While hemp startups in the USA seem rather contemporary, hemp has played an important role in the history of the USA. Cannabis used to be one of the most important crops in America and played an important role in its establishment and was widely used to make ropes and fabrics. It was one of the most cultivated crops in America during the 18th and 19th centuries. However, in the early 20th-century hemp was deemed illegal and banned in the USA, and the plantation or cultivation of hemp was strictly prohibited. The main reason behind hemp getting banned was its close relation to marijuana. Although hemp has innumerable benefits, it was deemed illegal for being derived from Cannabis Sativa. Also, banning hemp would pave the way for a lucrative future for industries such as paper, plastic, petroleum, natural gases, and fibers. This meant increased industrialization and more capital gains for big businessmen.
However, in the present times, the US and other major countries have realized that the ban on hemp to be unnecessary and rather harmful as it only made way to other alternatives such as plastic, petroleum, natural gas and so on. This led to the reduction of our natural resources, an increase in global warming, caused immense pollution and made this world a miserable place to live in.
Thus, after years of activism and advocacy for decriminalizing the cultivation of hemp, the ban on hemp has slowly started getting lenient. The Government has started realizing its usefulness and versatility. Also, research has proven that hemp has 0.3% THC (tetrahydrocannabinol – the psychoactive chemical found in cannabis), which is equal to nil. Hemp has immense benefits and can be used in several ways.
There are a number of hemp startups in the USA that have recognized this usefulness and are doing a great job in making eco-friendly products. Some of them are listed below:
1. Recreator: Based in Los Angeles, California Recreator is among the most talked-about hemp startups in the USA and has taken over the hemp fashion industry worldwide. The brand, rooted in 2013, had humble beginnings. However, things have changed now and it is currently one of the most popular clothing brands. The brand is known to produce spectacular custom merchandise.
All the apparels are made, designed, cut, sewn and printed in downtown L.A. The reason why Recreator chose hemp over any other fabric is that hemp fabrics are more breathable, comfortable, long-lasting, performs extremely well under different climates, and are perfect for everyday wear.
Recreator is one of the few companies that realized the pollution caused by the fashion industry and aimed to find an eco-friendly as well as a sustainable solution to it without compromising on the quality of the material. Hence, hemp is the ideal option for them.
Cheap and bulky cotton T-shirts are easily available in the market. This is why Recreator takes the other route which is to produce high-quality merch which is long-lasting and can be worn by anyone.
Also, they collaborate with popular musicians and artists to get wider exposure and recognition as a brand. They create amazing premium quality custom merchandise as well as hemp apparel for markets all over the world.
2. WAMA: WAMA is currently the most popular hemp startups in the USA and a renowned underwear brand in the US, known to provide quality hemp underwear. It provides an amazing variety of undies ranging from hipster to boxer briefs. The company works tirelessly to improve the function, fit and designs of their underwear.
They were one of the first brands to introduce hemp underwear in the market. This brand realizes the importance of creating comfortable, long-lasting and eco-friendly clothing. The reason why WAMA chose hemp over any other material is due to its sustainability, which is more than cotton or any other material.
Hemp fabric was chosen by the brand after studying all the fabrics rigorously. The key advantage which made this brand consider hemp over other materials is its antibacterial and antifungal properties.
Being an underwear company, WAMA is well aware of the fact that intimate areas carry the most amount of bacteria and odor. Thus, hemp undies keep this area safer and odor-free.
WAMA underwear is a vegan brand that is approved by PETA. This means that in the entire process of creating a WAMA underwear, not a single animal is hurt or killed. Apart from that, they are a Green America Certified business as well. This means that it is completely eco-friendly and are committed to creating a social change in the environment.
WAMA strongly believes that consumers deserve comfortable, hygienic, and sustainable underwear made of hemp, a natural and sustainable material. Also, it gives give you an exclusive discount of 20% on your first purchase
3. JUNGAVEN: This is a famous hemp brand which was born in Washington, America. It is known for its diverse range of products starting from clothing to accessories and so on. It was born out of sheer activism and went on to achieve social as well as commercial success.
