Reproduced from article in Livestock Weekly, 08/20/2009

By Colleen Shreiber

PARK CITY, Utah -- A year or so ago, Tom Chappell knew relatively little about wool and even less about the animal from which it came.
Yet after a mere 18 months of research and development this newcomer to the wool industry is on the verge of launching a line of next to the skin superfine worsted spun wool products which includes undershirts, camisoles, boxer briefs and long Johns and Janes. The four-ounce knit material is made from 18.5 micron, three-inch staple length 100 percent American Rambouillet wool that not only is grown on American soil, but is also being processed and manufactured and made into final garments on American soil.

“Just imagine it - something next to the skin that is made from wool that doesn’t scratch, that doesn’t shrink and that comes from nature,” Chappell says.
But those attending the recent American Sheep Industry Association wool education seminar here didn’t have to imagine it. Chappell shared some promotional materials including a swatch of the fabric with them. The common response by novice and experts alike was “that’s wool?”
The product line is simple, and it’s simple for a reason.

“Wool is so good. Why screw it up?”

Wool, he says, can be and is the answer for all seasons and in fact their four-ounce knit fabric is designed to be worn through 3.5 seasons of the year.

“There will be very few weeks that you won’t want to wear what we sell,” he insists. “If your lifestyle is to be in and out of environmental spaces that differ - from extreme humidity to air conditioning, our very lightweight product is not a burden in the heat and it’s a delight inside with the air condition. Women, for example, can wear one of our camisoles and in so doing not have to bother with that extra sweater thrown over their shoulders to keep warm.”

While Chappell may not know a whole lot about the wool industry, make no mistake he is an entrepreneur, and he has a knack and a reputation for getting things done. He is not one to quote industry numbers or trends because, as he explains, as an entrepreneur he thinks against trends. He was thinking against the trend when in 1970 with little more than a $5000 investment, he and his wife, Kate, started Tom’s of Maine, which in time became the leading provider of natural personal care body products in America. In April 2006 Chappell sold 84 percent of his business to Colgate. At time of sale, Tom’s of Maine was the number six brand in the nation with a distribution in 40,000 stores in the U.S.

With his life long endeavor now safely in the hands of its new owner, Chappell was officially ready to embark on retirement and to mark the occasion he and his son, Matthew, set off on a two-week vacation to Manchester, England where they would walk the hills of Dales of North Yorkshire, farmhouse to farmhouse. Chappell found that he was quite captivated with the flocks of peacefully grazing sheep that he passed by day after day.

“There are three times as many sheep as people in Wales,” Chappell notes. “I had never really connected with sheep before, but for two weeks they were part of my daily routine.”

The sheep got Chappell to thinking. Chappell knew in his heart that he wouldn’t be truly happy in retirement unless he had a project, something with which to stimulate his mind.

“Golf and grandkids, as much as I enjoy them, do not captivate my soul,” Chappell says. So upon his return Chappell said to his wife, “I need a spreadsheet, a customer, and I need a product that doesn’t exist and I need to go to work.”

And with his wife’s blessing that is exactly what he did. He spent months and months researching the industry to see if this concept that he’d formulated while on his walking tour was even possible. Then when he was pretty sure it could be done he set out to get other others in the production chain excited about his concept. He visited one-on-one with various representatives in the industry to determine which ones could best help him reach his goal and amazingly within 11 months time he and his partners had developed the first test fabric.

Chappell even went out and purchased a small flock of Rambouillet sheep which now reside on his farm in Kennebunk, Maine, but he’s looking well beyond the gates of Ramblers Way Farm, to others in the sheep industry to supply him with sufficient amounts of 18.5 micron, three-inch staple length Rambouillet wool. In the initial trial run, they sourced wool from the John Helle Ranch, in Montana, the Rafter 7 Ranch, in Nevada, and Producers Marketing Cooperative, Inc., in San Angelo.

No one can say for sure just how much 18.5 micron wool is produced in the U.S. year in and year out largely because most finewool producers don’t go to the extra effort to pull it out of their regular line. And, they don’t go to the extra effort largely because in years past it simply hasn’t paid them to do so. Ramblers Way, however, is in the process of changing the minds of producers, and they’re doing so by offering a financial incentive.

“We are providing a premium for American superfine wool,” Chappell says. “The price of American 18.5 micron has gone up because of what we paid so far in 2009, and our hope is that by pushing it up more producers will gravitate towards wanting to get that premium.”

Chappell’s son-in-law, Nick Armentrout, is in charge of product supply. He paid well above market price for a 5000 pound lot of 18.5 micron 90 millimeter staple wool at the Utah Wool Marketing Cooperative wool sale that went into the trial run, but it was the only lot he bid on.

The first 50,000 pounds that Armentrout sourced has already been made into garments and the next 50,000 pounds are on the way, and they’re still looking for more.
Albeit they’re still really small potatoes in the big scheme of things, but Armentrout isn’t shy about their intentions.

“We’re just an annoyance to the other wool buyers at the moment, and that’s okay,” Armentrout remarks, “but ultimately we want to be the customer for the 18.5 micron U.S. wool.”

Ramblers Way is interested in working direct with the producers and establishing a personal one-on-one relationship with growers is all part of the procurement process. Developing such relationships, Armentrout realizes, may take some time, but he also understands that it’s critically necessary if he is going to be able to secure the kind of volume they anticipate they’ll need in the future.

Both Chappell and Armentrout are all too aware of the limited amount of 18.5 micron wool that is available in the U.S., and they’ve already had to be willing to “push the limits” on their specification requirements by using an age-old industry trick of blending.

