Let’s have a totally honest conversation for a minute. If you’re anything like me, you probably spent most of your life buying clothes based on two simple things: how they look and how they fit. For years, I never really looked at the tags. I just assumed that if a shirt was soft, it was fine.
But a few years ago, I started looking into how our clothes are actually made, and honestly? I was pretty horrified by what I found. The fashion industry has some dirty secrets, and once you see them, you can’t unsee them.
Here at Dash Hemp, we decided we didn’t want to just make clothes; we wanted to make clothes that we could actually feel good about wearing. We want to leave this planet in better shape than we found it. To do that, we had to take a hard look at the fabrics we wrap ourselves in every single day.
Let’s Talk About Plastic (Yes, Your Clothes Are Probably Plastic)
The biggest villain in modern fashion isn’t necessarily a plant—it’s petroleum. For decades, brands have been churning out cheap clothing made from synthetics like polyester.
Polyester is literally plastic. Every single time you toss a polyester fleece or tee into the washing machine, it sheds hundreds of thousands of microscopic plastic fibers. Those microplastics bypass water treatment plants, flow directly into our oceans, and eventually make their way into our food and drinking water.
And look, I hate to burst the bubble on “recycled polyester,” but we have to call it out. Taking a plastic water bottle and turning it into a t-shirt sounds like a great recycling story, but it still sheds those exact same microplastics into the ocean. We aren’t solving the problem; we’re just delaying it. We knew we had to get plastic out of our closets.
The “Viscose Hemp” Trap (Beware of Greenwashing)
When we started looking for natural alternatives, hemp was the obvious answer. But the fashion industry is sneaky. You might see “hemp” on a clothing tag and assume you’re making an eco-friendly choice. But you have to watch out for something called Viscose Hemp.
Viscose (which is essentially rayon) is a manufacturing process. Some factories will take a beautiful, natural hemp plant and absolutely blast it with a toxic soup of harsh chemicals—like carbon disulfide and sulfuric acid—just to melt the plant pulp down into a synthetic-like fiber. This chemically intensive process often pollutes the air and water around the factories. What is the point of using a miracle plant if you’re going to destroy the environment to process it? We refuse to touch viscose. We only use natural, mechanically processed hemp.
A Quick Confession About Cotton (Because We Actually Love It)
Now, I need to clear something up, because if you look at our tags, you’ll see that we do use cotton in our incredibly comfortable tees and hoodies. We don’t hate cotton. It’s a wonderful, breathable, natural fiber.
What we do hate is how conventional cotton is farmed. Mass-produced, conventional cotton is a massive water hog. It takes about 2,700 liters of water just to grow enough conventional cotton for a single t-shirt. To keep up with demand, factory farms drain local lakes and underground aquifers in areas where water is already scarce. Plus, they dump synthetic pesticides all over the soil. (If you want to read more about the water crisis caused by conventional farming, the World Wildlife Fund has some eye-opening research).
Because we refuse to contribute to that, we made a strict rule for ourselves: when we use cotton, it has to be Organic Cotton. Organic cotton is grown without those toxic pesticides, and it relies much more heavily on natural rainfall rather than destructive irrigation.
Hemp: The Plant That Actually Heals the Earth
While we love organic cotton, Hemp is our absolute hero. When you really look at what this plant can do, it almost sounds like science fiction.
First, let’s talk about water. Hemp requires a fraction of the water to produce the exact same amount of fiber as conventional crops. It has this incredible, aggressive taproot system that reaches deep down into the earth to find water that shallow-rooted plants just can’t reach. It’s a tough, resilient survivor.
But here is the part that completely blew my mind when I first learned about it. Hemp doesn’t just take less from the soil; it actively gives back and cleans the earth. It has a hidden talent called phytoremediation.
Basically, hemp acts like a giant, natural vacuum cleaner for toxic soil. When it is planted in areas devastated by industrial spills, heavy metals, or chemical waste, the roots absorb those harmful toxins right out of the ground. After the catastrophic nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl in 1986, scientists actually planted fields of hemp around the disaster site specifically to pull radioactive elements out of the soil. (Seriously, check out this fascinating article from Rolling Stone about hemp’s use in Chernobyl if you want your mind blown).
Try asking a conventional cotton plant or a polyester factory to heal radioactive soil! Hemp is simply in a league of its own.
Our Secret Recipe: Always Chief Value Hemp
We know you want clothes that are durable and eco-friendly, but we also know you want them to feel incredibly soft and have the perfect drape.
That’s why we blend. But we do it our way.
We take our durable, natural hemp and blend it with Organic Cotton or sustainably sourced Tencel (an amazing, eco-friendly alternative to toxic rayon).
Here is our ironclad promise to you: no matter the blend, hemp is always the star of the show. Every single one of our signature styles features hemp as the chief value. That means your Dash Hemp garment will always be made of at least 55% Hemp.
By keeping hemp at 55% or higher, and carefully blending it with clean additions like Tencel or Organic Cotton, we get to give you the absolute best of both worlds: the soil-healing, water-saving superhero benefits of hemp, paired with the luxurious, everyday comfort you actually want to live in.
Let’s Change the Way We Dress
Look, I know that one t-shirt isn’t going to save the world overnight. But every single time you choose a Dash Hemp garment over a cheap polyester shirt or a toxic viscose blend, you are making a real, tangible choice. You are voting with your wallet. You are saying “no” to microplastics and chemical runoff, and “yes” to sustainable agriculture that works with nature.
Take a look around at our latest eco-friendly collections at Dash Hemp. Feel the difference of true, chief-value hemp for yourself. Let’s start healing this beautiful planet together—one incredibly comfortable shirt at a time.
From one Dash to another–good job. Ordering today.
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