Yes, this fleece won't arrive until late May. Here's why. Spoiler: it involves wool, sheep, and out-of-this-world demand.
On Tuesday 14 October at 9 am, we launched preorders for our new WoolPure® Fleece. In under 24 hours, all 7,000 we'd planned for were snapped up. 24 hours. That's all it took. And honestly, we're still in shock.
At Asphalte, we've spent nine years making quality clothes from natural materials, crafted in Europe. But this time, we went further.
The WoolPure® Fleece is a quiet revolution. Unlike most fleeces on the market — made from polyester, halfway across the world — ours are made from 100% Arles Merino wool, from sheep raised in France, and assembled with skill in Portugal.
The result: a fleece that's natural, local, warm, soft, and beautiful — and supports an exceptional French supply chain.
As usual, we tried to plan big. We'd reserved enough wool to make up to 7,000 fleeces, over a month-long preorder. But it sold out in a day. That's never happened to us before.
The problem: we'd used up all the wool we'd reserved from the Arles Shepherds' Cooperative. So we had to reorder in a hurry. But between the sheep growing the stuff, the shepherds’ shearing them, washing, carding, spinning, knitting and sewing, production timelines are now much longer than expected.
Which is why deliveries won't begin until May.
Not exactly fleece weather, but that's also part of what preordering is all about: trading patience for best value and a production model that’s less wasteful and that does things properly. In this case, we're literally asking you to wait for the sheep to grow more wool. And in a way, that's a beautiful thing. Being so close to the source of a raw material that you’re literally waiting for nature to take its course, one mouthful of grass at a time.
Your response to this fleece is a full-blown snub to plastic fleeces. It shows polyester should be worried — and that French wool has huge untapped potential.
So, thank you. For your support, your trust, and especially your patience. We promise we'll get better at predicting demand next time, and offer you slightly more sensible lead times.
See you soon,
The Asphalte team