Written by: Kayla Blandford

Fashion history explains that the very first use of hemp was for fabric and textiles. One of mankind’s oldest cultivated crops started the fashion industry with weaving hemp into fabric and threads, dating back to 10,000 years ago. Up until cannabis prohibition in 1937, hemp was the most versatile and commonly used fabric that was praised for it’s unique qualities in comparison to all other fabrics. Satori Movement, a skate lifestyle brand based out of California embraces the benefits of natural fibers such as hemp and bamboo to produce their men and women’s line.

For oven ten years Satori Movement has a strong focus on environmentally friendly products. In comparison to widely available cotton, hemp is much warmer, bleached whiter, feels softer, is more durable and stronger, takes better colour, can be spun on cotton machinery with less waste, and is four times more absorbent than cotton. Hemp is able to produce two or three times more fiber than cotton or flax at 1000 pounds of hemp fiber per acre of land. It is also environmentally the safest, because it uses less irrigation, fertilizer, and phetrochemical pesticides, considering in the U.S 50% of all agricultural pesticides are used on growing just cotton.

It is very illogical as to why in 1937 it became illegal to use the most valuable resource on earth, unfortunately one word describes it perfectly: profit. As a team, U.S Drug Commissioner Harry Ansligner, William Randolph Hearst of Heart Newspapers, and Dupont who patent their own synthetic fiber, nylon, all set out to make more money for themselves. In their own industries, the only possible way to make more profit was to eliminate the greatest competition, hemp. This involved horrible fake propaganda to scare and confuse people, making innocent people into criminals, and creating a synthetic fiber to destroy hemp in fashion industry.

Satori Movement provides sustainable garments by going natural, for hemp, bamboo, and organic cotton, and all will outlast the lifespan of man made synthetic fibers, because new clothing isn’t created to last. Especially pieces of the mass-produced synthetic variety because the more you spend, the more of a profit is made.

Not only is the company environmentally conscious and raising awareness on positive progressive change, but the aesthetics and visual appeal of the styles prove that hemp does not carry the stereotype of rough burlap. There is much versatility from just one plant to create the clothing. Prohibition is expensive, and fearless fashion leaders at Satori Movement are working against it to use hemp as the powerful resource it is fully intended to be.