Duckworth | Particl Company Profile

Celebrate Our 23,000th Powder Hoody Sale!

Celebrate 23,000 Powder Hoody Sales!

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Designed for scorching summer days spent in the backcountry, The Vapor Tee is able to withstand sun (boasting a natural UPF) and sweat (quick-drying and moisture wicking) and stink (naturally odor-free) unlike any other on the market. Give it a shot: The quality and comfort will speak for themselves. #DUCKWORTH

As the lingering snowpack thaws, so rushes in the telltale signs of spring: rivers gorge, flora blooms, wildlife emerges. The world begins to come alive once again, tamed for months by the winds and icy crust of winter. Though this change can be invigorating for outdoor lovers like ourselves, springtime recreation in The Northern Rockies can sometimes remain daunting. As the environment adapts to the change of season, mornings and nights remain crisp, even sub-freezing, and our mountains and rivers will face thunderstorms & even the occasional late-season blizzard. At Duckworth, we’re firm believers there’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad gear. There’s also an age-old saying in Montana: “If you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes”. Preparation for whatever nature may lash down with means packing the right gear, honed to perform not only when the weather cooperates, but also when it doesn’t. #DUCKWORTH

Sheep to shelf. Our WoolCloud jacket - filled with a proprietary Merino Wool “batting” - shot at our Montana ranch, the very same Montana ranch where we grew and harvested this breakthrough Merino Wool insulation technology. Check your emails today for more info on this groundbreaking jacket. #DUCKWORTH

Behold: the Rambouillet Merino sheep. This remarkable breed is the foundation and lifeline of Duckworth. A quick history lesson for those of you that care about where your clothing comes from... Domesticated sheep descend from a wild species inhabiting ancient Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq, Iran, Turkey, etc.). Some 13,000 years ago, people discovered sheep’s wool to be both incredibly warm and breathable, with durability to boot: Nature’s perfect textile fiber, with applicable benefits regardless if you lived on a hostilely cold mountaintop or in an oppressively hot desert. Because of this mass adoption, the value of sheep’s wool skyrocketed to royal proportions (more on that soon) and remained there for centuries. Yet despite this vast usage, not all wool was created equal. Because wool is a natural fiber derived from living animals, characteristics of wool (such as the thickness, measured today in “microns”) varied from breed to breed. What emerged as the most coveted wool was that harvested from Merino sheep. Merino sheep produce a wool that is more lightweight, “crimpier” and finer than what’s found in any other wool clip. For us humans, finer = softer. Merino sheep originated in Spain sometime around the 1600s/1700s, and we weren’t kidding when we said these sheep boasted a royal pedigree. Merino began to rival cashmere (from the Kashmir goat) as the world’s most luxurious textile, and the Kingdom of Spain found themselves with a lock on the market. These ruminants were so valuable to the country that exporting Merino sheep without royal permission was punishable by death. Yeah…These were some seriously special sheep. Nobody knows exactly how he pulled this off, but in the late 1700’s, the King of France managed to strike a deal with the King of Spain, and a flock of hand-picked Merino sheep made their way to the French town of Rambouillet. These sheep were carefully cross bred with long-wool breeds hailing originally from England, and thus, the Rambouillet Merino was born. (CONTINUED BELOW)

If you’ve been following along as of late, you’ve probably noticed a steady trickle of posts featuring stories of other local brands, makers, and dreamers, forging ahead against the wind, leaning in to the joys and challenges of USA Made right here in the Gallatin Valley. We feel it is our responsibility to tell these stories, to use our growing voice not just to share our Montana-grown, American-made Merino Wool gear story, but those doing similar things with the very same elbow grease we know well. Introducing @cudaway, a high-end culinary and hunt knife company, founded by Morgan Keenan in October 2020 - despite the business perils of the Covid era looming large. “I wanted to build a knife shop around my vision and build what I deemed the most ideal production chef knife,” said Keenan. “At Cudaway, we do things a little bit differently: Our knives are stock removal, meaning we hand-grind our steel. Most production companies are machining their blades and handles. We do everything by hand.” With blades sharpened to a razors edge, thinner than most production knife companies, Keenan is melding Japanese blade craft influence with good ol’ American-made pride. No plunge lines, no transitions, no interruptions in the steels. Just elegant “open canvas” design. “We have a ton of pride doing everything here in our Bozeman shop,” said Keenan. “And all of our materials come from right here in the USA.” An aside from our end: When we headed out to photograph Keenan, he was wearing a well-worn Powder Hoody he’s deemed essential to working the colder days in the shop, as much as for getting missions into the backcountry (as an avid hiker, runner, backcountry skier, and more). With that, you’ll notice some fuzziness on the garment - we didn’t mind to shoot it that way, or to even promote it that way. Powder Hoody owners across the country have come to love this patina of sorts, battle scars from a life pursuing adventure. Warmth isn’t sacrificed at all when this happens - it’s merely stories from the American backcountry locked into the garment itself. Own a Cudaway knife (or a powder hoody)? Tell everyone how awesome it is in the comments below. #DUCKWORTH

Wool insulation isn’t just a natural, ethical alternative to down & synthetic- it’s an upgrade. Available in Men’s and Women’s full zip jackets and button up vests. #DUCKWORTH

We’ll see you outside. . #DUCKWORTH

There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad gear. When bitter winds howl down canyon walls and icy rains blow sideways, some might throw in the towel. But we don’t control the weather, and the fish are still hungry. With a Merino Wool fill that both insulates and becomes warmer when wet (let’s see cotton, synthetics or down do that), and a water-resistant, rip stop outer shell that breaks wind, our WoolCloud Full Zip Jackets guarantee all you have to worry about is 10-o’clock, 2-o’clock, and setting the hook. #DUCKWORTH