Stepan Shveshnikov

Yeah, well, I'm not surprised you've missed it, but there's a group of people who's interested in wool, Kai, and I think that that group is growing.

Wool answers three concerns that are prominent, and I think you've heard about these concerns.

One is a health concern about microplastics, right?

The microplastics in our clothes, partly, right?

And so there's a growing body of research that's showing that that might be affecting us in ways we don't like.

Now, if you're talking about wool socks or wool underwear, they even make wool bikinis now, right?

So those aren't going to have any microplastics in them.

So the second concern is environmental, and I'm talking about oil, which has been in the news.

Those plastic clothes, they're made from polyester, and polyester is made from crude oil.

So we're talking about a group of people who are concerned about the environment, and wool is a lot more sustainable than oil.

Mm-hmm.

And the third thing is ethical.

So in the news recently, there's been some talk about polyester recycling.

So, you know, when you recycle old clothes, they go off to places like India and the dust from those recycling operations is making people sick.

So I think wool actually is able to answer those concerns.

And as there are more people who are worried about these things, they're starting to buy wool products.

There's not enough sheep in the world, not even in big wool producing countries like Australia.

And in the US, the situation is especially bad.

But surprisingly, the farmers and industry people I talked to were optimistic.

So they felt like we've hit rock bottom, but there's room to start bringing some sheep back.