“Initially we wanted to really tow the line on our specifications - 18.5 micron or finer and three to 3.5 inch staple length - but then we learned more about the variability of fiber production, the year to year variability because of environmental conditions and even the variability breeder to breeder,” Armentrout says. “That’s when we realized we had to be more open to the blending process.”

In fact, it was that need for some extra long staple length wool that made Armentrout pay up for the 5000-pound clip in the Utah sale.

Clip size, Armentrout says, is not really a deal breaker or a deal maker.

“We’ll take basically as little as 150 to 200 pounds of the brown or black wool because there’s so little of it,” Armentrout says. “Otherwise we’ll buy a 5000 or 35,000 pound clip and it doesn’t matter if it’s pooled from different growers as long as a whole it meets our specs.”

For Chappell being ecologically sustainable is one of his most important personal values, and all aspects of his life from his personal life to his professional/business life conform to that value.
“We believe a business can be a financial successful while behaving in a socially responsible and environmentally sustainable manner,” Chappell says. “We know this to be true because we ran a business for 38 years very successfully using this concept.”

And while Ramblers Way Farm has some standards that their partners must adhere to Chappell is the first to admit that those of the land, those who make a living from the land, understand exactly what he means when he talks about living in harmony with nature.

“From what we’ve seen applying ecological practices is an essential way of being if you own a sheep ranch,” Chappell says. “As John Helle told me, ‘this is the way we live.’”

Rambler’s Way Farm is working towards not only sustainability but carbon neutrality as well. One of the ways he’s minimizing his carbon footprint in this new venture is by sourcing, processing and manufacturing American wool on American soil. Top is being made at Chargeurs Wool (USA) Inc., the yarn at Kentwool both of which are located in South Carolina and the knit fabric at Alamac American Knits in North Carolina.

Their cut and sew operation is located in Fall River, Massachusetts, in some of the old stone buildings where there is still floor after floor of sewing machines.

“We know we’re paying more for them to cut and sew, but we wanted to bring financial opportunity to local communities who have suffered to mall development, and to globalization,” Chappell says.
They’ve chosen e-commerce as their sole means of marketing their specialty products to consumers, and their fulfillment center, or call center, where orders and sales distribution will be handled is located in Pennsylvania.

Chappell refers to his product line as being a “110-percent American-made.” The extra 10 percent, he says, comes from the American pride that is so evident in every step of the production chain from the ranch right through to the final garments. Additionally, the product line is natural in every respect right down to the coloring. They’re not using dyes of any kind because they believe there to be environmental implications. They’re paying attention to the smallest detail tracking and measuring everything from the amount of diesel it takes to get their product to market to the garment packaging all of which is compostable.

Aside from the carbon neutrality endgame, quality, Chappell realizes, has to be the reason for being.

“It’s the only thing that will allow us to really be sustainable. We have to have a product that overachieves in an area of need.”

And getting there, they realize is no small feat.

“It’s not like saying I want peppermint oil in my toothpaste so I mix it up in the lab,” he remarks.

Having a direct hand in the sourcing of the raw fiber, and being involved, to some degree, in all the manufacturing steps, Armentrout says, is a form of their own kind of quality control.

And while on the surface it appears that Ramblers Way Farm has completed the quality piece of the puzzle, they understand that it is consumers who will make the final call and just getting them over the long-held notion that wool is scratchy is one of their first and perhaps biggest challenges.

Still Chappell is confident with the right product, a product he believes they have in fact developed, they can do just that.

“We changed how Colgate and P&G thought about toothpaste. We can change the way consumers view wool,” he insists.

Chappell chose e-commerce as their sole source for marketing not only for environmental reasons, but also because he’s interested in having a direct relationship with the consumer of their products.
“We’re fixed on what the consumer wants not what the retailer wants because if we can’t satisfy the consumer none of us has an excuse for business,” he reiterates.

Consumers today, he reminds, want more information, and more selection, and they want it fast.

“They want it with a personality and an openness that doesn’t come with attitude,” Chappell insists. “They can get a lot from the Internet that they can’t get at retail.”

The group hired to do their Internet marketing are of the Facebook generation, Armentrout points out.

“The way we intend to reach the consumers is by going to where they meet; going to where they’re discussing things they’re passionate about. You can do that with the Internet through face book, twitter and blogging. We intend to delight them with an effective product and then we’re counting on them to promote it to their friends.”

Ramblers Way already has 25,000 garments, 85 SKUs (men’s and women’s styles and sizes) ready to go, and they’ll have close to 100,000 ready by the time they launch their website the end of September. Children’s sizes are in the works as well.

They’re waiting to get the final on the cut and sow yields. They need to determine how much material goes into the various sizes before finalizing retail prices, but Chappell says the line will retail for $75 to $90.
American wool, Chappell opines, needs to be celebrated.

“People will pay more for an American made product if the quality is there,” he insists. “And if environmental sustainability and social responsibility are to be just as important as product quality and profitability, and if we’re competing against part of the world that doesn’t value environmental sustainability or social responsibility then we have to leave it up to the consumer to decide whether their values align with our values or whether they align with an import.”

Chappell admits that his present biggest challenge is in managing inventory.

“We don’t know if this will be explosive or a slow build. We don’t know if it will take two years or two months to sell.”

They’re obviously very optimistic though as production trials are already underway on four different yarns, and they’re working on a mediumweight, a nine ounce fabric.

Production trials are underway now on four different yarns, and they’re working on a mediumweight, a nine ounce fabric.

Chappell believes Ramblers Way Farm can be sustainable all the while being efficient and competitive.

“I’m doing what I do best,” he concludes. “I’m taking an idea and making it reality while raising the standards of how business is conducted and raising the standards of product quality and I’m doing it exclusively on American soil.

“I’ve got history and I’ve got experience, and I feel confident that we’re bringing something unique to the table.”