Sir W. Merino founder Jock Merriman at Merryville Stud, Boorowa, with some of the family’s Merino rams in the background. Photo: Jock Merriman.
A fifth-generation member of one of Australia’s best-known Merino families is taking the fibre he grew up with at Boorowa to a new generation of consumers – one polo, T-shirt and button-up at a time.
Jock Merriman is the founder of Sir W. Merino, a clothing company established in Austin, Texas, in 2022 and named after his great-grandfather, renowned sheep breeder Sir Walter Merriman.
But despite growing up around Merryville Stud at Boorowa, Jock said creating a Merino clothing label was never a childhood ambition.
The idea came years later, after a chance encounter with a sample T-shirt.
“It wasn’t necessarily a childhood dream to do this, but more of a lightbulb moment when I was around 22 and received a superfine Merino tee sample,” he said.
At the time, Jock was playing plenty of rugby and was accustomed to training in polyester shirts that rarely smelt particularly fresh after a workout.
“I wore this Merino tee to the gym, and the next day it smelled as if I’d never worn it. It was like magic,” he said.
It made him question why he was wearing polyester to train, and cotton shirts to work when Merino could perform both jobs.
More than a decade later, he still owns and wears that first Merino shirt.
The experience eventually led to Sir W., but the story behind the brand began generations earlier with Jock’s great-great-grandfather George Merriman who began building the Ravensworth fine-wool Merino stud near Yass in 1865.
In 1903, his son Walter Merriman established his own stud, Merryville, on part of Ravensworth after acquiring a small flock of fine-wool ewes and the sire Mountain King from his father.
Sir Walter went on to become one of Australia’s most respected Merino breeders, with Merryville sheep and wool winning major awards around the country.
He was knighted in 1954 for his contribution to the industry.
Merryville later became established at Boorowa, where the stud remains in the Merriman family today.
For Jock, that history became the foundation for his own business.
“The connection to Merryville, Boorowa and the broader Merino industry drives me, because it connects me to family and the great people I’ve met in my life,” he said.
It was a connection built from the ground up, with Jock working sheep alongside his brothers from the time he was knee-high.
Those years in the yards also showed him just how versatile Merino could be.
“I worked the yards with my father George – cooling the sheep through 105°F (41°C) summers, protecting them through frost six months later. Same animal, same wool, doing two opposite jobs across the year,” he said.
“He’d point at them and say, ‘Merino can do it all; hot, cold, wet, it doesn’t matter. Why would you want to wear anything else?'”
Sir Walter Merriman, founder of Merryville Stud, with a flock of Merino rams. Photo: Jock Merriman.
As Jock grew older, he also began to appreciate the place wool held beyond the family farm.
“I began to understand wool’s history, how it connects Australian communities, and its global reach,” he said, “so a big part of it is the thinking that if I can add to the demand for wool even a little, that’s good for the woolgrowers back in Australia.”
Sir Walter wasn’t necessarily destined to lend his name to the company – Jock admits a few famous family rams were also considered.
Ultimately, Sir W. became both a tribute to his great-grandfather and a way of explaining the fibre’s long history to American consumers unfamiliar with Merino.
But Jock couldn’t resist weaving the family connection into the clothing itself.
The George polo is named after his father, The Bruce button-up after his grandfather, while The Cassius athletic T-shirt takes its name from a Merryville ram.
“When you can show them that this fibre dates back in my family to the 1800s, I think it helps them understand that this isn’t just some new fad,” Jock said.
“It’s a legacy fibre that has stood the test of time.”
When he started Sir W., Jock saw a gap between expensive luxury wool clothing and the Merino base layers traditionally marketed to hikers and skiers.
He wanted something he could wear to work, for coffee or on a night out without looking as though he was dressed for a mountain expedition.
“So, I launched with a polo shirt – a 100 per cent Merino wool shirt that fits in all of the occasions of my life,” he said.
“It’s all the same fibre benefits, just used differently.”
Sir W. operates separately from Merryville, sourcing wool from a mix of Australian growers to achieve the consistent yarn specifications needed for its different fabrics and garments.
Manufacturing currently takes place through specialist facilities in Shanghai and Brooklyn, New York, although Jock would eventually like more production to take place in Australia.
“Almost no early-stage processing remains in Australia, so only the growing is the Australian part of Sir W.,” he said.
“Many factors influence where I produce my clothing, so ideally Australia will be one of those locations soon.”
Running the company from Austin – where Jock was living when he was finally in a position to invest in the idea – has also meant learning almost every part of the business himself.
He handles the website, social media, email marketing, fulfilment and customer service.
Ironically, he said learning how to have the clothes made proved easier than learning how to sell them.
“You can make the best shirts ever but if you can’t reach your audience, they won’t know you exist and won’t buy,” he said.
Growth has come in waves, with inventory and cash flow determining how quickly the company can expand.
But Jock’s ambition is considerably bigger than selling another batch of shirts.
“I want Sir W. to become the name young people in the US and Australia think of when they think of fine Merino,” he said.
“I want to introduce an entire generation of people to Merino, so they can choose to wear Sir W. from morning to night, and every day of the week.”
