Synthetics have been part of the outdoor world for decades, and for good reason: performance. Nylon pants and jackets are designed to keep you warm and protected, while polyester fleece helps insulate and regulate your body temperature, especially in bone-chilling temperatures.
But synthetic isn’t the only way to get serious performance out of a garment. For our current fall/winter offering, we’ve revisited a fabric we’ve been using since the ’90s for its durability, breathability, and antimicrobial properties: hemp.
Hemp is a high-yield crop, meaning it’s relatively easy to grow in a wide range of climates. It’s also a lower-impact fiber—and, historically, it was probably used for spiritual ascension about as often as it was for mountain ascension, usually somewhere in the back of a few VW buses.
A Fiber With a Past
Hemp is one of the strongest natural plant fibers, with durability that can outlast cotton by as much as eight times. Its fibers also naturally resist mold and mildew when exposed to moisture, making hemp well suited to life around water. There’s a reason it found its way into nautical applications, from sails to heavy-duty rigging rope.
But hemp’s story took a detour during the 20th century, when drug laws lumped industrial hemp together with marijuana, despite the two being very different things. By the early ’90s, clothing companies began bringing hemp back from Asia and Europe, often blending it with organic cotton and recycled polyester. Those same types of blends can be found across several of our SKUs today.
For this season, we’re bringing our hemp-focused pants back in two styles: the Hemp Canvas Double Knee Pant and the Hemp Relaxed Pant. They’re equally at home whether you’re knee-deep in dirt planting more hemp or scaling a wall, although we’d recommend wearing pants either way.
Low-Impact by Design
The whole point of incorporating hemp into clothing is to make a garment that lasts for the long haul while taking a more thoughtful approach to materials. Hemp generally requires far less water than cotton to grow, absorbs carbon dioxide as it grows, and is biodegradable under the right conditions.
That said, neither of our pants is 100 percent hemp. We’ve added 15 percent hemp to the Double Knee Pant, while the Relaxed Pant uses a 55/45 hemp-cotton twill blend. After all, you’re not wearing a houseplant. You’re wearing pants. We wanted to capture the benefits of hemp without overhauling the fit, feel, and function you already know.
The Handfeel
If you’ve heard that hemp is synonymous with scratchy, rough fabric, our blends might change your mind. By mixing hemp with cotton, we’ve softened the handfeel while keeping some of the distinctive character that makes the fiber interesting.
Both of our hemp-forward pants have a subtle, visible graininess created by the yarn itself, giving the fabric a little more depth and texture. That character becomes even more pronounced over time, as the pants are worn, washed, and generally put through their paces.
We offer plenty of flavors across our pigment-dyed and relaxed pants, and these two remain customer favorites for a reason: they’re built to perform outdoors while fitting naturally into everyday life.
Two Takes On Hemp
Hemp Canvas Double Knee Pant
80% Cotton / 15% Hemp
Midweight canvas with reinforced double knees and four pockets — built for a day of kneeling, crawling, or whatever else the field throws at you.
Hemp Relaxed Pant
55% Hemp / 45% Cotton
A relaxed, wide-leg twill with an integrated belt and diamond gusset — more hemp in the blend, so the fabric does most of the talking.
Hemp Blend Dye Socks
These socks are made with a blend of cotton & hemp, adding toughness while resisting bacteria and mildew.
Hemp Blend Stripe Socks
Show your feet the power of plants and some brightly colored fun with our Hemp Blend Stripe Socks
