The Origins of Our Wyld Hats
They weren't designed as a collection. They just sort of happened.
One hat led to another - usually because someone at Wyld wanted something warmer, smaller, cuter or minus the pom pom.
From the original two to today's Wyld and Bohepe family, every hat has a story behind it.
Where it all began
The Original Wyld Hat
No complicated design brief here. The Original was one of our first two hats - a simple ribbed beanie knitted in our natural brown Wyld fibre.
Warm, comfortable and uncomplicated, it set the tone for the hats that followed.
It's still here today. Sometimes you get things right the first time.
The Weka Woo
The Weka Woo arrived alongside the Original, but with a little more personality.
Still ribbed, still unmistakably Wyld, but finished with its large leather tag and a Weka feather.
Two hats. Two quite different characters.
Roger Beattie is passionate about Weka Conservation.
The Weka Feather is a gift to show our support for saving the Weka.
Then came the smallest Wyld hat
The Wyld Baby Hat
This one has a particularly lovely history.
When Angela's children came home from hospital, they wore little hand-knitted hats made by Angela's mother. Years later, those hats became the inspiration for the Wyld Baby Hat.
The fold-up ribbed design isn't just cute. It's deliberately stretchy and adjustable, so the hat can change as baby grows rather than being outgrown in five minutes.
A little family tradition, recreated in Wyld wool.
The Ultimate Wyld Hat
Then Roger got involved.
Farm life called for something seriously warm, so the Wyld hat was taken up a notch. After years of perfecting, the Ultimate was launched: double-layered, no fuss and made for cold days outside.
It became Roger's hat of choice - and remains our warmest Wyld hat.
For those who believe there's no such thing as too warm.
And then the girls wanted a pom pom…
While Roger's priorities were fairly straightforward - warmth - the Wyld girls thought the range needed something a little different.
Something cable-knit.
Something cosy.
And most importantly, something with a big possum pom pom on top.
The Wyld Cosy Hat
Naturally, this turned into a bit of a competition. Would people choose Roger's practical, double-layered Ultimate or the girls' pom-pom-topped Cosy?
Roger vs the girls.
The result?
Pretty much a tie.
Which was probably the safest outcome for everyone?
The Wyld Naked Cosy Hat
It turned out some people loved the cable knit of the Cosy... but weren't quite so keen on the pom pom.
Fair enough.
So we took it off.
The Naked Wyld Cosy has all the warmth and texture of the original Cosy, just without the fluff on top.
Sometimes product development really is that simple.
The family grows
When our naturally cream Bohepe fibre joined the Wyld family, a few favourite hat designs came with it.
The Bohepe Baby Hat, Bohepe Cosy Hat and Naked Bohepe Cosy Hat brought the same familiar shapes into our soft natural cream.
No dye needed. That's simply the colour of the wool.
Different sheep. Different fibre blend. Same Wyld approach.
Bohepe Cosy Hat
Bohepe Baby Hat
Bohepe Naked Cosy
Which Wyld hat are you?
What started with two hats has grown into quite the family.
Some are made for bitter mornings on the farm. Some have pom poms. Some don't. One started with a hand-knitted baby hat. And a few exist simply because someone at Wyld said, "What if we tried this?"
They're all knitted in New Zealand, in the natural colours of the fibres we chose to work with.
And somehow, there's now a Wyld hat for just about everyone.