Robert Jungaven, the founder of this brand was a student at Central Washington University. As a student, he was passionate about camping. As he camped to the Pacific Northwest woods the sight of the clear cut regions broke his heart and motivated him to do something for his place and the earth. Thus, he came across industrial hemp and learned about the ways it could combat deforestation.
After extensive research, he learned how trees take more time to grow and cutting them would do no good to the earth but would only create more and more problems. Cutting trees deprives us of oxygen and increases the carbon dioxide content in the air.
Hemp is easy to grow as it takes less time and is extremely eco-friendly. Also, it reduces air, water and, soil pollution. Thus, he knew that if there was anything that could help the environment right now, it was hemp.
The last step was to make hemp available to each and everyone. He started thinking of ways that could help him reach hemp to everyone and the easiest answer was a tee. This motivated him to start his clothing line.
He came up with his brand JUNGAVEN and started with his spectacular, comfortable and sustainable clothing line of tees, tops, shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, hats and much more. He also started off with an awareness program which is known as HEMP 2020
The brand JUNGAVEN has been striving to make a difference in the industry with its extensive range of products.
4. Franny’s Farmacy: Just like any ordinary farm, Franny’s Farmacy has goats, sheep, turkeys, chickens, and a donkey. She grows organic fruits and vegetables, has a flower garden and a separate bee garden to encourage pollination.
But what’s extraordinary about her farm is the fact that it’s the first hemp farm which is owned by a woman in the state of North Carolina. She became the first female hemp farmer in 2017 and since then she has continuously pushed the mantle.
Being the first hemp female farmer was not enough for her, she wanted to create a community of farmers who shared similar values and wanted to bring the best to their customers. It is important for Franny to make her products traceable from seeds to the shelf.
She made her dream come true by using hemp to produce CBD oil, known widely for its quality and purity. The entire team of Franny’s Farmacy is committed to reintroduce agricultural communities and products as well as exemplify exceptional teamwork proudly.
After rising to fame, many companies have started off with CBD oil business but not all companies are trustworthy when it comes to product quality. This brings us to two honest reasons why CBD oil from Franny’s Farmacy is trustworthy.
Firstly, Franny makes it a point to keep middlemen out of the business which means that the products go straight to the clients from the manufacturer. Also, the quality of the product is excellent and the price point is extremely reasonable. Secondly, she makes sure that the product is safe and natural so that her brand’s customers enjoy a nice regulated experience.
She works with reputed manufacturers who only work with inspected and certified farmers. Her goal is to touch the lives of more individuals with her products and create an impact on the environment.
5. Bronner’s Magic Soaps: Dr. Bronner’s Magic soaps is a famous company based in Vista, California. The company was founded by Emmanuel Bronner in the 1940s and is currently run by his sons David and Micheal. The company sells a range of organic soaps, mists and personal care products.
The founder of Dr. Bronner’s Magic soaps was an immigrant who fled Nazi Germany in the 1940s. He was originally an ardent promulgator who distributed soaps to those who attended his spiritual lectures.
Soon he realized that people came to attend his lectures for soap more than anything else. This encouraged him to start with his product line. However, the company worked as a tax-exempt religious organization till 1985 until it was found to be out of compliance and a penalty of $1.3 million was levied on him as back tax.
In 1988, Emmanuel’s son David joined the company who further increased the profits and took the company to greater heights. However, the company had to deal with legal issues all throughout its existence as it used hemp in its products.
It’s not been long since hemp became legalized in the U.S but the company started off at a time when hemp was considered as a Schedule 1 Substance drug.
David actively participated in a number of activism programs and did all that he could do to create awareness about the benefits of hemp and promoted it in every possible way. His company’s soaps are known for their amazing quality, therapeutic benefits, and are completely organic in nature. The company is also socially responsible and gives back roughly one-third of its profits to charity.
6. Green Field Paper Company: This company was founded in the year 1992 in San Diego, America. It has a very unique approach to paper and the paper-making industry. It believes in creating quality paper without using wooden fibers.
