Merino – the perfect travel companion

Travelling is easy when you pack and wear Merino wool. To get this message out to more people, AWI recently arranged a visit to some wool-growing properties for some American travel gear experts so they could discover how the fibre is grown, harvested and sold.

Launched in 2009 in Australia, Carryology started out as a humble blog exploring better ways to carry things (bags, luggage and the like), but has since grown into a global resource, sharing countless insights and learnings. Exploring how best to carry things has led Carryology to also look at what kind of apparel is best to pack and use for traveling – and Merino wool is rated highly.

Creative Director at Carryology, Taylor Welden from Austin in Texas, is a huge advocate for Merino wool apparel. He says a major advantage of travelling with Merino wool clothing is that you can pack less and pack light because Merino wool needs less laundering than other apparel.

“When you're packing for a trip, the things that are going to take up the most amount of space in your bags are your clothes. To pack light, you want to carry items that you can wear again and again and not have to wash or put aside after one wear,” Taylor said.

“The discovery that we’ve all made at Carryology is that Merino wool is like magic. I’m a big fan of T-shirts, but on this current four-week trip away from the US I’ve needed to bring just four Merino wool T-shirts for the entire time. In addition to the fact that it doesn’t stink when you wear it for a few days, Merino is soft against the skin and it keeps you warm when it’s cold, and cool when it’s warm.”

Taylor wearing one of his Unbound Merino T-shirts at Canyonlands National Park in Utah.

Taylor reckons the one thing that holds people back from purchasing a Merino product is that they don’t realise how good the fabric feels.

“If you look at a photo of a Merino T-shirt in a brochure or on the internet, it looks pretty much like any other T-shirt, and it is more expensive than a regular cotton T-shirt. But, if people touch a Merino T-shirt, wear it and experience it firsthand, then it instantly changes their opinions about wool.”

Visiting the on-farm source of Merino wool

Some of Carryology’s favourite Merino apparel is made by Unbound Merino, a Canadian brand which makes simple, high performance Merino wool clothing specifically for travel and everyday life. The brand is a strong supporter of the “pack less, experience more” philosophy.

Unbound Merino sources the Merino wool for its apparel from Australia, and Taylor reached out to the brand to partner on a recent trip to Australia. AWI’s National Engagement Manager, Marius Cuming, accompanied the group on a visit to a wool auction at Brooklyn in Melbourne, and to the properties of woolgrowers George McKenzie at Rokewood and Graeme Harvey at Murgheboluc.

Creative Director at Carryology, Taylor Welden, visiting a wool-growing property in Victoria and having a good go at shearing.

“Because we’re huge fans of Merino apparel, we wanted to visit the home of Merino and learn firsthand more about the whole wool-growing process from start to finish,” Taylor said.

“The tour was really cool; we got to see how the sheep and rams are selected for their genetic traits and how one type of wool is better than another. We saw the sheep getting shorn and their wool getting classed. It’s wonderful how it is such a cutting-edge fibre while at the same time being 100% natural.

“The tour was fascinating and way more than I had expected to see – and it was wonderful to see a real passion from everyone in the industry.”

More information:
www.carryology.com
www.unboundmerino.com
Hear more from Taylor Welden in Episode 228 of AWI’s The Yarn podcast at www.wool.com/podcast

Reasons to travel with Merino wool
• Odour resistant
• Thermo-regulating
• Breathable
• Trans-seasonal
• Crease and stain resistant

This article appeared in the December 2022 edition of AWI’s Beyond the Bale magazine. Reproduction of the article is encouraged.