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Despite supply chain shortages during the pandemic, demand for hemp clothing is rising – and there’s a growing movement to increase cultivation of the eco-friendly crop stateside.

Zafer Estill was one of the few people ready to usher in the era of hemp fiber – four years before the 2018 Farm Bill legalized the crop to be cultivated commercially in the U.S. His adventurous spirit, passion for fashion and for making the Earth greener prompted Zafer, a recent high-school graduate from the small town of Pittsboro, NC, to start sustainable hemp clothing company Hempsmith.

In 2016, before he could see his company move out of the startup phase, Zafer Estill passed at the age of 19. But his younger brother, Arlo, kept his mission alive, taking over the company when he was just 17.

While studying textiles and eventually graduating in 2020 from North Carolina State University – the No. 1 college in the Southeast for entrepreneurship programs – Arlo built Hempsmith’s storefront. The brand now reaches a national audience and is thriving in Pittsboro where employees screen print and tie-dye outsourced blank hemp clothing. With a large target audience of “fresh out of college” young adults, the brand showcases how younger generations highly value sustainable retailers.

Sustainable hemp clothing brand, Hempsmith, supplies custom-dyed and branded apparel like this Indigo Tie Dye Tool Tee. (Courtesy of Hempsmithclothing.com)

“We’re here to be a real-world example, demonstrate this new way of being and show how this new material could really help change the world,” says Arlo Estill, CEO of Hempsmith.

Demand for hemp fiber, celebrated for its sustainable and antimicrobial properties, had been on the rise in recent years, both in promo and beyond. Stressors from COVID-19 put a damper on production – a global shortage of hemp yarn during the pandemic left many in the lurch for a few months, promo suppliers say. Once the shortage was over, however, demand picked up where it left off and the hemp revolution that Zafer and other farmers predicted nearly a decade ago is burgeoning.

“What we’re finding with the hemp shirts is it’s almost like an industrial revolution,” said Glen Brumer, sales director of Hauppage, NY-based supplier Royal Apparel (asi/83731), which counts organic hemp tees among its offerings. “As the cannabis and CBD companies have emerged, where years ago they didn’t really exist, there’s this whole new industry. There are trade shows for it and there are all kinds of products with CBD, connecting to a bunch of industries.”

The global hemp fiber market was valued at $4.46 billion in 2021, according to a report from Verified Market Research, and it’s projected to reach $43.75 billion by 2030, with a 33% growth rate from 2022 to 2030. The market research firm predicts that hemp will outpace cotton in the next few years “for economic, toxin-free and high-yielding reasons.”

A report from Global Market Estimates echoed those findings, noting that North America is expected to see the highest growth in hemp over the next few years, with high penetration in the textile industry due to hemp’s “availability and production feasibility properties.”

Royal Apparel (asi/83731) offers this women’s viscose hemp organic cotton V-neck (64030).

“The market for hemp-derived products is increasingly wide as people become more well-versed in the benefits of hemp cultivation and the multitude of uses for hemp,” says Kriya Stevens, director of econscious (asi/51656), a supplier that makes sustainable and eco-friendly apparel, including its “Hemp Hero” hoodies.

She also suggests that increased awareness among consumers about the benefits of industrial hemp, and the expansion of legislation to cultivate the plant in the U.S. has driven the market for industrial hemp.

This “Hemp Hero” hoodie (EC5950,) from econscious (asi/51656) is so named for hemp’s impressive and sustainable qualities.

The movement to legalize marijuana, for both medical and recreational use, has also had “the interesting side effect” of making its cousin hemp less taboo as well, Stevens says. Legal marijuana sales are expected to reach $33 billion this year, with 37 states and Washington, D.C. allowing medical marijuana, and 18 states – plus D.C. – legalizing cannabis for recreational use so far.

Dispensaries are an obvious choice for promo apparel made from hemp, but Brumer and Stevens both say the market is much wider than that. Personal care companies, natural food brands and the music industry are among those eager to put their logo on hemp clothing.

Hemp fiber has a variety of unique, eco-friendly qualities. It absorbs more carbon than it produces, grows tall quickly and doesn’t require herbicides or pesticides to flourish. Compared to cotton, hemp fiber is simpler and more efficient to produce. The fiber is highly popular for T-shirts because it’s resistant to wear and tear, and less susceptible to shrinkage than cotton T-shirts according to Hemp Info Guide.

Though it’s naturally a rougher material, newer processing technology and the ability to blend hemp with other organic materials has given it a better hand-feel and made it suitable for clothing.

“The steady transition to hemp in clothes is going to take a little bit of getting the consumer base aware to the fact that it can be super soft, super eco-friendly … and that it’s so much better than some other plant-based textiles,” says Alexandra Ketterling, product manager for Expert Brand (asi/53404), a California-based supplier of performance and lifestyle apparel that launched a line of hemp clothing a few years ago.

This mid-crop tee is part of Expert Brand’s (asi/53404) hemp collection.

Arlo Estill hopes that introducing this new material to the market could even help displace petroleum.

“Because synthetic textiles and fibers are no good, and microplastics are filling the ocean because they don’t degrade, we need to switch it up big time,” Estill says. “Hemp’s going to play a big role in mitigating the climate crisis as well, because it grows so quickly and can sequester carbon.”

Despite the passage of the Farm Bill, domestic cultivation of hemp hasn’t yet become widespread. “One of the challenges with the product is the supply chain,” says Sion Shaman, president of Expert Brand. “As the product becomes more popular, the supply chain will pay more attention to it.”

The majority of brands producing hemp apparel source either their fabrics, yarn, fibers or blanks from overseas suppliers, like the China-based Hemp Forex. California-based outdoor-apparel company, Patagonia, and the state of Colorado are hoping to change that by bringing together farmers, machinery manufacturers, textile producers and hemp researchers.

Patagonia, which has long sourced its hemp from Hemp Forex, launched a project called Bring Hemp Home. Jason Gonzales, Patagonia’s marketing director, told Hemp Industry Daily last year that the project has two goals: to elevate awareness around industrial hemp and increase the amount of hemp being grown in the U.S.

Even smaller hemp apparel businesses like Hempsmith have a larger goal to bring hemp home.

“There’s going to be a day when our clothing is made right down the road, and we’re sourcing fiber from a farmer that’s right down the road, and it’ll all be hyperlocal clothing,” says Estill, who plans to do just that by creating a domestically sourced hemp T-shirt. “That’s our mission: to spark the restorative economy and bring hemp home. Bring it back to Carolina.”

Still, agricultural experts caution that it could take years for the U.S. hemp market to mature and stabilize, according to Pew Charitable Trusts. But the support of companies in promo and beyond along with continued customer education could help this process be easier and quicker.

“We all know that the clothing market is one of the most polluting in the world,” Shaman says. “I think hemp is a natural product that can fight some of that pollution, but it’s going to take a lot of people to come in. … From the fiber producers, yarn producers, knitters, dyer finishers, manufacturers, designers, developers, all of these people have to come together and build the supply chain.”

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