Why we do what we do!!

I just love the feedback we get from our customers. Had an order come thru today, which required some email to and fro'ing to get it sorted-here's the final email I received from our customer. It lifts our spirits to hear people loving our Mongrel socks, 'cause when you plug away doing the best you can, without feedback it's easy to forget why.
Hi Helen
Just made direct deposit to your account via CTB netbank for $142.50 ( express post please ) .We are a repeat customer & I still had your account details in my netbank accounts list - we sooooooooooo love your socks & with the first real cold day in Sydney today I decided we needed to get some spares . Look forward to receiving next Tuesday & keep up making the best socks in the world.
Have a great warm weekend in your woolly socks - I have a pair on today
Cheers
Kathy

Just doing it!

Doing the best we can for our environment is something as a business, and privately, we take pretty seriously. We are always looking at different work methods as a way to reduce waste, reduce our energy consumption, buy ethical consumables and just do the right thing.
Along with our tree planting program, just got another 20 endemic species in the ground, bringing our total to around 300 native trees, and reducing our waste output. We've just brought a new car-not quite the smallest in the world-but very small. Looks as though our fuel consumption has dropped by half probably closer to two thirds of what we used to use. Yay! Not only is that cost effective, our carbon footprint is further reduced, it's good. Plain and simple. I'm also having lots of fun driving it- the zippy little red thing it is.
We have also just sourced some great fair trade products out of Nepal. Beautiful hand knitted wool socks and some funky multicoloured felted wool hairbands that give the wearer the dread lock look. They are lots of fun. The supplier is a regular visitor to the factory, and established a great relationship with the management and local staff. He has ensured the staff are all paid properly and regularly and that there are good working conditions/hours etc for the staff, none of which are children. It's a locally owned, which keeps the profits local too.
It feels so good to do the right thing. Here at Mongrel socks we will continue to plant, recycle, re-use, and reduce waste and look very hard to ensure our spending is ethical.

Snow in February-Tassie full of surprises!

Unbelievable and unpredictable!
Here we are in February, ( usually the best days of summer here in Tassie) enjoying long, warm days and cool nights. On Wednesday we had a scorching 34.5 degrees Celsius and only a few days later we've got snow. It must be global warming stuffing up the weather patterns. This summer our Tasmanian weather has been superb. Tassie always cops a bad rap about our weather-the general consensus( from people that don't live here) is that we are a cold place with frigid winters and no summers. Tasmanians are mostly happy to let people think the worst of our climate, if it means we get less tourists, that's OK. They won't know what they're missing, and locals can continue to enjoy our island just the way we like like it. Tassie has quite a low population and temperate climate, makes for easy living, hardly any "peak hour traffic", we've never had to learn how to que, every day Tasmanians wake up and have to look out the window to see what the day will bring, because every day is different. This year Australia's Northern states have had flooding rain and wild weather for weeks, we haven't. They are still on water restrictions, 4 minute showers, we're not and haven't been. A what is the difference between the sunny Gold Coast beaches on a good day and Tasmania's beaches? In Tassie, the water and beaches are clean and you don't have to share it with a zillion people. It really is a pleasure.
Living and working in Tasmania, as we do, and having lived and worked in some of Australia's bigger cities, gives us the appreciation for what we do have here. Lucky us. Making our pure wool, tuff and possum Mongrel Socks, in our home work shop, we experience the most amazing "office" views, fresh air-no smog, and family friendly work hours and best of all our Mongrel Socks are a unique product, by name, nature and origin.
It's good to be different.

Customer Comments

Most day's we get emails from here, there and everywhere with topics ranging from charitable donation requests, sock requests etc. Occasionally, some come thru which leave me wondering if the sender is just having a laugh or are they serious? Here's a one that have come thru today, and I'm stilling deciding how to reply.......is this for real?
Hi,
My dance teacher told me i have 2 left feet. All this time now, i have been buying socks for a left and a right foot. Do you have any pairs of socks that contain 2 left socks as its getting expensive buying 2 pairs of socks and throwing out 2 right socks each time.
Regards
Matthew

Times ticking!

I can't beleive it's already February. We've had a flat out month, it feels like we've been on fast forward. Hoping it's going to start slowing down soon, but I doubt it. Making our Pure Wool Mongrel Socks, has been keeping us most busy, keeping up supplies of our dozen'ish colour mixes in the four sizes, is a challenge alone, but when our other products like our Head Warmers and Arm/leg Warmers need replenishing.....we're running! We've had a bit of a wait on the production of our Tuff Mongrel heavy duty socks, but the new yarn supplies arrived yesterday so the Tuff Mongrel drought is over. We had sold out of a number of sizes and colours. We are knitting now!After waitng nearly 4 months for this order to arrive( it should have taken 6 weeks), we were beginning to think maybe it wasn't going to come at all. The Yarn is a very expensive hi-tec mix of 60% superwash wool ( the best kind) and 40% Polypropylene, we can't find one better, any where in the world. We have this one imported for us from Germany, Aussie grown wool, processed in Germany, and brought back in to Australia. We wouldn't bother if it wasn't for the fact that this stuff-Climawool*-is so bloody good. The people wearing this expensive fibre blend, love it, live and work in it, with these high performance socks, our customers get what they pay for. No consumer can ask for more than that, and we wouldn't offer less.