Reading Time: 2 minutes New Zealand Rugby has asked to speak with Norsewear owner Tim Deane after he posted a cheeky open letter on social media to the country’s rugby governing body, questioning why All Black supporters are wearing synthetic beanies rather than wool. The letter, which Deane wrote and shared on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn, said: “We want the All Blacks, your board your executive and your supporters to feel the warmth and quality of New Zealand wool. We want those heads full of brains, living and breathing strategy and tactics, to be cosy at all times.” NZR has since got in touch with Deane to see if they can have a meeting. “They were very good natured about it, they said they did smile, and they would love to have a chat to see if there is something we can do with them,” he said. Deane said it all stared when an All Blacks fan came into possession of a beanie at the second test match against France only to discover that it was 100% synthetic and made offshore. “They posted something asking why aren’t the AB’s supporting wool?” It was forwarded to Deane, who decided to write the letter and post it on his company’s social media pages. “It was obviously good humoured, but there was a serious message behind it,” he said. He also posted it on his own LinkedIn page, where it received 50,000 impressions in less than 24 hours. “It obviously struck a chord. I had no idea it would go off like this.” While he knows they will never be putting socks on the All Blacks, he was pleased NZR was prepared to discuss other options. If it raises the consciousness of people to purchase New Zealand wool products over synthetic, then that would be a win for the industry, he said. The bigger message from this was the downstream effect it could have on the wool industry: “If New Zealanders choose to go with our beanie instead of an imported synthetic one, then we can buy more wool from New Zealand farmers because we buy wool directly from farmers through our wool integrity programme in partnership with PGG Wrightson. “We get that wool spun, it comes back as yarn and we make it here, so if more people buy our stuff, then we’ll buy more wool and we can pay the farmers a little bit more, we can employ more people at Norsewood and that’s good – and we have a better product out there for consumers.” NZR did not respond to a request for comment. View the letter here.