Will Hemp Replace Cotton?

Cotton production causes significant environmental damage. Hemp is a promising alternative, but it still falls short in terms of quality. In an interview with Business Insider, a top executive at Levi’s discussed when and how jeans made from hemp will become widely available.

The Rise of Industrial Hemp in the U.S.

With the legalization of industrial hemp in the U.S. in December 2018, the industry is expected to experience explosive growth. According to Reports and Data, the U.S. industrial hemp market could grow from $4.63 billion in 2018 to $13.03 billion by 2026, with an average annual growth rate of nearly 14%.

For a long time, industrial hemp was one of the most common fiber plants in the world. The fiber derived from it is called hemp. Unlike the varieties of hemp grown for smoking, industrial hemp contains very little cannabinoids: up to 0.3% THC compared to 10–20% in recreational strains.

In spring 2018, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced a bill to remove hemp with less than 0.3% THC from the list of highly controlled substances. This proposal was later included in the U.S. Farm Bill, which took effect on December 20, 2018.

Hemp in the Textile Industry

In addition to the CBD-based medicines now popping up everywhere in North America, hemp is playing an increasingly important role in the textile industry, especially in the production of sustainable clothing. The legendary jeans manufacturer Levi Strauss has contributed significantly to this trend.

In March 2019, Levi’s, in collaboration with the brand Outerknown, released a small line of jeans and jackets. The fabric in these items is made of 69% cotton and 31% hemp, but feels just like pure cotton. Why is this important? Because hemp requires significantly less water and chemicals to grow than cotton. However, working with hemp is more challenging: cotton fibers are collected from fluffy bolls, while hemp fibers come from the tough stalk of the plant.

“It’s a longer, stiffer, and rougher fiber,” Paul Dillinger, Levi’s Vice President of Global Product Innovation, told Business Insider. “It almost doesn’t want to become something soft; it wants to turn into rope.” Levi’s has developed a technology that softens hemp fibers and allows them to blend with cotton, while using much less water than traditional hemp processing.

“It’s great that customers are responding positively, but what’s even more important is that these innovations help prepare our supply chain for the future,” Dillinger noted.

Levi’s Long-Term Commitment

He explained that this is not a one-off project or a niche product, but an ongoing research process that will take years: “We intend to put this at the heart of our product line, blend it in, and make it a part of the Levi’s portfolio.”

According to Dillinger, Levi’s continues to work on improving the quality of the material, aiming to reduce the cotton content to 50% for most products and to make some items entirely from hemp. He promises that within five years, we’ll have fabric made entirely from hemp that feels just like cotton.

Given the growing demand for cotton and the vast amounts of water needed to grow and process it, finding alternatives is an obvious necessity, says Dillinger. He admits he didn’t expect the solution to come from hemp until Levi’s learned about advanced developments in Europe, where industrial hemp is already legal in many countries. The company does not disclose its partners or other details, only stating that it took three years to develop a market-ready material from scratch.

Once Levi’s finds a way to produce products entirely from “cottonized” hemp, overall water consumption for clothing production could be reduced by two-thirds, Dillinger believes. According to the Stockholm Environment Institute, which he cites, it currently takes 3,781 liters of clean water to produce a single item of clothing, with 2,655 liters needed just to grow the raw fiber.

Despite his optimism, Dillinger also cautions against hysteria over the idea that Levi’s and other clothing manufacturers are about to completely abandon cotton or revolutionize the industry overnight. Years of research and development are still required, and hemp will likely be just one of several natural alternatives to cotton.

The Future of Hemp Fabric

The idea is that clothing made from hemp—whether pure or blended with cotton—should not be a gimmick. Dillinger noted that he can’t speak for all of Levi’s, but personally, he’s not too concerned about the marketing buzz around “cottonized” hemp: ultimately, the goal is for the customer not to notice any difference.

“You often hear that buying a sustainable product is a sacrifice, that you have to choose between something ethically acceptable and something just cool. But in reality, you don’t have to sacrifice anything to make environmentally responsible purchases,” Dillinger is convinced.