Hemp t-shirts - conscious consumerism product review #1

Last year I didn't know a lot about industrial hemp and I don't think I was alone. My confusion ended when someone told me about hemp.

Not so long ago, I needed to print off some t-shirts for a project and I discovered that cotton was practically a chemical industry. My wardrobe of innocent looking t-shirts, some that I'd grown up with, used up to a third or half (depending on which statistic you site) of all pesticides/fertilzers on the market. Hemp, on the other hand, requires little to none.

I learned that hemp is a versatile plant that is used to make a lot of products, including textiles, food, paper, biofuel, building materials, and plastic. It is also ancient, legal, grown in Canada and incredibly beneficial for the environment.

I needed some t-shirts for a show that my theatre company was putting on, so I decided to give hemp t-shirts a try. I tried it on. It was a hemp/organic cotton blend shirt, and it took a couple minutes for my skin to get familiar with the new sensation of the fabric. After wearing it around for a day or so, I found it was really comfortable.

My next concern was printing. Could I print on a hemp t-shirt the same as I could a cotton t-shirt? The answer is simply, yes. It's no different. I ordered 24 t-shirts, had them printed and had no trouble re-selling them.