Hemp Crew Socks

Wool is a natural fiber that insulates, breathes and lasts for a long time. Producing wool, however, is a resource-intensive job. It requires vast amounts of land for grazing sheep, water to clean the fiber, chemicals to treat the wool and dyes to color the finished product. We use recycled wool to extend the life span of fiber that has already been produced. As a result, we can make clothing with the same great qualities as virgin wool at a fraction of the environmental cost.

Producing a single pound of conventional cotton takes about 254 gallons of water. Add that to the carbon footprint of preparing the soil, the harmful pesticides that impact field workers, cultivating the plants and harvesting the crops, then scale up that number to encompass all the cotton grown in the world—and you get a significant environmental cost. By using recycled cotton, Patagonia extends the life span of a fiber that has already been created, uses fewer environmental resources and still has that soft, comfortable feel.

Natural. Misunderstood. Legal. This is the story of hemp in the United States. A forbidden fiber in the U.S. since 1970, hemp has taken the heat for almost five decades. Until the Farm Bill passed in December of 2018, hemp was federally illegal to grow for commercial purposes, making it risky for businesses to invest in a new crop that was incorrectly classified as a drug.