NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 14, 2025--
Grindr, the Global Gayborhood in your pocket known for sparking connections worldwide, is bringing its mission to life in an entirely new way: uniting a farm of gay sheep, a legendary designer, and the shared belief in the power of community. In its latest bold move, Grindr has brought together Rainbow Wool, a nonprofit organization and farm that rescues gay sheep, with acclaimed artist and designer Michael Schmidt to debut the world’s first truly gay fashion collection.
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'I Wool Survive' Look 34, DTF Driver
'I Wool Survive' Look 33, Pizza Delivery Guy
'I Wool Survive' Look 32, Wrestler
'I Wool Survive' Look 22, Cowboy
'I Wool Survive' Look 5, Sailor
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This unexpected collaboration showcases what can happen when communities connect. Across worlds, borders, languages, and in-app chats, Grindr brought together Rainbow Wool’s powerful story with Schmidt’s iconic artistry to celebrate the resilience and creativity that define gay culture.
“At Grindr, connection has always been our core,” said Tristan Pineiro, SVP of Marketing & Communications at Grindr. “Rainbow Wool’s story mirrors the experience of so many LGBTQ+ people, cast aside for being different, yet thriving through community. Together, we’re proving that connection can transform exclusion into celebratory expression.”
With Michael Schmidt, whose designs have been worn by icons like Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, and Cher, at the helm, I Wool Survive is a collection that brings gay history and archetypes to life through 36 handcrafted looks spun entirely from Rainbow Wool yarn. From Leathermen to Daddies, Sailors to Firefighters, each piece reimagines gay identity through artistry, humor, and pride.
“It’s been a pleasure to create this light-hearted collection of pieces that also address a very serious topic,” said Schmidt. “The mistreatment of animals that exhibit same-sex attraction is a painful reminder of the prejudice that continues to affect LGBT communities worldwide. Hopefully, by illustrating that homosexuality exists throughout the animal kingdom, we can help put to bed the false and damaging notion that being gay is a choice.”
The Grindr I Wool Survive runway show, A Michael Schmidt Collection, will debut in New York City on Thursday, November 13, 2025, at The Altman Building (135 W 18th St), followed by an after-party at The Eagle NYC (554 W 28th St).
Beyond the runway, Grindr will continue to support Rainbow Wool’s mission throughout 2026, spreading the message that connection, in all forms, can change everything. Select pieces from the I Wool Survive collection will be available for auction, supporting LGBTQ+ initiatives worldwide.
“Scientific studies have shown that around one in twelve rams naturally prefer other males, and while many of these animals are typically sent to slaughter, our farm offers them a different fate,” said farm owner and shepherd, Michael Stücke. “This collaboration with Grindr proves that being gay is part of nature itself, and I’m proud our sheep can help people see love and diversity in a new way. The wool from these rams isn’t just material, it’s a message spun from animals who live freely and are loved.”
ABOUT RAINBOW WOOL
Rainbow Wool is a German social-impact brand founded on a sheep farm near Cologne. Created in collaboration with shepherd Michael Stücke, it produces the world’s first textile made from the wool of gay rams – saving them from slaughter and turning their wool into a symbol of equality and acceptance.
Rainbow Wool actively seeks collaborations with fashion, design, and lifestyle brands, turning creativity into activism and raising awareness and funds for LGBTQIA+ rights worldwide. The creative concept for Rainbow Wool was developed by Serviceplan Cologne.
Learn more at https://rainbow-wool.com/
ABOUT MICHAEL SCHMIDT
Schmidt is a clothing and jewelry designer who has garnered renown for his work in a variety of innovative materials. Known for creating elegant work with a rock and roll flair, his list of clients includes Beyoncé, Madonna, Cher, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Sabrina Carpenter, Mariah Carey, Shakira, Britney Spears, Dita Von Teese, Katy Perry, Daphne Guinness, Tina Turner, Lenny Kravitz, Lil Nas X, and many others. Since 2001, he has designed an exclusive collection of jewelry, bags, clothing, and furniture for the luxury goods firm Chrome Hearts. Michael’s work is part of the permanent collections in many museums, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY), The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum (Cleveland), LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art), and the Swarovski Museum (Wattens, Austria).
ABOUT GRINDR
With more than 15 million average monthly active users, Grindr (NYSE: GRND) has grown to become the Global Gayborhood in Your Pocket™, on a mission to make a world where the lives of our global community are free, equal, and just. Available in 190 countries and territories, Grindr is often the primary way for our users to connect, express themselves, and discover the world around them. Since 2015, Grindr for Equality has advanced human rights, health, and safety for millions of LGBTQ+ people in partnership with organizations in every region of the world. Grindr has offices in West Hollywood, the Bay Area, Chicago, and New York. The Grindr app is available on the App Store and Google Play.
'I Wool Survive' Look 34, DTF Driver
'I Wool Survive' Look 33, Pizza Delivery Guy
'I Wool Survive' Look 32, Wrestler
'I Wool Survive' Look 22, Cowboy
'I Wool Survive' Look 5, Sailor
NEW YORK (AP) — Global leaders have been scrambling to contain the rising cost of oil and gasoline since the start of the Iran war, which took a record amount of oil off the market when tankers full of crude were stranded in the Persian Gulf and military strikes damaged refineries, pipelines and export terminals.
Hoping to ease some pain for consumers, President Donald Trump and other heads of state have been pulling on various levers, launching more oil on the market in a bid to calm the chaos.
