Uniform prices to increase in 2011

[Wastelander]

I've known about this whole thing since summer of last year, but my new gi is made from hemp so I don't have a problem with the cotton shortage. Cotton was artificially bolstered as a cash crop to push out hemp, anyway, since hemp is a much better textile source but cotton was "the next big thing" back in the 1700's and somehow it stuck.

Interesting. If you don't mind my asking, can I find info on your gi on the web somewhere? I'm not familiar with hemp gis.

My karate gi is custom made by an independent clothier (no website--he works off of Etsy, and he doesn't have any images up of the few gi's he has done in the past) but my grappling gi (I use it for judo and jujutsu) is hemp and made by Datsusara MMA (https://www.dsmma.com).

Hemp fiber is four times stronger than cotton fiber, it is antimicrobial (especially beneficial for grapplers), it wicks moisture better than cotton, and it's more comfortable than cotton (in my opinion). Right now it is still illegal to grow textile hemp commercially in the United States, so it costs more than cotton right now because it has to be imported, but once cotton prices start going up I feel that things will even out. If we can get people who don't smoke marijuana or talk like the guys from "Dude, Where's My Car?" to lobby for commercial hemp farming in America then we could cut out the import costs, as well. I know I sound like an advertisement, but I swear I'm not--it just bothered me a lot when I found out about the benefits of hemp from someone who wasn't a "pothead" and looked up the history to find that it is a superior product that even some of the founding fathers of our country grew, but we threw it by the wayside.

[JohnASE]

Hemp fiber is four times stronger than cotton fiber, it is antimicrobial (especially beneficial for grapplers), it wicks moisture better than cotton, and it's more comfortable than cotton (in my opinion). Right now it is still illegal to grow textile hemp commercially in the United States, so it costs more than cotton right now because it has to be imported, but once cotton prices start going up I feel that things will even out. If we can get people who don't smoke marijuana or talk like the guys from "Dude, Where's My Car?" to lobby for commercial hemp farming in America then we could cut out the import costs, as well. I know I sound like an advertisement, but I swear I'm not--it just bothered me a lot when I found out about the benefits of hemp from someone who wasn't a "pothead" and looked up the history to find that it is a superior product that even some of the founding fathers of our country grew, but we threw it by the wayside.

I doubt growing domestically would bring hemp prices down. Like many things, I'd bet it would be cheaper to produce overseas, despite transportation costs, but I definitely agree that increased volume would bring down costs. One advantage to hemp, as I understand it, is that hemp is more "green" than cotton, and importing is less "green" than buying locally, so I'm sure "green" customers would prefer domestic crops.

I didn't know that growing hemp commercially was prohibited in the US. As I understand it, you cannot get high off the hemp plants used for textiles. The funny thing is that I'm in California and medical marijuana here is quasi-legal. The state says it is; the federal government says it's not.

Thanks for the info!

[Wastelander]

Hemp fiber is four times stronger than cotton fiber, it is antimicrobial (especially beneficial for grapplers), it wicks moisture better than cotton, and it's more comfortable than cotton (in my opinion). Right now it is still illegal to grow textile hemp commercially in the United States, so it costs more than cotton right now because it has to be imported, but once cotton prices start going up I feel that things will even out. If we can get people who don't smoke marijuana or talk like the guys from "Dude, Where's My Car?" to lobby for commercial hemp farming in America then we could cut out the import costs, as well. I know I sound like an advertisement, but I swear I'm not--it just bothered me a lot when I found out about the benefits of hemp from someone who wasn't a "pothead" and looked up the history to find that it is a superior product that even some of the founding fathers of our country grew, but we threw it by the wayside.

I doubt growing domestically would bring hemp prices down. Like many things, I'd bet it would be cheaper to produce overseas, despite transportation costs, but I definitely agree that increased volume would bring down costs. One advantage to hemp, as I understand it, is that hemp is more "green" than cotton, and importing is less "green" than buying locally, so I'm sure "green" customers would prefer domestic crops.

I didn't know that growing hemp commercially was prohibited in the US. As I understand it, you cannot get high off the hemp plants used for textiles. The funny thing is that I'm in California and medical marijuana here is quasi-legal. The state says it is; the federal government says it's not.

Thanks for the info!

You are correct--you can't get high off of textile hemp because it has less than .01% THC content. Apparently that's enough for Congress to say that people can't grow it, and in fact you can't even buy the seeds (which are edible and highly nutritious) unless they are sterilized first. As for domestically grown hemp not bringing down costs, I suppose that is true in the sense that it would cost more to harvest because employees get paid better here, but I still think the lack of shipping and the increase in stock would at least make a small dent in it. You're definitely right about it being more "green" than cotton because it doesn't need much in the way of chemical assistance to grow (herbicides and pesticides), and if you don't bleach it white like they tend to do with cotton you are keeping that chemical out of the equation as well. Besides, bleach weakens natural fibers (including hemp) so I'm not all that big on bleaching stuff that I want to last