By TomHere’s a list of my favorite Merino Wool brands. I’m always interested in finding new ones, so please drop some below if you have any additions.
Wool & Prince
Wool & Prince originally started in 2013 on Kickstarter. Since then, they’ve built out a collection of merino wool clothing. In particular, they have a great range of button-down and dress shirts made in 100% merino wool.
Wool& (women only)
Wool& is a lifestyle brand that aims to make the fashion world better by producing high quality clothing. The Rowena Swing dress is their first piece, which I review in this article on merino wool dresses.
Allbirds (merino wool shoes)
This brand, led by a native of New Zealand who knows all about the benefits of merino wool, is betting on the design of a shoe made of sustainable material including a merino wool uppers. Based in San Francisco, the hype spread very quickly across the world. Personally, I’ve a pair of their shoes since January 2020 and they still hold up well.
See Men’s Allbirds’shoes | See Women’s Allbirds shoes
Minus33
Minus33 do a full range of merino wool for men and women’s clothing exclusively from merino wool. From what I’ve heard, they offer a good trade off between price and quality.
The clothing is all manufactured in the USA as well.
Go to Minus33 website | See Minus33 on Amazon
Darn Tough
Best merino wool socks in the world. That’s pretty much the deal. I recommend them on my article on merino wool socks. They come with a lifetime warranty that they stand behind with no questions asked. You can just send back the socks to them, and they’ll replace them free of charge, which is an unheard of guarantee.
Read more | Go to Darn Tough website | See Darn Tough on Amazon
Icebreaker
Icebreaker is one of the most established brands. They are based out of New Zealand.
Icebreaker knows how to tell a good origins story. As their founder Jeremy Moon puts it, “When I started Icebreaker I was twenty-four, broke & had absolutely no idea what I was doing.”
Icebreaker has a wide range of Merino wool products, from hardcore outdoors wear to casual lifestyle t-shirts.
Unlike other brands, they offer also more formal merino wool wear that you could wear in a business casual setting as well as outdoors and sports wear.
They have create a number of products around Merino Wool. For example, they have 100% merino products ranging from 120 g/m2 (featherlight) to 380 g/m2 (heavyweight).
As a personal recommendation, I buy men’s Icebreaker Tech Lite Short Sleeve Crews.
Read more | Go to Icebreaker website | See Icebreaker on Amazon
Smartwool
Smartwool has been around since 1994. Timberland bought the company in 2005. They are notable for not practicing mulesing.
I haven’t found the sizing to fit me so well, personally (tall and thin). Your mileage may vary.
Read more | Go to Smartwool website | See Smartwool on Amazon
WoolX
WoolX is a brand developed by Hanks Clothing based out of New York. They sell Chinese-manufactured clothing from merino wool from Australian sheep. They offer a range of functional baselayers, mid-layers and outlayers aimed towards outdoor pursuits in colder climes.
Their prices are competitive – and they are good alternative in my opinion to Minus33.
Go to WoolX website | See WoolX on Amazon
Woolpower
This Swedish-based company focuses on undergarments and mid-layer garments for outdoors. The products are all manufactured in Sweden under strict environmental and social requirements.
Ridge Merino
Husband and wife founded brand focused on merino wool outdoor clothing with a special incline at the beginning to satisfy the needs of professionnal skiiers. Ridge Merino was founded in 2014.
Go to Ridge Merino website | See Ridge on Amazon
Mons Royale
Mons Royale focuses on creating merino wool garments that work as well on the mountain as they look good on the street. They have launched in 2009 with a ‘provocative’ sexy campaign in an attempt of portraying technical underwear as sexy too, rather than looking like it’s just meant to climb Mount Everest in.
Go to Mons Royale website | See Mons Royale on Amazon
Point6
This brand is lead by the original founders of Smartwool. They started with merino wool socks, including a collection for kids, and have now expended to some baselayers.
Go to Point6 Merino website | See Point6 on Amazon
Ibex
While Ibex shut down in 2018, they’ve recently relaunched as a direct-to-consumer brand with a focused product line.
Read more | Go to Ibex website | See Ibex articles on Amazon
Makers and Riders
This is the brand that makes the best merino wool pants I have own so far. They are a small brand but focus on high quality functional pieces for urban people like myself that like comfort when riding to work and style once in the office.
Go to Makers and Riders website | See Makers and Riders on Amazon
Outlier (men only)
Outlier makes exceptional clothing aimed originally at cyclists. While not made of Merino, I’ve had a great experience with their pants, the Slim Dungarees.
They also sell a range of Merino wool t-shirts. The Ultra-Fine Merino Wool T-shirt is worth checking out, as it’s made of exceptionally fine wool – 17.5 micron fibers at 195 g/m2. I’ve been wearing a t-shirt of theirs for some time now, and I’m very impressed by the fit and quality.
Wolk (men only)
Wolk is a European based company has recently launched with an urban performance collection. As designers of outdoor apparel, they always had a love for merino so their shirts and T-shirts were the hero pieces of their first collection. They are now quickly expanding their merino collection. They ship worldwide.