The company has always chosen alternative methods over the traditional paper making method. This makes Green Field Paper Company distinct, innovative and eco-friendly.
They have renovated the paper making business by dropping down the traditional method which causes deforestation. They use recycled paper products to create innovative designs while being sustainable.
They use post-consumer pulp with non-traditional additives such as hemp, seeds, coffee chaff, garlic skin, junk mail, and denim. All their products are completely made in the U.S. The papers aren’t bleached or dyed. The papers are colored using earth pigments and their seed papers are non-GMO and non-invasive in nature.
Apart from all the other great things, Green Field Paper Company has an entire line of unique, sustainable and eco-friendly retail products which include greeting cards, fine arts paper, journals and stationary. Also, to be 100% eco-friendly, the company uses wind energy to produce electricity for its office and manufacturing facilities.
7. Hemp Horizon: Hemp Horizon is a popular hemp apparel supplier in the US. It provides high quality finished hemp goods that are developed in North and South Carolina, They are well-known global suppliers of cottonized hemp products.
The products they release in the market go through strict quality and compliance checks. This ensures that the products it sells are of the highest quality. Hemp Horizon sells a wide range of quality natural fibers that fulfill the company’s aim to provide luxurious and sustainable fibers.
Hemp Horizon is very particular about its partners and has a long-term and credible relationship with them. It has numerous factories where hemp cutting and sewing operations are carried out at scale, apart from using creating organic cotton fabrics, organic linen to produce finished goods. Its overseas partners have certificates of sustainability such as OCS, GRS, GOTS, and Oeko-Tex.
Hemp Horizon is a proud international exporter of hemp and other sustainable fibers. Once the company understands your vision and aims, it creates handcrafted products for you.
8. Colorado Hemp Clothing: The company was founded by an entrepreneur named Cat Stone. Her first hemp dress made her fall in love with this unique fiber. She was impressed by its softness, durability and its ability to keep itself in shape after numerous washes.
Although she liked the dress but felt that one dress wasn’t enough for her daily lifestyle. She decided to get another dress but couldn’t find too many stores with hemp clothing. That’s when she decided to take matters in her hand and started creating hemp clothes on her own. Her first design was a hemp shirt.
She then slowly started designing and creating more versatile hemp outfits for women. She created outfits for all occasions – be it a casual wear, gym wear or formal wear.
Soon she became extremely famous for her quirky and stylish outfits. Also, she started getting requests from men to create apparel for them. Thus, she came out with a men’s clothing product line as well. Her brand now has a spectacular collection of both men’s and women’s wear.
Colorado Hemp Clothing is completely based in the USA. The brand believes in using local hemp which is a massive business boost for the local hemp farmers. Their aim is to empower American farmers and multiply profits by serving quality hemp wear to their customers.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]9. Medical Marijuana Inc: The company is based in San Diego and is known for making and selling a wide range of hemp-based products. It was one of the first companies to bring back CBD oil products back in the market in 2012.
After spending years and investing millions of dollars in research and development, Medical Marijuana Inc. has come up with a variety of hemp and CBD oil products.
Medical Marijuana Inc. has a wide range of hemp products such as hemp apparels, HempMeds, hemp foods, hemp vaporizers, and accessories.
10. Rawganic: Rawganic is an American startup that sells handcrafted organic hemp clothes, footwear, underwear, bedsheets, accessories and so on. The brand focuses especially on vegans and animal lovers who find it difficult to find products that match their ethical values.
Rawganic was founded in 1997 and is currently one of the leading brands in terms of purity and environmental sustainability.
Rawganic believes in sustainability and creates eco-friendly products. No single animal is hurt or killed to manufacture its products.
The brand stands in solidarity with human rights and animal rights movement and aims to create a difference to the society. Industrial hemp is already a billion-dollar business in the U.S and the numbers are only expected to increase over the years. After the legalization of hemp by the Federal Government, the USDA is licensing more and more states which in turn is helping more hemp industries to exist and flourish.
Description: Hemp Industry is growing day-by-day and there are start-ups coming out with their hemp products. Here is a list of top 10 Hemp Start-Ups in the USA.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]