Petersburg residents Brian and Jennifer Eschbach can typically be seen alongside the mountain biking trails at Pocahontas State Park or mountaineering components of the Appalachian Path in Virginia close to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Their teenage son, Aidan, hikes and rock climbs weekly. Spending a lot time on their toes, the Eschbachs began brainstorming their preferrred mountaineering sock, and the consequence was Straightforward Wind Outfitters and their flagship product, Merino wool mountaineering socks.
“We needed to determine a strategy to have a enterprise that we might be outdoors extra,” Brian Eschbach says. “We have been bored with blah mountaineering socks.”
The Eschbachs launched the net enterprise in November 2021 with 4 sock designs. Eschbach says they spent about two years working with hosieries to develop the construction and elegance for the socks, that are composed principally of wool sourced from Merino sheep in New Zealand.
“Merino is a kind of materials that’s breathable, it’s sturdy, it retains you heat within the winter and funky in the summertime, and it’s so mushy, you don’t get blisters, but it surely dries quick, so in case you get sweaty or [wet during a] creek crossing, it dries actual quick,” Eschbach says.
The socks price $22 to $24 and are manufactured in Colorado. All of Straightforward Wind Outfitters’ merchandise are made within the U.S., together with T-shirts, knit beanies and versatile solar shields that may be worn a dozen alternative ways, from a masks to a scrunchie.
Eschbach says 5% of Straightforward Wind’s month-to-month proceeds are donated to Virginia State Parks.
Extra designs are within the works, together with a brief model of their Merino wool sock that operating fanatics have requested. Eschbach says the flexibility of their socks makes them preferrred past the mountaineering path, from lounging round the home to building work.
“We’re outdoors continually,” Eschbach says. “So if we are able to parlay that right into a enterprise that may preserve us on the market to make a dwelling and have the time to assist different folks, that’s sort of our purpose and our marketing strategy, actually.”