Finisterre
Finisterre is a british company that makes exceptional clothing aimed originally at surfers. They always have a merino wool capsule collection to keep their surfers warm before and after catching waves in the cold water of England.
As europeans ourselves, we always had a sweet spot for Finisterre.
Check out Finisterre’s merino collection
Outboro
This Taiwan-based clothing company focuses on technical clothing with urban aesthetics. They have merino wool t-shirts and hoodies for men and women.
Patagonia
Patagonia offers a limited range of merino wool clothing. A plus point is their focus on ethically sustainable merino wool.
Go to Patagonia website | See Patagonia on Amazon
Ortovox
Ortovox is a Swiss company that focuses on technical mountain gear, including a range of merino/tencel blended baselayers and t-shirts.
Dilling
Dilling is a nordic specialised in merino brand from Denmark. They offer 6 different types of merino wool and have a very comprehensive guide about the way they produce things and which wool you should go for depending on your needs between the organic merino wool which is their most environmentally friendly wool to their merino and silk blend for an extra touch of luxury.
You can change the country option at the bottom of the page to Germany, Sweden, Finland, Netherlands and Denmark.
Visit Dilling.uk website | See Dilling products on Amazon available in some countries
EcoAble Apparel
EcoAble Apparel have a couple of base layers such as tank tops, long and short sleeves thermal shirts and legging for men and women and some clothing for kids. They go for a mix of 70% merino wool 30% silk. Very good price tag.
Ducksworth
Ducksworth is based out of Montana, and they have a unique “sheep to shelf” concept focused on sustainability. They focus on clean, simple technical clothing using various in-house methods of blending wool with other materials.
Smittenmerino
Smittenmerino has they have the biggest range of merino wool dresses I could find online. So if you are aiming to be the most fashionable minimalist traveller, this is the place to shop. Even if smaller at the moment, they are developing a couple of clothes for men. Originally from Australia, they now ship worldwide.
Go to Smittenmerino website
Rab
Rab is an England-based company that specializes in mountaineering gear. They started with down insulated jackets. These days they also have a collection of merino wool base layers
Seagale
Seagale is a French brand that has a range of merino wool clothing, including dress shirts. They sell exclusively online from France.
What do you think about Merino 365? i’ve read very good reviews on their clothing and finally i bought a base layer. It is my first merino shirt, it looks good quality..let’s see how it will be ater a while.
I haven’t heard of them before, but I’ll check them out! Thanks!
Here’s a few:
Filson
TASC Performance (limited options)
Wool Pro
Duckworth
Voormi
Hard to find in 4x , looking for below 0 under layer or base layer . I need to move easy and work outdoors in very cold temp and be able to do nothing and stand around main thing is size and stay warm . Dry area no snow or wet . What is the best and who has it
http://www.joemerino.com – great selection of colors in 150gsm t-shirt (crewe & V-Neck) as well as Polos both short & long sleeves.
https://www.toorallie.com.au – merino T’s & polos
https://missionworkshop.com – merino T’s heavier weight ~190gsm
https://tripleaughtdesign.com/shop/traverse-tech-t/ – very limited T’s
http://iomerino.com/ultra-tee-charcoal-4880 – some merino. Has Tanks
https://wolk-antwerp.com/products/alex-black-stripe – limited selection of nice dress shirts
https://libertadapparel.com/products/merino-travel-shirt – fantastic colors in very nice dress shirts 130gsm 17.5 micron
https://hardvark.co – merino dress shirts
https://propercloth.com/dress-shirts/reda-grey-merino-wool-194445.html – a couple of nice, customizable merino dress shirts
https://seagale.fr/en/home/45-active-merino-shirt – nice selection of merino dress shirts & polos in interesting colors & good colors respectively.
https://www.johnsmedley.com/uk/mens/material/extra-fine-merino-wool – John Smedley polos in a very wide range of colors. Other merino products too.
https://www.reiss.com/rw/search/?search_param=all&q=merino – Polos & more
https://www.qorkit.com/qor-17-5-merino-polo-ss-31034d.html – polos, T’s, hoodies, caps etc.
FINDRA are a Scottish brand that do merino base layers
Thoughts on Unbound Merino?
Have you tried the merino from Kathmandu? I discovered them in New Zealand last year and bought two lightweight tops for travelling. The prices were comparable to Icebreaker. They have been excellent both as a base layer in the mountains and as T shirts on the beach. As with other merino tops that I have they wash and dry easily.
Have a look at rewoolution.it
How about a section for merino wool hats (beanies, baseball caps, watchmen, etc.)?
I am currently in the process of reviewing some. I will keep you posted!
Engel, Disana, Hess Natur are some brands that focus on childrens clothing, but are also expanding adult items. Engel wool/silk tops are especially wonderful.
Ibex returned last year. Their quality is same as before but less varieties.