Copyright farmersweekly
Reading Time: 3 minutes For Kiwis who love the great outdoors – whether it’s packing a picnic for the beach or a quintessential backyard barbie with mates – the outdoor essential, the cooler bag, is now available in wool. The wool cooler bag is a new product in the Slowlife Collection range developed by Loulou Ellingham, who believes it is the first product of its kind to hit the market in New Zealand. Ellingham lives in coastal Te Awanga in Hawke’s Bay with husband Tom and two young girls, Dottie, 3, and Margot, 10 months, but grew up on the family sheep and beef station in Gisborne. She knows a thing or two about wool, working three days a week for NZ Merino as a relationship manager for the North Island, and she knew wool had all the properties to be an excellent insulator for her bags. The Slowlife Collection, launched in 2020, is a lifestyle brand featuring premium outdoor leisure gear for all occasions. From outdoor rugs and cushions to flasks and thermoses, Ellingham has all outdoor adventures covered. It all started with a friend who was having samples made up for a picnic bag. Ellingham had spent five years living in China, and her brother owned a manufacturing company there. “I hooked her up with my brother to get samples made. I asked her if she was keen on doing it together and expanding the range, and she told me to just crack on with it myself.” Ellingham picked up where her friend had left off with the picnic bag, added more outdoor products to the range and got some branding done. It took off from there. Papatu Station, where she grew up, is still in the family. Owned by her mum, Papatu is run by a manager now. Ellingham has a special place in her heart for the farm and its woolly inhabitants. “When I was a kid, we spent a lot of summer holidays on a farm north of Gisborne camping for four to six weeks. We also had a bach at Lake Rotoiti and often packed up a picnic and took the boat out. We were always an outdoor family and it all tied in nicely for me to launch this business.” The wool cooler bag, launched last month, has received glowing reviews, Ellingham said. “I used to work for Neat Meat and they supplied top-end restaurants in Auckland and My Food Bag. I used to oversee all the packing for My Food Bag and in the chilled boxes they used wool insulation. “I knew wool was a good insulator. There’s so much of it, and Kiwis love it,” Ellingham said. “A lot of my customers are farmers and I know how much they love wool. It’s cool to be using a sustainable product.” Ellingham hopes that, in time, her whole range will feature wool. The wool for the coolers, which comes in a needle-punched roll, is sourced from another Gisborne company, Wise Wool. Eventually, she’d like to use wool from Papatu Station. “People are already wishing our whole range was wool. We have a lot of people buying them as corporate gifts. In terms of functionality, I think it’s equal to, if not superior to, the foam insulation we were using.”
