{"id":183502,"date":"2026-11-11T07:37:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T06:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=183502"},"modified":"2026-11-05T13:46:07","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T12:46:07","slug":"new-research-reveals-growing-consumer-preference-for-natural-fibres-as-woolmark-launches-return-to-real","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/new-research-reveals-growing-consumer-preference-for-natural-fibres-as-woolmark-launches-return-to-real\/","title":{"rendered":"New research reveals growing consumer preference for natural fibres as Woolmark launches Return to Real"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\"Return<\/a>
Return to Real \u00a9 Woolmark<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

As consumers become more selective about what they wear, new Ipsos research commissioned by Woolmark across the United States, France, Germany, Italy and China reveals a growing preference for natural fibres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On average across five markets, 82% of consumers prefer natural fibres over synthetics<\/strong> when price, style and fit are equal. Merino wool was preferred to polyester in every market surveyed, with 65% preferring Merino wool on average across five markets<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The findings point to a wider shift in fashion. Worldwide Google search interest in “Merino wool” has more than doubled over the past five years. On average across five markets, 67% of consumers say they would pay more<\/strong> for clothing made mainly from natural fibres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Consumers want to know what a garment is made from, what that means in everyday use and whether the claims can be trusted,” said Woolmark Managing Director Bryan Fry.<\/strong> “That puts fibre, and the evidence behind it, back at the centre of the conversation.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

On average across five markets, 71% of consumers consider independent certification or verification of fibre content and quality important<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more than 60 years, Woolmark has supported research, testing, education and certification to provide evidence of wool’s quality and performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Woolmark’s new Natural Intelligence report<\/a> explores Merino wool’s thermal comfort, moisture and odour management, durability and next-to-skin comfort. It includes four-year research with North Carolina State University showing how 100% Merino wool base layers helped create a more stable next-to-skin microclimate during stop-start activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These insights underpin Return to Real<\/strong>, Woolmark’s new global brand platform celebrating Merino wool’s Natural Intelligence: performance refined by nature over thousands of years and understood through scientific research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Launching internationally through out-of-home, digital media and creators, the campaign revisits Woolmark’s 1960s belief that “you can’t fake the real thing”, with messages including “Not all intelligence is artificial” and “The original wearable tech”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Technology moves quickly, but innovation does not always mean starting from scratch,” said Fry.<\/strong> “Sometimes it means looking again at what nature has already worked out.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Source: Ipsos AWI Natural Fibre Perception Report. Online interviews with 300 respondents per market in China, France, Germany, Italy and the US, aged 18\u201365. Fieldwork: 7\u20138 September 2026.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As consumers become more selective about what they wear, new Ipsos research commissioned by Woolmark across the United States, France, Germany, Italy and China reveals a growing preference for natural fibres. On average across five markets, 82% of consumers prefer natural fibres over synthetics when price, style and fit are equal. Merino wool was preferred to polyester in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":183520,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"On average across five markets,\u00a067% of consumers say they would pay more\u00a0for clothing made mainly from natural fibres","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[5838,13445,14928,11877,12468,17830],"supplier":[13157,2718,21124],"class_list":["post-183502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-bioeconomy","tag-clothing","tag-fashion","tag-naturalfibres","tag-textiles","tag-wool","supplier-ipsos-gmbh","supplier-north-carolina-state-university","supplier-the-woolmark-company"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183502"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":183525,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183502\/revisions\/183525"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183502"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=183502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}