I’ve been thinking a lot about what this hoodie actually represents, and to me it goes far beyond the garment itself.
What makes the
@hempydotscience hoodie special is that it sits at the intersection of biotech, community, and manufacturing. It started as a research effort and is now becoming something more tangible, a small but real step toward building a pathway from biotech innovation into actual textile production. That transition is not easy. In many ways, this hoodie is a marker of that journey.
What makes this especially meaningful to me is that it did not begin with a traditional VC-backed company trying to optimize for speed at all costs. Hempy was funded through decentralized science crowdfunding, and the work around it has been incubated, stress tested, and technically supported by a community that genuinely cares about building something new. People in the
@valley_dao,
@Molecule_sci, and
@BioProtocol community have not just watched from the sidelines. They have helped fund it, troubleshoot it, advise it, and move it forward. That kind of community innovation still feels rare, and I think it deserves more attention.
We chose hemp as our starting material for a reason. It has the potential to become one of the most important materials for the future of textiles, not only because of its properties, but because of the wider agricultural and environmental story around it, from lower pesticide and water usage to its role in improving soil. I also think there is something powerful about trying to rebuild regional material systems, where not only the final textile is produced in Europe, but the raw materials are grown there too.
This hoodie is proudly made in Europe, and that matters.
It is also exciting to see that the project has progressed to the point of generating patentable work, with filing efforts underway. That matters not just because of the IP itself, but because it signals that this is not just a nice story or an aesthetic exercise. There is real technological development happening underneath. I’m stoked to have Christian Baertschi at the helm as our entrepreneur in residence for the continued commercialization of this technology.
And yes, this hoodie is more expensive than the average hoodie. But that is because it reflects a deliberate process. It reflects the fact that people actually cared about how it was made, and that every step behind it involved thought, tradeoffs, and intention.
Get your hoodie at
hempy.hoodie.science, we’ll cover the shipping for you!