19 July 2022

Leader of the Pack

Rakahinonga. Entrepreneur.

writer: carly thomas

photographer: abbe hoare

The idea for bespoke wool luggage and accessories brand Honest Wolf was born from Sophie Hurley’s desire to create something from right where she is, on the family farm. Despite living thirty minutes outside of Hunterville in Rangitīkei, Sophie knew she could have both a meaningful career and quality time with her family – and now she’s bringing those same opportunities to other local women.

photos-for-jean-shepherdess-magazine-honest-wolf-winter-2022-13

Harry Hurley takes his mum’s hand with his little one. His mum, Sophie, shrugs, smiles down at him and lets herself get pulled out to the garden. Sophie’s business, Honest Wolf, fits in with her husband Sam’s role running their third-generation farm, Papanui Estate, and works around two-year-old Harry – which means that trampoline breaks slot into the daily flow. This is life, deep in the hills of the Turakina Valley, where neighbours are few and far.

“Harry is just amongst everything that we do here. I can fit things around him, and with another baby on the way, that’s going to be even more important,” says Sophie, 31. “We have lots of ideas for growing the business, but we’re keeping it at a realistically manageable size for now. Sam is a big part of Honest Wolf, too. I mean, he’s always going to be farming, but I think using the wool in this way just adds another dimension and more meaning into what he’s doing.”

"It's been a challenge for women who have started these amazing careers - and then the career doesn't have the opportunity to grow as you hoped because of the location - to not let isolation be a barrier to career goals that you might have."

Originally from Wānaka, Sophie moved north after marrying Sam, 31, four years ago. The hills stretching to the horizon took a bit of getting used to. "It's pretty far from anywhere out here," she says. Initially, Sophie worked in Feilding, over an hour's commute away, but after a while it became a grind. "I felt like I didn't really live here, like I wasn't a part of things. It was unsustainable, and I wanted something that wouldn't take me off the farm but would also help me to stay connected to my career in marketing and sales. I didn't want to lose that part of myself. With the ways of the world now, and the internet, there are ways to get around your location. No matter where you are, there are all these amazing businesses."

Sophie gets some work done on her laptop while Harry plays at her feet.

Harry helping Sophie wrap Honest Wolf bags for shipping.

Looking to get more value from the high-quality ewe clip wool from their 3,300 hectare property, and wanting to make something "sustainable and durable" to replace single-use plastic bags, Sophie and Sam came up with Honest Wolf. The name and lupine logo came first. "It seems like a little thing, but it was a fun place to start and it gave us a focus," Sophie says. The designs then followed.

Their initial hurdle was figuring out how to even get the bags made. New Zealand, says Sophie, is not set up to support the production of bags made from wool. "The opportunities are just not here. We realised early on that we would have to figure it out for ourselves. There weren't answers to all the production questions that we had."

Help came from an agent in New Delhi, who helped them find a workable solution to getting their designs made abroad. The first sample to come back from the production house in India was, Sophie admits with a laugh, terrible. It took a lot of toing and froing through international post with the help of Mark, their friendly rural postie. "We're actually really lucky where we are, we've got the mail arriving every day, which isn't very common in rural areas anymore," Sophie says. "If they weren't there, I would have to drive into Hunterville each day to go to the post shop."

Sophie and Sam eventually created seven different bag and luggage designs. The "Casual Shopper" in particular sports a classic look not dictated by fast fashion, with added durability so it can go the extra country mile. That durability is something Sophie personally knows is essential when living in the back of beyond - being over an hour from the nearest supermarket, she's no stranger to the big weekly shop. "It's something that you do rurally, isn't it? It's such a mission remembering everything and then getting it all home. Our shopping bag is huge for a reason."

When the Honest Wolf website first went live in June 2020, Sophie says the response was amazing. "We didn't really know how many to get made so I think we got one hundred in each design. We actually sold out really quickly and for the first few weeks we were up till midnight every night packing orders. I think because people were relating to the wool story - we aren't the only ones struggling with the wool prices - people were jumping on board and supporting us. It was so great."

Harry got involved, too. "So helpful, as you can imagine. He's an Honest Wolf baby, that's for sure. Harry was three months old when we launched, so that was pretty hectic. We had a lot of support from family and from the wider community. There has to be that balance of being home with my family and work, and so everyone just gets involved. Sam and I were having to learn all of this as we went along," Sophie says.

"With the product currently up in Auckland getting packaged, we've missed that connection of seeing our orders go out every day," Sophie says.

But right now, rather than sticking around to help Sophie, Harry is ditching his mum for Rosie Suyker, who lives down the hill with her partner, stock manager Morris Prebble. She helps Sophie with customer enquiries and the day-to-day admin of Honest Wolf, plus a bit of Harry-wrangling on the side, which lets Sophie focus on growing the business. "Rosie is awesome," says Sophie as they march off hand-in-hand to Rosie's house for lunch. "She lives a couple hundred metres down the road. It's perfect for her because we live really remotely, so having job opportunities in the area without driving for hours is quite difficult."

Although distribution is currently based solely in Auckland, Sophie hints at plans to open an outlet closer to home. "We've rented a building on State Highway 1 and it's going to be our second distribution centre, and we're going to open up a retail shop there as well."

Alongside Sam, Sophie wants to look after the land for future generations. The colours of the bags mirror the hills that roll and rise all around the Hurleys' home, and the linings are printed with a map of the farm, with paddock names - The Burn, Top Roughs, Greenies - adding an authentic rural touch. They are what surround Sophie; they are the open spaces she explores with Harry; they reflect the land Sam grew up on. "We all do what we can when we are here. The generations before us have done the same in their own way. Sam and I love that the wool is coming full circle."

It all goes to show the Honest Wolf name isn't just a label. It's a way of life, and Sophie is committed to creating opportunities for others right on her home turf. "Rosie's working for me doing Honest Wolf and will be working at our new shop distributing orders and running the store day to day. It's having something to offer that women who live all the way out here, like Rosie, can get involved in as well - making the business as much a part of the community as we can," she says. "We want to create jobs right here. Isolation isn't a barrier for women who want to grow their careers."