Hemp in your clothes? NC startup, partner design CBD-infused wearables

ASHEBORO – A hemp startup in Asheboro is hoping to bring back some of the glory days of North Carolina’s textile industry with its CBD-infused wearable products.

For the past three years, Founder’s Hemp and Nufabrx, a biomaterials technology company, have been testing and developing a compression sleeve garment, called Hemp Squeeze, using Founder’s Hemp CBD Oil.

“We want to get people thinking more about how hemp can be used to help grow other industries,” said Founder’s Hemp CEO Bob Crumley, in a statement.

Cannabidiol, or CBD, is the compound from part of a hemp leaf, and it makes some major claims to help with anxiety, stress or muscle aches and pains. CBD businesses are popping up all over the Triangle and the number of hemp farmers in North Carolina has more than tripled in the past year.

The hemp extract is infused into the fibers of the Nufabrx yarn, a patented technology that delivers “three-dimensional, 360 degree of active relief to the elbow and knee.”

Hemp Squeeze arm sleeve.

Specialty products, like infused textiles found in Hemp Squeeze, Crumley adds, are one way to bring quality textile jobs back to the state.

“We’re taking a brand new industry – hemp, and taking an old industry – textile and we’re using new technology to help rejuvenate textiles in North Carolina. I never dreamed, when we first started this 3 years ago, that our Hemp Squeeze product would be made in Asheboro.”

For decades, the textile industry was an essential part of North Carolina’s economy. In the early 2000s, North Carolina textile facilities were being moved overseas or they risked being shut down.

“In Asheboro alone, thousands of people lost their jobs,” said Crumley.

Joint press conference earlier this week announcing the partnership …. L-R: Bob Crumley, Crystal Gettys, Jordan Schindler.

Randolph County, NC, which has a strong history of textile manufacturing, has seen a 43 percent decline in textile jobs between 2010 and 2018, according to Randolph County, NC Economic Development Corporation (EDC).

Jordan Schindler, founder of Nufabrx moved his headquarters in 2016 from Seattle to the Manufacturing Solutions Center (MSC) in Conover, NC. “To move my vision forward, I needed a home base that understood the textile industry,” said Schindler.

“Nufabrx is extremely excited to partner with Founder’s Hemp to launch an entirely new category of CBD-infused products. Health Wear is the next generation of clothing, with CBD and other actives built directly into the garment itself.”

The national product launch for Hemp Squeeze is scheduled for the first quarter of 2020.