Crailar from Naturally Advanced Technologies and Hanes

“Wait ’till we get our hemp on you,” could be Hanes company’s new jingle sometime this year.  Since late 2008 Hanes has been in discussion with Naturally Advanced Technologies about using their patented Crailar hemp  fabric as a supplement to their standard cotton.

This, ladies and gentlemen could be huge.  First, Crailar is stronger, shrinks less and holds dye better than cotton.  Second, Crailar utilizes the exterior, long bast fibers from the hemp stalk that can be up to a meter in length.  This means that even after they are trimmed to size they are still of a length to provide a fabric with a higher thread count than cotton.  Third, with Hanes’ facilities cranking out Crailar  the numbers so far suggest that the hemp fabric could be up to $0.20 per pound cheaper than cotton, around 33% cost savings.  What does all this mean?  It means that hemp could soon become commercially stronger, softer and cheaper than cotton.

Germany and China have been working, each on their own proprietary technologies, to become the first country to break the cotton thread count barrier in a commercialized setting.  If Hanes and NAT can break out their Crailar products this year then Canada will likely beat them to the prize.  And it could be a big prize indeed.  Up to this point the conversion process of standard cotton machinery in order to refine hemp yarn has proved too difficult and costly to draw large corporations’ attention.  If NAT’s experiment with Hanes works out, the way will be paved.  Canada will have set the standard.  This will also put more pressure on the U.S. to legalize productions of hemp as a crop in order to feed the hemp textile industry.  Currently Hanes is targeting Crailar for 20% of its product composition, but this percentage could rise if the fabric proves itself.