Wool Shoes Can Also Be Very Sporty.

The world-famous animal husbandry center, New Zealand, has developed a new trend of "farm to foot".

The most common shoe materials in daily life include two main categories: natural materials (leather, canvas) and synthetic materials made of Petroleum (rubber, plastics, chemical fiber fabrics).

Compared with natural materials such as leather and canvas, wool has the following advantages:

Water absorption and air permeability are the sustainable substitution of rubber.

It's warm in winter and cool in summer.

In addition, the fatty acids in wool fibers can neutralize the odors emitted by human body, and can absorb 35% odors of self weight.

To put it simply, wool can absorb sweat and sweat.

But at present, because of the high cost of raw materials, few manufacturers choose wool as shoes.

In recent years, many fashion companies have begun to pay attention to the new trend of footwear.

The most popular type of wool shoes nowadays is Australia's Ugg boots, which are sheepskin on the surface and wool in the lining.

Ugg has been popular in Australia since the 70s of last century. Surfers especially like this shoe, because it is warm to get out of the cold water and wear Ugg.

In those days, buying a pair of Ugg at a petrol station cost only $12, and now the shoe brand named after UGG is already famous. The price of a pair of UGG boots has reached $160.

The Swiss shoe shoe brand Baabuk, which sells wool sports shoes, has successfully raised $170 thousand in public financing website Kickstarter. It plans to open its first e-commerce website in the United States this year.

Mahabis, a shoe maker in Britain, changed the design of wool slippers to outdoor shoes, and the rubber heel parts were detachable.

Alice Apsey, head of corporate content marketing, says the design has brought us $13 million 100 thousand in sales over the past two years.

This is the new favorite of consumers. Two companies have seen more hidden business opportunities: ordering high-quality wool directly from herdsmen in New Zealand to produce all kinds of wool shoes in the two season of summer and winter.

Allbirds

Allbirds, a shoe maker in San Francisco, has revolutionized the design of sports shoes.

The surface of the shoe is made of fine Merino wool. The sole is made of castor oil, avoiding the use of plastic and rubber materials.

There are no trademarks on the shoes. They can be cleaned at any time.

The company's two founders are New Zealand Football Player Tim Brown and renewable materials specialist Joey Zwillinger respectively.

The goal of Allbirds is to pform a pair of classic sneakers into an environmentally friendly, fashionable and wearable style.

The professional wool sports shoes designed by Tim Brown, though not logo, belong to the minimalist style, but they guarantee the performance of sports shoes.

As a native New Zealander, he has been thinking about what kind of people to use.

Sports shoes are the most suitable.

For the first time, he used the "medium micron" quality wool. It turned out that the wool was too thick and too hard.

The second Tim Brown was replaced with very fine Merino wool, which is only 12.5 microns in diameter and lighter and thinner. It is suitable for making high quality wool suits.

Joey Zwillinger introduces, from prototype to the final design, they have done countless experiments on the strength and flexibility of merino wool, testing temperature regulation and perspiration.

Allbirds initially raised $119 thousand in Kickstarter, and then raised $about 2000000 from venture capitalists.

In March, brand washable wool sports shoes were launched online and sold out in just two months.

Brett Jackson, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, is a fan of Allbirds. He worked for four years in Crocs, a casual footwear giant, and joined Vc firm v1.vc. as general manager. Now he is one of Allbirds's investors.

Michael Brandt, co-founder of Nootrobox, a digital subscriber service company, sighs, "it's amazing. I can wear these shoes without wearing socks, because it feels like socks."

At present, Allbirds is working with a woolen workshop in northern Italy, which makes New Zealand wool into woolen fabrics and then sends them to South Korea to make shoes.

A pair of Allbirds sells for $95 online, equivalent to the price of sneakers for Nike and Adidas, known as "the most comfortable sneakers in the world".

The company has not disclosed the output and sales volume for one year, but it is certain that the largest market is in the United States.

Glerups

Another brand of New Zealand wool made shoes is Denmark's Glerups. Unlike Allbirds, they use wool felt.

Glerups is best known for calf leather, wool boots and a lazy shoe.

The shoes made of a whole sheep felt have the characteristics of thick, comfortable and durable. The sole is made of calf skin.

Allan Timm, owner and chief executive of the brand, said that their shoes are now available in the National Geographic store and will be sold through LL Bean, GarnetHill and REI this fall.

Glerups was founded by a pair of Danish couples in the late 70s of last century. At first, they worked with northern European herdsmen to choose wool from southern Sweden, Gotland.

Nanny Glerup only sews two pairs of shoes every day, and her husband Ove Glerup has a very good relationship with the local herdsmen.

Slowly, Glerups shoes became more and more popular in Denmark.

But in the 90s of last century, the company's expansion plan was blocked.

At that time, Allan Timm was moved by the couple's simplicity and successfully built the supply chain of Glerups with its own network.

In 2005, in order to reduce costs and increase output, the company's production base moved from Scandinavia to Romania.

The annual output has reached 20 thousand pairs of shoes, and Glerups has been selling in Danish fairs and physical stores before the battle line.

At present, Glerups's shoes are sold in 14 countries around the world, with annual sales of about 200 thousand pairs.

Allan Timm describes sales growth at 20~25% over the past few years.

Such a large demand made him start thinking about how to get wool in a more convenient way.

After contacting Several New Zealand herdsmen, he began to understand that although many people had decades of sheep raising experience, they did not understand the huge business opportunities hidden by wool.

Both Glerups and Allbirds are currently in line with

Merino wool (NZM) has a cooperative relationship. The latter acts as an intermediary between the New Zealand herdsmen and the brand side. The two sides sign the contract herdsman to stabilize the brand and supply the best quality wool.

Tim Brown is pleased to see that the wool industry of our country is gradually reviving. But he believes that the rise of wool shoes will not produce the problem of raw material shortage.