From the farm to your home
Tradition guiding innovation.
Big Wool grew from a simple question asked in 2019
How can we do better for the place we call home?
From Waste to Opportunity
For nearly five decades, the McKimm family has been furnishing homes in New Zealand — a family-owned business built on hard work, straight talking and the belief that quality should be accessible to everyone. But seeing discarded sofas and mattresses piling up in landfills made it clear the old way of doing things wasn’t good enough anymore.
The family began looking back to the land and the people who work it. Early steps included introducing recycled materials like Seaqual and Repreve into everyday sofas and beds, turning plastic recovered from the ocean into something useful again. It was progress — but not the full answer.
The turning point came during a visit to a friend’s farm, where strong wool was being buried because there was no market for it. Strong, resilient and abundant, New Zealand strong wool had been overlooked for too long. With research, testing and determination, the family saw its potential to become something far greater.
Local Roots to Global Impact
They invested in two sheep and cattle stations on New Zealand’s East Coast and began building a new supply chain from the ground up, including their own Strong Wool needling line. The goal was simple: restore value to this natural fibre while transforming it into high-performance materials for furniture, bedding, insulation and more.
Today, Big Wool partners with leading furniture and design innovators around the world, with products grown on New Zealand hillsides now appearing inside international premium brands.
Built on a family business founded in 1973, Big Wool looks firmly to the future — creating materials that serve people well and care for the land they come from.
“For us, real change starts close to home. Big Wool is lifting our farmers, reducing waste and supplying premium New Zealand wool that global design leaders are seeking out in innovative ways.”
Tom McKimm, Managing Director