Dear @duluthtradingcompany

I beg of you, please stop throwing wool under the bus in your marketing materials. At a minimum, please speak of wool accurately. You advertise it as “smelly animal fur” when you know as well as I do that commercial wool has no scent at all, and that it comes from a living animal who goes on living a very good life for years after being shorn.

I get that you want people to buy this coat that you’ve chosen to insulate with polyester. It’s a business decision. I’m sure the profit margin is good. But please also know that the American wool market has been decimated by synthetics. It is at a 70-year low. But it is holding steady there, and it deserves our support.

As more consumers become aware of just how devastating microfiber pollution is to our oceans, they’re going to look to you for alternatives. You might even turn back to wool, which just happens to be wonderfully biodegradable, annually renewable, flame-extinguishing, stretchy, a great insulator, and it even filters air pollution.

If only you hadn’t spent the last decade telling your customers just how terrible wool is, why they desperately need to buy anything but it. Woopsie. Your pivot will be twice as hard. So I urge you, start now. Speak of wool honestly and positively in your materials. Cultivate tomorrow’s customers now. It’s possible, it’s the right thing to do, and I will be happy to help you in any way I can.