Vital Ones,
This month marks the beginning of a new chapter for Vital Hemp. Today, we launch our new e-commerce website. You can still find us atvitalhemp.com, where we are extending 20% off all styles through December 18th.
Thank you for supporting us through the last 18 years, letting us hemp you out and cool the globe in the process.
As you know, Vital Hemp closed its doors in mid-March, after eighteen years of selling hemp clothing to the public. Those of you familiar with our story know that I started the company on Earth Day, 2003, with a booth at the first Earth Day festival in Santa Monica. After that, I spent a couple of years peddling hemp and hempjucating the public from a temporary booth on the Venice Boardwalk, that I’d erect and tear down each day with the help of my homeless friends, who I paid $10/hr (way more than min. wage back then) and an organic breakfast from Figtree’s Cafe.
The journey spiralled outward, on road trips to Greenfests, Harmony Fests, Raw Food Fests, Natural Product Expos, Hempfests and Expos, from Seattle to Washington, DC. There, along with some other old hempsters, we informed the public and lobbied Congress people about the benefits of re-legalizing the cultivation of industrial hemp.
Now, it appears that the stigma around hemp is mostly gone. Hemp is so hip that we find so many products boasting about it on their packaging and in their ingredient list: hemp shampoos, hemp coffees, hemp teas….I know. I buy them all. :)
And in eighteen years of making hemp clothing, I never bought another cotton or poly t-shirt or hoodie. I could have. I’m an adult now; I can wear anything I want. I’ve worn hemp everyday for the last eighteen years--in every kind of weather--because it’s just better than other materials. It makes better fabric, and clothing that lets your skin breathe.
Chances are, if you’re reading this, you’re already a customer, someone who along the way bought something from us. It might have been a scarf, or a beanie, a button down shirt or some anywhere pants. I’m grateful you found us.Several years ago, while paying big overhead for a store on Main Street, Santa Monica, I realized that as much as I loved creating a space for hemp clothing in LA, it wasn’t the best way to realize Vital Hemp’s goal of bringing hemp clothing back to the masses. It took a worldwide pandemic for me to close the doors.
So I’ve spent the Fall in a kind of early hibernation, fulfilling those few orders that have continued to come in, while preparing the virtual ground for our Winter launch. A couple of weeks ago, we produced a photo shoot with two photographers, six models, two stylists and three locations, including a friend’s modern, modular LivingHome (plantprefab.com), and our local beach.
It was a long, fun, fulfilling day. By the end of it, one of the models said, “I can’t believe how cozy I feel in this shirt--even warmer than my cotton long-sleeve!” I explained how hemp regulates body temperature, with this familiar feeling of having accomplished another small part of my work in the world.
To those of you who have been with us a while, and to those who are just discovering us now, thank you. While I thought of abandoning the business several times over the years, in favor or more secure or lucrative career paths, I continue to want to hemp people out.
It’s not just because I know we’re making better, more comfortable and durable clothing than what’s out there. It’s because I know hemp is a major, under-rated part of the solution to the existential crisis of global warming catastrophes we will continue to face with ever-increasing frequency and intensity--unless we act in concert with nature to cool the globe and heal the ecosystems upon which all life depends.
We know hemp sequesters more atmospheric carbon dioxide than any other crop (and even more than many forests). As fires burn our jungles and forests, wiping out the Earth’s lungs, hemp can re-line those lungs with vital, breathing plants, plants that will transform not only our wardrobes, but our food, our medicine, our building practices and the ways we make plastics--to name just a few of the transformations to which we can look forward.
So thanks for being vital. I hope you’ll continue to support us as we cool the globe with hemp. Thanks for letting us hemp you out.
Again, as thanks during this transition, we’re offering 20% off site-wide atvitalhemp.com through December 18th (no code needed). Happy holiday shopping!
To paraphrase one of my favorite Paul Simon songs, we are “still vital after all these years.”
Thanks for being vital,
Ron
Ron Alcalay
Founder/CEO/Hemperdasher
ron@vitalhemp.com
vitalhemp.com
Store : 424.268.4486
~Let Us Hemp You Out!~
