Hikers Wool Blog

Way back; I used to tramp and hunt in the Tararua and Ruahine ranges whenever I could.

On getting to a bush hut for the night after a long day on the tops or wading rivers, I would hang my socks to dry, inside-out, on a wire besides the fire (back then, dry fire-wood was usually available)

In those early days, other trampers would often ask me, “What’s that ‘stuff’ stuck to your socks?”

When I told them that, that ‘stuff’, was my great-Granny Judd’s blister avoidance remedy, they would look at my feet, and then at theirs.

Often times I would be the only tramper in the hut without blisters, without sticking-plasters, without chafed ankles, or ‘black toes’ etc.

I would explain that it was lamb’s fleece wool prepared in a very special way to prevent blisters before they started and that it usually stuck to my socks when using it.

I always carried some extra wool in my pack; it weighed very little, and I would share some of it with other trampers who wanted to ‘save’ their feet.

Word slowly got around amongst trampers and hikers and people found my address wanting to buy some of that ‘foot-stuff’’.

So I packaged up my special wool and sold it for many years through a couple of great tramping shops under the name of “Footstuff’’, the name given to it by fellow Trampers.

Things just grew from there and now Sandra and I have a comprehensive network of Retail Stores and on-line networks selling our 100% Pure New Zealand lambs fleece wool; now under our more descriptive name of “Hikerswool” and of course these days, every tramper and hiker etc, knows what it is used for..

And today; we still make our “Hikerswool” in much the same way that our great-Granny Judd did, over a hundred years ago!