by Karen Fischer on
BE WARNED: Once you start to parse through ECO Wear and Publishing’s ball cap selection, it’s hard to choose just one design. There are hats adorned with embroidered bison, coyotes, rattlesnakes, and prickly pear cactus blooms. But the most popular design is distinctly New Mexican—the roadrunner.
“It’s just perfect,” says Sheri Ashley, who co-owns ECO Wear with her husband, Bob. “People love them.”
Opened in 2000, ECO Wear relocated from Michigan to Rodeo in 2009. Bob and Sheri married with a shared passion for amphibians and the pet trade. At first, ECO Wear’s hat and T-shirt designs were informed by creepy-crawlies, but now, they’re focused on the panorama of wildlife that largely lives in the American West. They also publish field guides and kids’ books that teach youngsters about animal behavior and environmental stewardship.
“We don’t do dogs and cats,” she says, “because a lot of companies do that.” Each hat comes with an interpretive tag about the species stitched on the front. The designs are commissioned from the Ashleys’ stable of artist colleagues and friends. Over time, the caps drew the attention of major national park gift shops, including Grand Canyon, Zion, Yellowstone, and Denali national parks.
In New Mexico, ECO’s pieces can be found at El Malpais and El Morro national monuments, as well as the Rattlesnake Museum, in Albuquerque, the Santa Fe Botanical Garden, and the Chiricahua Desert Museum, in Rodeo, which the Ashleys opened in 2009. “This is a pretty amazing place to live,” she says.