Q3 2021 Founder's Update

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Congratulations to the 250+ people who have completed the 100 day challenge since we launched the concept in 2020. Above are some photos from social media.

In a follow-up survey for the 100 day challenge finishers we ask, what is your biggest takeaway from the challenge? The responses generally fall into the four categories below:

More time and less decision fatigue

"My biggest takeaway from the 100 Day Challenge is that there is freedom in a simple wardrobe. I rarely thought “I wish I could wear something else.” Instead, I felt like I could focus on things that matter more than my clothes." - Josh
"My biggest take away from the challenge is that there is simply no need for my wardrobe to generate angst or indecision, or to otherwise burden my life." -Christian

Spotlight effect

"No one noticed I was wearing the same shirt everyday." - Jared
"The spotlight effect is real! Nobody noticed, or they were too polite to say anything! I'm hooked on a minimal wardrobe. I write this on Day 101, and I'm still wearing the same shirt!" - Erik

Merino wool / Wool&Prince converts

"This is the fabric I've been waiting for all my life! I can't believe that I've been wearing this shirt for going on 4 months (yes, I'm still wearing it every day) and there is ZERO pilling anywhere!" -John
"Merino wool is boss." -Robert
"Wool is an even better material than I thought." -Eamonn
"This challenge is a Trojan Horse to turn unsuspecting customers into brand ambassadors. I, for one, am happy to have been converted and look forward to more Wool&Prince clothing in my future." -Zeben

Less is more

"I realized that I don’t need the majority of items in my wardrobe." -Charles
"The whole process has made me critically question what I can live without." -Christian
"Now I'm consuming less, looking and feeling better, traveling lighter, and care less about things I don't want to care about." -Christian

Other fun 100 day challenge comments

After 100 days of wearing the same shirt every single day, whenever I tell my two year old that I'm going to get dressed, she goes to my closet and pulls out that shirt. :)
People would drive by my house and yell, asking if I was still wearing the shirt. Well, yeah, I have it on now! Seriously, people don't notice what you are wearing!

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Returns

We’re streamlining our return process with Happy Returns in the next few weeks. Customers will be able to take their returns/exchanges to Happy Returns “return bars” or print a label at home.

Return logistics is increasingly becoming an issue for eCommerce companies as highlighted in the recent Atlantic article:

“In a race to acquire new customers and retain them at any cost, retailers have taught shoppers to behave in ways that are bad for virtually all involved.”

“It’s [free returns] so baked into consumer expectations, and consumers are very irrational about the cost of shipping and returns,” Rampoldt told me. “To some extent retailers have created that, and now they’re stuck with it.”

Earlier this year when we switched from an outsourced warehouse partner to our own warehouse operation in Portland, we immediately noticed the human-power required to process returns—organizing, cleaning, steaming, folding, and repackaging.

Despite the challenge, we now have the personnel and control to do things we couldn’t do before. We sort items that don’t meet our first quality inventory standards and work to find a new home for these items. For example, you’ll soon get the chance to buy a long sleeve knit in your size at about 50% off, but you won’t know the color or the minor defect (sometimes the only defect is that we’ve had to wash the garment, so it’s basically a first quality garment). We feel that the most sustainable method is to get these products into the hands of customers who otherwise would have bought a first quality item.

If this all sounds familiar, we were experimenting with a similar renewed concept in 2018, but failed to scale it. Now with our warehouse team, we’re able to take a different approach in the form of the annual mystery item sale.

Product

We are 100% committed to the best selection of merino clothing for guys, despite recent supply chain issues which have made that goal difficult to achieve. We’re exploring joint ventures with our knit vendor to help scale our manufacturing and to guarantee inventory.

Loungewear: Hoodies, Joggers, Shorts

We just received our hoodies, joggers, and shorts, a purchase order we planned to receive five months ago and one that I’ve championed in the previous two quarterly updates.

Throw blanket

We've mentioned this before, but if you love our merino wool interlock material used in the heavy crew, joggers, and hoodie, our sister brand, wool&, used that material in a throw blanket. And you can now checkout with the throw blanket via Wool&Prince.