Sophie Hurley of Honest Wolf

Can you share with us some insights about yourself and the origins of your brand, Honest Wolf?

Myself and my husband Sam founded the accessory brand Honest Wolf in 2020, we champion wool with our luxurious everyday essentials – including overnight bags, totes, and wallets. Honest Wolf’s wool is sourced from our 3,300-hectare, third-generation farm – Papanui Estate, the place we're lucky to call home.

Could you take us through the early stages of your journey?

Both Sam and I grew up in farming families where we learned a lot about wool from a young age. Over the years, wool has gone from a hero product to having a steadily declining price. After truly learning about the impact of this, we began to dream of bringing the fibre back to its former glory which inspired Honest Wolf.

The idea for bags came about just as New Zealand was phasing out the use of plastic shopping bags. Honest Wolf started with the Casual Shopper which quickly sold out, so we then branched into more luggage and accessories.

Can you tell us a little bit more about the process that goes into creating your accessories?

As our material we use for our range is from our own farm, the circle of life of the material is incredible to see. So we farm the wool on our land, then once shorn it gets made into our felt then turned into our range to then come back home where we sell to our customers.

To be able to provide a product where we follow its journey in full circle is an incredible part of our story and what makes us proud as farmers.

What are your future plans and aspirations both personally and for Honest Wolf as a brand?

I guess the aim personally, is to try to reach the goal of living a happy balanced life and providing a homely, loving, and fun upbringing for our children. For us to be able to bring our children up on the farm with us both working around them is an opportunity we are so grateful for. So if we can build on that experience that is the goal. We want to be able to grow our brand to reach consumers worldwide, and ultimately use more and more of our wool of the farm. Eventually to be able to buy wool from other farmers and provide them with a better price for their wool than the current market value would be incredible for the industry.

Can you tell us about your Spacefor activation? What can customers expect from you, and why did you decide to do it?

This is the very first time our customers can view and purchase Honest Wolf in Auckland - it's an exciting big step for us and we've been wanting to connect with our community here in real life, for quite some time now. We'll be showcasing our full range of woollen accessories and luggage, and if you purchase an item you'll receive a voucher for a free coffee from our friends at Kokako Commercial Bay.

Quick Answers

Currently, my favourite brands are: The Vitrine - love building forever pieces for my home.

An object or item I can't live without: My Honest Wolf Tote Bag! Gives me the feel of organisition even when I feel very unorganised! It has a pocket for everything, my phone, my sunglasses, laptop, place to put nappies bottles and spare clothes. It does it all and when we leave home its usually for the day as we live so far from anywhere so we need to throw in everything for any surprises!

My favourite online destination is: Uber Eats - we can't get takeaways on the farm as it is cold by the time we get home - our closest shops are an hour away! So anytime I am in the big smoke it is such a treat to rome the food choices!

My favourite place to shop is: Have spent some time in Rome, loved the experience of the smaller boutiques. We hope to one day launch a shop in Europe and this was an inspirational visit.

Offline VS Online? Offline - getting in nature out on the lake, or on the mountains with my children and being absolutely 100% present. Can't beat it.