Hemp Fiber Startup Achieves 10,000-Pound Production Milestone
Renaissance Fiber committed to environmentally friendly production
Yadkinville, North Carolina (February 17, 2021) – Renaissance Fiber, a North Carolina-based hemp fiber startup, has surpassed the 10,000-pound production milestone of U.S.-produced apparel quality hemp fiber using its patented environmentally sustainable fiber-processing technology. The company is positioned to manufacture hemp fiber at 2.5 million pounds annually, and expects to scale to 10M pounds by 2022.
Renaissance Fiber is committed to the introduction of hemp as an inherently clean material into U.S. industry. The company’s low-cost softening technology - which renders individual fibers from raw plant material - mimics natural plant degradation, rendering one of the dirtiest and most costly nodes of the hemp fiber supply chain cost-effective and ecologically invisible. This has enabled Renaissance Fiber to quickly achieve scaled hemp fiber production. The company expects domestic hemp to compete on scale with other textile fiber sources.
With the increasing consumer demand for sustainable textiles, brands are looking for more opportunities to use low-impact natural materials like hemp in their product lines.
“We’re starting to be able to dial in specific fiber qualities for diverse customer needs, and the more engagement we have the broader that capacity becomes,” said Daniel Yohannes, CEO of Renaissance Fiber.
Renaissance Fiber relies on data and traceability to support its mission as a clean producer. The company expects this approach to drive rapid uptake by the industry and they are already working with third-party evaluators to achieve industry certifications.
The reshoring of the textile industry puts Renaissance Fiber at the forefront of domestic value creation at an historically difficult period for agriculture and manufacturing. Since current hemp textiles are sourced almost entirely from overseas, Renaissance Fiber hopes to provide U.S. consumers with environmentally, economically and socially more sensible alternatives.
Yohannes said as domestic hemp cultivation comes online, he anticipates broad adoption in multiple industries. “We’re already working with growers across North America to meet demand at the multi-million-pound annual level, and everyone’s really excited,” he said. Yohannes continued, “the challenge now is getting yarn production.” “Hemp-blend yarn spinning is still not trivial” he noted, but expressed confidence that this gap too can be closed rapidly: “Hemp-based textiles are going to be a strong part of the post-pandemic apparel industry”.
Renaissance Fiber expects to see products from their fiber in retail apparel and home goods by late Spring 2021.
About Renaissance Fiber
Renaissance Fiber manufactures hemp fiber for the textile industry using North American grown hemp and an environmentally clean process. The company was established in 2018 as a scaled source for hemp fiber in an economically feasible and ecologically invisible manner. Renaissance Fiber is currently developing materials capable of blending with cotton, polyester, wool and other common fibers in the industry. The company was a recipient of the North Carolina NCIDEA Seed Grant award and is privately held. For more information, please visit: www.renaissance-fiber.com, or contact Kathy Nelson at media@renaissance-fiber.com.