A group of 32 nations that are members of the International Energy Agency began releasing the largest volume of emergency oil reserves in its history: 400 million barrels. Trump is tapping into oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve while lifting sanctions on Russian and Iranian crude and temporarily waiving the Jones Act, a maritime law that requires ships carrying goods between U.S. ports to be U.S.-flagged.
But despite those maneuvers, crude oil surpassed $100 a barrel and gasoline is selling for $4.06 a gallon on average in the U.S. While the stopgaps are helping, they're not adding up to enough oil to replace what's stranded, experts say.
“They're all incremental,” said Mark Barteau, professor of chemical engineering and chemistry at Texas A&M University. "You’re talking about these different patches being at the level of maybe 1 to 2 million barrels a day each, and you’ve got to get to 20, so it’s hard to see those actually adding up to the numbers that are needed. And then the question is, how long can you sustain those?”
Before the war began, roughly 15 million barrels of crude oil and 5 million barrels of oil products passed daily through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, amounting to about 20% of global oil consumption, according to the International Energy Agency.
In addition to that loss, some oil producing nations in the Middle East have halted oil production because they can't ship fuel out of the Gulf and their storage tanks are full. That's taken about 10 million more barrels per day off the market, the IEA said.
Then there are the eight countries around the Persian Gulf that together hold about 50% of global oil reserves. Under normal circumstances, they coordinate closely to raise or lower their output to keep prices steady, said Jim Krane, energy research fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute. Usually Saudi Arabia steps in to bring spare oil to market and calm things down, he said.
“But all of that spare capacity is also bottled up inside the Persian Gulf right now and it can’t get to market either,” Krane said. “So the main emergency response system that we have is also blocked.”
The IEA said in its recent report that “the resumption of transit through the Strait of Hormuz is the single most important action to return to stable oil and gas flows and reduce the strains on markets and prices.”
Barring that, world leaders are grasping for ways to free up more oil.
Some nations have found workarounds to move oil out of the Gulf. Saudi Arabia is using its East-West pipeline, which stretches from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea, to transfer about 5 million barrels per day out of the Gulf, said Michael Lynch, distinguished fellow at Energy Policy Research Foundation, a non-partisan institution focused on energy and economics. But the nation was already using that pipeline to transport oil, so it doesn’t have a lot of spare room to move oil from stranded tankers.
Trump also temporarily lifted sanctions on approximately 140 million barrels of Iranian oil that was already in transit. But that didn’t add oil to the market — it just widened the pool of potential buyers, said Daniel Sternoff, senior fellow at the Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy.
Typically, most Iranian oil was bought by private refiners in China, who purchased it at a steep discount, Sternoff said. But with sanctions lifted, others could scramble to buy the oil, which in turn raises its price to the benefit of Iran, he said.
“As soon as you are moving to waive sanctions on your adversary with whom you’re fighting a military conflict, to do something in their benefit, it just shows you that you are running out of options to try to prevent a rise in the price of oil,” Sternoff said.
The decision to lift sanctions on Russian oil could have more impact, because Russia had been storing unpurchased oil in tankers, Sternoff said. “By waiving sanctions, it will allow those barrels to clear.”
Trump’s temporary waiver of the Jones Act to allow foreign ships to temporarily transport goods between U.S. ports could potentially help ease natural gas prices by enabling companies to more efficiently ship liquefied natural gas from the Gulf Coast to New England.
But experts don’t expect the waiver to significantly impact the price of oil or gasoline. “It’s helpful, but not a game changer,” Lynch said.
The U.S. is a major oil producer, and exports more oil than it imports. But like any other oil producing nation, it can't just ramp up production instantly to fill the void.
“If the U.S. were to try to make up the global shortfall, we would need to nearly double our production,” Barteau said. “We couldn’t drill wells that fast even if we wanted to.”
Increasing domestic production by even 1 million barrels per day, a feat the U.S. accomplished during the shale boom, would be hard to duplicate, Lynch said.
“If we run every drilling rig right now, what happens a week from now when the war is over and the price goes back down $20?” Lynch asked. “People don’t want to develop long-term production based on a short-term price spike.”
Halting exports and using that oil within the U.S. wouldn't bring down gasoline prices either, experts say.
For one, oil is traded on a global market, so events happening halfway around the globe impact prices for everyone.
In addition, the U.S. doesn't produce enough of the type of oil its refineries process. It produced about 13.7 million barrels per day of oil at the end of 2025, according to the Energy Information Administration. And refineries processed about 16.3 million barrels per day that year, relying on imports to fill in the gaps, according to the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), a trade association.
That's because nearly 70% of U.S. refineries are set up to process heavy, sour crude, according to AFPM. But much of the oil produced in the U.S. is light, sweet crude, which was unlocked during the shale revolution.
“They need different crudes than the ones that are being produced right next to them now,” Krane said.
As a result, just 60% of the crude oil processed in U.S. refineries is extracted domestically, according to the AFPM. And retooling domestic refineries would cost billions of dollars, the group said. It also would require shutting down the refinery for a period of time, which generally raises gasoline prices.
“A lot of people like the IEA are making the point that this is the biggest oil crisis ever, which is partly true, partly an exaggeration, depending on how you count things,” Lynch said. “A lot of it has to do with how long does this last ... if it goes on for another six weeks we get to be in some serious trouble.”
A sign shows the price of gas at a store, Tuesday, March 31, 2026, in Freeport, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
The sun has set behind a gas station in Frankfurt, Germany, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
A worker collects engine oil as he works at a degassing station in Zubair oil field, whose operations have being reduced due to the Mideast war triggered by the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, near Basra, Iraq, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Gas prices are displayed at a Chevron gas station, in downtown Los Angeles, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
