Buffalo Check🧶

The checkered pattern is often associated with the most disparate personalities, from cowboys on a Wyoming ranch to Brooklyn hipsters, from deer hunters to rock and hip-hop artists: in reality the history of this fabric dates back many centuries. Originating in 17th-century Wales, flannel became synonymous with the American outdoors by the following century, when the first European migrants settled on the East Coast, making this fabric the uniform of those who toiled outdoors .
One of the earliest settlers of the time was John Rich, the son of a wool weaver, who came to America from Liverpool in the early 19th century. Initially settling in Philadelphia, he later moved to central, mostly rural Pennsylvania, where he built his first Rich began by selling wool fabrics, socks, and blankets to local workers and their families, as its products were ideal for staying warm during Pennsylvania’s harsh winters. But it wasn’t long before Woolrich expanded its production by introducing its first real item of clothing: the flannel shirt. Today the term “flannel” is used as a synonym for “scottish pattern” or “tartan”, but in reality the term refers to the texture of the fabric itself and not to the pattern with which it is decorated. The first Woolrich shirt, the wool flannel Buffalo Check, was introduced in 1850.
To stand out on the market and allow customers to recognize its quality products, Woolrich has developed the unmistakable Buffalo Plaid pattern. Large checks in alternating colours: the brand’s iconic red and black pattern had seen the light. Legend has it that the designer who created the model owned a herd of buffalo, hence the name. To get the product to market, Rich used slogans like “made for the mountains” or “soft and supple, but strong as iron” both on flannel labels and in advertisements.
To obtain such a soft and warm quality product, Woolrich has developed a finishing process called fleece, during which the wool fabric is subjected to mechanical brushing, in order to create a downy effect on one or both sides. The rest is history…
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