Sustainability Meets Luxury: A Founder’s Ethical Mission in Wool Blankets

Hazel Park’s luxury blankets hearken back to simpler, slower times. “I’m not one to rush,” says Amy Sindorf. “I want to build something lasting with a strong foundation. Take your time and good things will come when they’re meant to.” | Photo: Emily Keeney

A good blanket gets used every day. Whether it’s tucking the kids in, snuggling up in front of a movie, or watching the campfire crackle on cold nights, they all have a story woven through their fibers. For Hazel Park’s blankets, that story is a quintessentially American one. Before the blankets find their home on someone’s bed, as a pop of color in a living room or as a textural element to cozy up a space, each one was wool on sheep in the Mountain West. Farmers sheared it, then craftspeople in the U.S. shaped it.

A few years ago, the blankets were an entrepreneurial dream. “I wanted to make timeless products that don’t go out of style, that are built to last a long time,” says founder Amy Sindorf. “I didn’t want to chase trends; I wanted to build classics. And I wanted to keep waste out of the stream.” So she set out to produce luxury blankets that are not only soft to the touch but also gentle on the land they come from.

Perfect for curling up with a book, this Handwoven wool blanket in green tan is soft and warm. On the windowsill behind it is a Hazel Park scented candle. | Photo: Emily Keeney

Sindorf’s dream for Hazel Park came from curiosity. “I’ve always been interested in how things are made, the ‘why’ of things,” she says. This fascination led her, via high school and college retail jobs, to a successful career in inventory management for a variety of major corporations, giving her an intimate understanding of the apparel and textile industries.

“The more I got into supply chains and how goods are made, often overseas, I realized there’s a lot of waste that gets created,” says Sindorf. “I wanted to challenge that. So I decided to make something where everything was domestically produced, where I wasn’t importing anything. I wanted to do things differently, and I wanted to prove that it can be done.”

Amy Sindorf is the creative mastermind behind Hazel Park’s all-American products. | Photo: Sean Dutton

She embarked on building her company from the ground up in 2022, guided by sustainability and ethical business practices. Only a few years later, Hazel Park produces some of the finest blankets available in the U.S. The Sig­­nature wool blanket, for example, is made from superfine 18.5-micron wool. “The finer the wool, the tighter the weave,” says Sindorf.

“So the blanket’s a lot softer and also a lot warmer and more durable.” The wool is sourced from producers in the Rockies, and the blankets are made in Connecticut. Most producers of textile products use separate facilities for each step of the process, shipping their products far and wide during development—but Sindorf prioritizes artisans who do everything in one location. “The raw material comes in one door, and the blanket leaves out the other,” which cuts down on emissions and carbon footprints considerably.

The natural, undyed wool for Hazel Park’s beige-and-gray Handwoven wool blankets comes from small family farms in Wyoming, sourced via Mountain Meadow Wool. | Photo: Courtesy Mountain Meadow Wool

Hazel Park also produces an even higher-quality blanket: the Handwoven wool blanket. For this product line, Sindorf teamed up with a talented weaver in Asheville, North Carolina. Made from wool sourced from small-scale sheep farmers in Wyoming, each one is handwoven using a traditional loom.

When a Hazel Park blanket arrives in the mail, it’s wrapped in recycled glassine paper that crinkles when you unpack it, “like when you buy a cookie and it comes in a wax paper bag,” says Sindorf. “Every time I ship a blanket it’s like a celebration. This is going to go out into the world, hopefully to make someone’s life better.”

Jars of wool from the American Woolen Company, which sources wool from farmers across America and turn it into Hazel Park’s Signature wool blankets. | Photo: Courtesy American Woolen Co

The Handwoven and Signature wool blankets, both on display here, are unmistakably Western. “A lot of home-décor brands tend to go on the light and airy side, but I wanted a more frosty, woodsy feel, with natural materials, darker colors,” says Sindorf. | Photo: Emily Keeney

Hazel Park’s luxurious Signature wool blanket is available in three colors to match the style of any space: Green Stripe, Tan, and Slate. | Photo Emily Keeney

Deanna Lynch, a talented weaver in Asheville, North Carolina, hand-weaves the Handwoven wool blankets. “She has this old wooden loom in her studio,” says Sindorf. “She ties every knot and trims every tassel.” | Photo: Deanna Lynch

Photo: Deanna Lynch