Hemp's Epic Journey

If you've been around a while, you've heard us talk about why we love hemp about a million and one times. But we can't stop, won't stop – because hemp is just that good. Growing it has a low environmental impact, the factory where we turn the hemp into clothes is as awesome as it gets, and hemp has superstar natural properties when it makes it into your clothes (like: naturally anti-stank and anti-static to name a couple). Here's a little peek into hemp's journey, from the field to your closet...and we gotta tell you, it's an epic journey (for an epic weed, naturally). 

How Hemp Is Grown

Growing hemp takes it waaay easier on the planet than many other fibers (looking at you, conventional cotton). It uses no pesticides, only requires water as a baby plant, grows quickly, and is phytoremediative – meaning it decontaminates soil by absorbing pollutants (yeah...we didn't know how to pronounce it either). 

Once the hemp is grown, it's kept as close to our fiber processing factory as possible (within about 30 miles) so the transportation footprint is kept low, too. 

And speaking of the factory...

Where We Make Our Hemp Clothes

We work with Hemp Fortex in China to produce our hemp clothing, and here are just a few of the reasons why we consider them to be a gold standard for factories:

  • Their main facilities (knitting, cutting, and dye house) all run on 100% solar power, and they're continuing to build more solar facilities (currently producing 10 million kilowatt hours per year). 
  • They're bluesign® certified, meaning their whole production process has the lowest possible impact on both people and the environment. And this isn't new for them...they've only used sustainable fabrics in their manufacturing process since day one.
  • They have progressive social initiatives. Hemp Fortex was the first member of the Fair Wear Foundation, and independent non-profit organization that works with factories to improve labor conditions for garment workers, and they also provide assistance to employees to help motivate home purchases. And in 2013, they founded Hemp Fortex Foundation, which aims to help those with physical disabilities be able to afford their medical bills and day-to-day living expenses. 

How We Get Hemp Clothes to You

Shipping can be a real downer for the planet, and we're always pushing ourselves to be better here. Right now when you hit "checkout" on our site, you have a few options for how your clothes will get to you:

  • Choose our "reusable shipping" option to get your clothes in a reusable LimeLoop shipper. Then just pop the provided return label on top, and drop the empty shipper back in the mail (easy, peasy). Don't see the reusable option? Don't worry – it just means we're fresh out of mailers at the moment, and we'll use our standard recycled (and recyclable) packaging. 
  • We're running a test of FSC-certified paper bags to replace those pesky polybags (yes, we all agree plastic polybags suck). If you get your clothes in one of them, we want your feedback as we're trying to expand this distribution quickly. 
  • If you do receive a plastic polybag, just know this: we're working on it and are fully breaking up with plastic by 2026. It's not easy, but it's necessary...and just another step on our journey to be as good the planet as we possibly can. 

Hemp...On Your Body

Hemp clothes are ahh-mazing for all of their inherent properties. Hemp is naturally:

  • anti-microbial and anti-bacterial (read: anti-stank)
  • moisture-absorbing
  • super breathable (warm in the winter and cool in the summer)
  • anti-static
  • UV radiation shielding (natural sun protection FTW, but we still recommend sunscreen)
  • soft and comfortable

Plus, we love to blend our hemp with other superstar eco fibers (like organic cotton and TENCEL™ Lyocell) to make even more soft, strong, epic clothes that take on different properties (like extra performance and softness). 

Shop Women's Hemp and Men's Hemp clothing to see what we mean. 

Have we made you a hemp superfan and you're ready for more? Here, we break down the difference between hemp, marijuana, and CBD. Happy hemp-ing.