The Merino Line

Not for sale yet. That's the point of this page.

Everything Headwinds sells today is cotton. Cotton is honest, it doesn't smell, and it's wrong for a hundred miles — it holds water and it chafes. We've never pretended otherwise.

The line that fixes that is being built right now, and it doesn't exist anywhere else, because nobody makes it.

What it is

A 50/50 blend of TENCEL™ lyocell and superfine merino wool, 16.6–18.5 micron, knitted as a jersey at 160–180 gsm.

No elastane. No spandex. No nylon. Flatlock seams throughout so nothing rubs at hour nine. Cotton or lyocell sewing thread, because a plastic-free shirt stitched with polyester isn't one. Printed labels instead of the polyester satin tag that sits against the back of your neck on almost every technical shirt ever made.

Merino handles temperature and refuses to hold odor. Lyocell handles moisture and adds the wet strength that merino alone doesn't have. Together they do most of what polyester does, without being made of oil.

Where it actually is right now

We said we'd build this in public, so here's the real status rather than a marketing version of it.

The fabric comes from a mill in Guangzhou that holds it in stock. A cut-and-sew factory in the same city has agreed to buy it directly and build to our spec, including the sewing thread and the labels — the two things almost every brand quietly gets wrong.

What we don't have yet: the final fabric weight, a price, or a sample on a real mountain. Until this has been worn on a long day and independently lab-tested for fiber composition, it isn't a product and we won't sell it to you.

Expected price is around $120–140. Expected first run is small — roughly 150 pieces, because that's what a first order looks like when you refuse to compromise on the material.

Reserve your spot

Put your email in below and you'll be on the list. Here's exactly what that gets you, and what it doesn't.

You get: the fabric updates as they happen, including the ones that go badly. First access when the run opens. We'll ask your size closer to the date.

You don't get: a discount — we don't do them, ever. And no obligation. This is a list, not a payment.

If the fabric fails its wear test, we'll tell you that too, and this page will say so.

Chase the wind.