Guard hair and undercoatWolves wear two layers of fur at once. Long guard hairs form the outer shell, stiff and water shedding, while beneath them sits a dense woolly undercoat that holds still air against the skin. The trapped air does most of the work. Fur is a poor conductor on its own, but the pockets of air caught inside it are better still, which is why a wolf can lie out in falling snow and keep the snow from melting on its back.An alpha in full voiceThe animal printed here is an alpha, the wolf at the centre of a pack rather than the brute of legend. Real pack leaders are usually just the parents, and most of what they do is quiet work, feeding pups and deciding when the group moves. Calling the pack together is the other half of the job, and that is the moment the artwork takes: the head thrown back in profile, the jaws open on a howl, the mane cut into sharp points and the whole thing held as a flat white silhouette inside a crescent moon. Colour pairs run through black, blue, red and grey. There is more on rank in our piece on the alpha wolf.Fabric and fitOrganic cotton on the inside, polyester on the outside, with a hood and a reinforced exterior zip. Thick and cosy, built to hold warm air much as an undercoat does. Machine washable at 30 degrees. The cut runs small, so take one size up from your usual and compare the measurements on the apparel size chart. The rest of the range sits in the wolf jackets collection.Free worldwide shipping, 7 to 12 business days. 30 day returns. See our shipping policy for details.
