit the market in the coming months.

Apparel and gear manufacturer Patagonia recently introduced the sale of used product on their web store.  Part of the company’s Community Threads Initiative—which encourages consumers to buy only what they need, repair what breaks, share what they no longer need, and recycle everything else—this move continues to promote the company’s robust pro-environment identity.

The new feature displays product that’s on sale on eBay within patagonia.com’s Used Clothing and Gear section, filtered by gender and product type, as well as kid’s gear.  Interacting with the specific products takes you to eBay itself, which handles product fulfillment in its typical fashion (Patagonia also includes instructions on how to sell your used product, aping the step-by-steps that lets you sell stuff on eBay.)

From a business perspective, they could potentially erode the sale of some of their latest and greatest (regularly priced) product by promoting the same stuff at half the cost. But there’s no real overhead for Patagonia, either; eBay’s auctioneers handle all the specifics of each sale while Patagonia product stays in the hands (and on the backs) of happy travelers and lovers of the outdoors, boosting brand loyalty. The play also reinforces the durability story of the brand and serves as a solid platform to promote their pledge to reduce the environmental footprint implicit in gear and apparel manufacturing—a pledge we encourage you all to take.

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