Mac Bishop wearing a maroon button down shirt in front of a rack full of dress shirts and other shirts

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Mac Bishop ’11 is founder and CEO of Wool & Prince, which makes apparel—from dress shirts to underwear—out of fine merino wool

By Beth Saulnier

The high-end men’s clothing firm founded by Mac Bishop ’11 has garnered headlines in media like CNN, the Huffington Post, Fast Company, and ... Sheep Industry News?

The CALS alum was featured in the ovine-centric periodical for founding Wool & Prince, an Oregon-based online retailer that makes men’s apparel—from dress shirts to underwear and beyond—using fine merino wool.

(He has since added a womenswear line, dubbed wool&.)

Launched in 2013 when Bishop was living in Manhattan, Wool & Prince made a splash with a Kickstarter campaign that went viral, in large part because of Bishop’s unorthodox one-man field test.

He wore a merino button-down for 100 days straight without washing it, periodically asking strangers on the streets of New York to give it a sniff test. (It passed.)

The sartorial stunt got people talking; both Leno and Letterman cracked jokes about it, and Bishop did interviews with media as far away as Australia.

The Kickstarter raised nearly $315,000—it would likely have gone higher, but he closed it to ensure he could fill the orders—and enabled him to start the company, which he eventually relocated to his native Portland.

Mac Bishop getting his armpit sniffed by a TV reporter while a cameraman films
A ... nose for news? Bishop with a Japanese TV crew.

“I have to admit, there were some nights when I went to bed thinking, ‘I’m not sure I can wear that shirt tomorrow,’” recalls Bishop, who’d even don the garment to bike home drenched with sweat after playing basketball. “But the beauty of wool is that it’s incredibly breathable, and it airs out really well.”

Bishop knows his material. As Sheep Industry News noted, he’s “essentially royalty in the American wool industry”—a sixth-generation member of the family behind Portland-based Pendleton Woolen Mills, which traces its roots to 1863.

The beauty of wool is that it’s incredibly breathable, and it airs out really well.

(His father, C. Morton Bishop III ’74, retired as company president in 2017; the shirt Bishop wore in his 100-day test was a custom-tailored garment from the Sir Pendleton line.)

In launching Wool & Prince, Bishop aimed to create a no-hassle alternative to the business-casual button-downs long sported by male office workers—garb from purveyors like Brooks Brothers and J.Crew that can generally be worn only once or twice between launderings.

“There was a huge gap in the marketplace,” Bishop explains. “Merino wool was becoming increasingly popular with the outdoor community—people would take one pair of merino long johns on a weeklong ski trip—but no one was focusing on merino for everyday apparel. I wanted to design 100% merino shirts that no one would notice were wool.”

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While the market for dress shirts tanked during the pandemic and has yet to completely rebound, Wool & Prince’s business has continued to thrive.

It now has some two dozen employees (up from just four a few years ago) and has shifted to focus more on casual wear like T-shirts, Henleys, polos, pants, shorts, and—yes—boxers and boxer briefs.

“Underwear is one of our biggest categories, and the one that has the most loyal following,” he says. “When people try our wool underwear—I don’t know if ‘life-changing’ is too much of an exaggeration, but it’s a game changer.”

When people try our wool underwear—I don’t know if ‘life-changing’ is too much of an exaggeration, but it’s a game changer.

And lest the phrase “wool underpants” conjure images of frontiersmen in itchy britches: as Bishop notes, selective breeding of sheep (particularly in Australia and New Zealand) has driven major advancements in wool quality and softness.

Today’s fine merino, he says, is “a long way from the wool of the 1950s that your grandma used to knit sweaters out of.”

Wool & Prince works with partners around the world to develop custom fabrics.

While Bishop likes to add a little nylon to improve durability and washability, the fabrics he develops have a majority wool content, so they benefit from the material's odor- and wrinkle-resistant properties.

Those nose-friendly qualities have been validated by research: in the company’s early days, as part of a program to aid New York State start-ups, a Cornell fiber scientist conducted a simulated “sweat test” that entailed growing bacteria on various fabrics, including a Wool & Prince dress shirt.

A male model sitting down with a cup of coffee wearing a blue wool vest over a light gray t-shirt and dark gray wool pants
Wool & Prince has shifted its focus from dress shirts to casualwear, like T-shirts and vests.

The finding: while the organisms thrived on cotton and polyester, there was almost none on the merino.

“The products are outstanding,” says Deborah Streeter, a professor emerita in the Dyson School who was Bishop’s advisor and remains a mentor. “They really do what they say they’re going to do.”

In 2018, Bishop launched the sister company wool& to offer merino apparel for women.

A female model in a teal sweater and tan pants
A model in wool&'s "Tate" textured cowl-neck top, which features a drawstring neck and side slits.

Its loyal customer base includes the more than 8,000 who’ve done its “100-day challenge”: in an echo of the founder’s original viral stunt, they document themselves wearing the same wool& dress daily for some 14 weeks.

(Yes, they’re allowed to wash it—and at the end, they earn a $100 gift card.)

“I knew from fairly early on that Mac was going to have an interesting journey—he wasn’t going to go the standard route,” Streeter says.

“He’s got this combination of personal philosophy, design aesthetic, and a big entrepreneurial drive. He’s a happy, generous, wonderful person with a great sense of humor, and he’s very playful and creative. It really fits the niche he’s in.”

(All images provided.)

Published January 16, 2025


Comments

  1. JohnL, Class of 1976

    I’m a huge fan of W&P’s merino tees (black)…year round comfort.
    Also a huge fan of Mac B. So fun to see his success.

  2. Marlene, Class of 2001

    Great article! I’m now going to try several items from this line!

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