The Woolmark Company has launched a global campaign touting wool as a performance fiber with benefits like breathability, moisture control and odor resistance.
The Live & Breathe campaign, centered on combining wool’s fashion, technology and functional attributes, includes out-of-home, digital and social advertising to raise awareness for new generations that wool provides many benefits, while being sustainable.
The campaign features designers like 3.1 Phillip Lim, Erin Snow, and Gabriela Hearst. The promotional material pitches wool as “the original performance fiber,” and says, “Synthetic alternatives come and go, but we can never forget how important it is for our skin to breathe. Wool.”
The campaign will launch across social media and outdoor advertising spaces in New York City, San Francisco, London, Tokyo and Shanghai throughout September. Each city will play host to an opportunity for influencers and consumers to wear-test the latest commercially available wool performance products. The centerpiece of the campaign is a film that tells the story of “a synthetic world that has forgotten how to live naturally.”
“The rapid growth in demand for technical textiles has significantly boosted merino wool’s prominence in the sportswear industry due to the fiber’s naturally inherent qualities,” Woolmark Co. managing director Stuart McCullough said. “Wool, once the fiber of choice for athletes worldwide, was challenged by the rise of man-made fibers. A new generation of consumers are now expecting more from their purchases, and merino wool’s combined performance properties and eco-credentials are primed to meet these expectations.”
Wool is an active fiber that reacts to changes in the body’s temperature during exercise, according to Woolmark. In warm environments, wool can feel up to two times cooler to the touch than synthetic fibers, as it naturally moves heat away from the skin. Wool can also absorb up to 35 percent of its weight in moisture vapor before feeling wet and clinging to the skin.
Recent innovations in merino wool are contributing to significant growth of wool across activewear, including base and outer-layers, footwear, insulated products for hiking, skiing and climbing, as well as new innovations in wearable technology for temperature regulation.
Woolmark Co. is a subsidiary of Australian Wool Innovation, a not-for-profit enterprise that conducts research, development and marketing along the worldwide supply chain for Australian wool on behalf of about 60,000 wool growers.