“Everyone In A Hemp Tee By 2020!”

Jungmaven and the case for Made In the USA organic cotton and hemp clothing

style // Jul 25, 2018

Words by Stab

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Like surfing, hemp ain’t reserved solely for doobie suckers no more.

Just last month, in what’s left of the US-of-A, the Senate voted to end a decades-long ban on industrial hemp farming, the policy change packaged neatly into the Farm Bill which passed 86-11, largely on the strength of arguments for the myriad potential uses for the oft-stigmatized plant, not least of which as a durable, sustainable fabric.

“Consumers across America buy hundreds of millions in retail products every year that contain hemp,” Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor. “But due to outdated federal regulations that do not sufficiently distinguish this industrial crop from its illicit cousin, American farmers have been mostly unable to meet that demand themselves. It’s left consumers with little choice but to buy imported hemp products from foreign-produced hemp.”

For surfer Robert Jungmann, owner of hemp-heavy Los Angeles clothing brand, Jungmaven, the bill is welcomed news. For years the brand’s proudly flown the hemp flag, their oversized label declaring “Everyone in a hemp tee by 2020!”

“The basics are for everyone!”

Photography

Jungmaven

“I was a student at Central Washington University working nights at a gas station in the middle of Washington State,” Robert says. “A professor told me that we could stop cutting down old growth forests in Washington State, if we began growing Industrial Hemp. And that was my A-Ha! moment. That first year I could barely sleep some nights, I researched the many benefits of hemp that we weren’t taking advantage of. It’s a great feeling to get that passionate about a project. It’s what you gotta have if you’re starting your own business.”

Jungmaven do logo-less, stylishly cut basics, all from organic hemp and cotton, and all made right here in sunny Los Angeles, their shirts perhaps the softest, most luxurious and durable hemp garments we’ve ever draped across our torsos.

“Before I started Jungmaven, I had been in the business 12 years,” Robert says of his early days working in the clothing industry. “I started the Pacific N.W. Outdoor Hemp Clothing brand Manastash in ’93, sold it and moved to Costa Rica to surf. After five years I got restless and started Jungmaven.”

Sourcing hemp fabric from farms and factories in China through longtime peddlers, Hemp Traders, Jungmaven’s focus is simple and straight forward. “Offering a small variety of styles in a large selection of colors helps keep the brand interesting and manageable. The basics are for everyone! Its easy.”

The tees ain’t cheap, but nothing good ever is. They are, however, made well and built to last, and isn’t that everything? Scroll south for a look at Jungmaven’s unisex offerings.