It’s our job to care about what touches your head, that’s why many of the sweatbands and linings are made from third party tested organic cotton and are AZO dye free. All of our deluxe stretch terry hat bands have been third party tested and do not contain AZO dyes or Formaldehyde.
Further details on some of our hat materials:
Cruelty Free Wool
Starting March 2018 we will be changing our wool hat production to Cruelty Free wool. This means that we went back into our supply chain and only source wool from farms that do not practice Mulesing. Mulesing is the removal of chunks of skin on the buttocks of the sheep to stop a disease called Flystrike. Over 20 million Merino lambs are Mulesed in Australia each year. Hopefully by educating people on this topic Australia might consider the alternatives to this cruel practice.
Hemp
Hemp is very easy to grow and is three times stronger that cotton. Hemp crops don’t require much water and can be grown without herbicides, fungicides or pesticides.
Organic Cotton
We third party test our organic cotton to confirm OCS certified 100 and AZO Free.
Leather
We test our leather to confirm No Organic biocides, Azo Dye-Free, No Prohibited Metals, No Flame Retardants, Formaldehyde-Free, No Chromium (VI)
Some people may have a problem with leather for environmental or humane reasons. We use leather because it’s an excellent hat material. It’s extremely durable and some of our leather hats are still in use over 40 years later. Look for a link to our blog here on this subject in the near future.
Organic Raffia
The Raffia palm found in Madagascar has the longest leaves in the plant kingdom and can grow to eighty feet long. No need for water or pesticides, just cut the leaves needed and they grow back.
Paper
Toyo was originally made in japan from shellacked rice paper. We use 100% recycled paper with a non-toxic waterproof resin to keep them protected. It’s a machine made material made in China and hand woven into beautiful hats.
Repreve® Recycled Plastic
We use Repreve material for our recycled hats and they contain about 5 recycled plastic bottles worth of plastic. The fabric is light weight, UPF 50+ and waterproof. More importantly it’s made from recycled plastic bottles, straws and other single use plastics that could have ended up in our environment. It uses 70% less energy and 90% less water to produce our recycled fabric verses a virgin material.
>> Find out more about repreve® here