WELCOME TO HEMP CITY
Captain of the flagship: Mike Carbone opened the first NIBUS store on the planet, right here in Red Bank. (Photos by Diana Moore)
By DIANA MOORE
At first encounter, Mike Carbone, Claudia Moses and the Rainey family would seem like many other mom-and-pop storeowners, making an earnest effort at keeping those registers ringing in uncertain times.
Make no mistake, however; these local merchants are purveyors of hemp. If that sets off alarms, it’s probably because you associate hemp with its enduringly popular, THC-laden cousin, cannabis. And, in fact, it’s illegal to grow industrial hemp in the United States, as federal courts make no distinction between the two.
However, it’s not against the law to sell hemp-fiber products in stores, which is why you’ve always been able to purchase hemp rope and twine down at the hardware store.
If you’re a little cool to the idea of dressing in rope and twine, you probably haven’t read up on how comfortable and durable clothing and accessories made from industrial hemp can be, or that it’s a versatile, cost-effective and non-destructive crop that has the power to transform entire regional economies. It’s the reason that Woody Harrelson climbs the Golden Gate Bridge and risks jail time in Kentucky.
Research has shown that industrial hemp fiber is stronger than cotton — anywhere from three to twenty-six times as strong, depending on whose data you read. It’s more resilient than cotton, too, and naturally resistant to mildew and mold. It grows faster than any other cash crop, in virtually any kind of soil or climate, and since it has little to no vulnerability to bugs and weeds, it requires no pesticides, fungicides or chemical fertilizers. It’s said that it even leaves the soil in better shape than it was in before planting. You just can’t grow it here.
So, while the new breed of hemp and hemp/cotton-blend clothing you’re starting to see on area shelves is commonly woven, sewn and dyed in America, the raw fiber is imported from elsewhere in the world — frequently from such eastern European countries as Hungary and Romania.
That hasn’t stopped a new generation of clothing companies from gaining momentum in the American market with lines of comfortable casual wear for infants, kids and grownups — items that have much more in common design-wise with Old Navy than with the merch tent at the H.O.R.D.E. Tour. And please, no more references to Cheech and Chong and their smokable van.
This summer, Red Bank saw the opening of Nibus, a retail business dedicated entirely to the sale of hemp and other organic-fiber clothing. Red Bank oRBit paid a visit to the store at 41 Broad Street — looking in on a couple of other area shops who hawk the hemp as well.
Seen on the racks and shelves at Nibus: a 55% hemp hoodie; pro-hemp treatises and organic cookbooks; hemp camo sneakers and Gravis Hemperpedic sandals; organic cotton panties.
As Mike Carbone tells it, “our goal is to feature fashionable clothes that are environmentally conscious.”
Carbone opened Nibus (pronounced NIH-bis) in June as the flagship in what’s hoped to be a fleet of stores dedicated to the clothing and accessory product lines of the Vermont-based Nibus company. It’s a venture in which Carbone (who maintains a full time job with the Molly Pitcher Inn) partnered with the owners of Hempest in Burlington, Vermont — an organic clothing chain that began in Boston and has also expanded to Seattle.
Unlike Hempest, which diverges from the all-organic concept in places, some 90 percent of the items sold in Nibus are made from completely organic materials. That includes dresses, tops, skirts, shirts, shorts and bags by Nibus, cargo shorts by Hempest, and cantina caps by New Era. There are hemp sneakers and sandals by Gravis, organic cotton undies, and even a few book titles extolling the virtues of organic cooking and the hemp-happy lifestyle.
The store’s best seller by far? A selection of blended hoodies (55 percent hemp, 45 percent organic cotton) that really do the job on these transitional nights of late summer.
“We sell more hoodies than anything else,” Carbone explains. “They’re warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer than things you’ll find in other stores — they can keep you comfortable long into the cooler weather.”
Seen on babies’ bottoms from Little Willow: hemp diapers by Hemp Babies; organic cotton diapers by Bum Genius and Happy Heinys. Even the teddy bears are organic.
When new parents Kristin and Paul Rainey opened Little Willow in June, 2007, they positioned the White Street shop as an exclusive area source for all-organic baby clothing (in cotton, hemp and bamboo), accessories and bath products. While much of the store’s word-of-mouth buzz centered around never-before-seen items like the cloth baby-carrier slings recommended by “attachment parenting” advocates, the Raineys found some of their most dependable sales in a truly retro item.
Once thought to have gone the way of the dinosaur, reusable cloth diapers are in the process of making a tremendous comeback with environmentally savvy families. It’s a segment of the marketplace that’s now served by makers of organic-cotton di-dees and related items by Bum Genius, Polar Bummi, Fuzzi Bunz, Swaddle Bees — all featured at the Red Bank store — along with Happy Heinys, whose Happy Hempys line of all-hemp diapers joins Hemp Babies on the shelves of Little Willow. There are even organic diaper creams to soothe those busy bottoms.
The owners have announced that Little Willow will be moving within the next couple of weeks, just up the block to 32 White Street, a storefront most recently occupied by Maxwell and Sophie. Projected for the expanded space are new product lines and a play area for customers’ kids — and the Raineys have even installed a new floor of, you guessed it, bamboo.
From Calming Essence in Atlantic Highlands: an organic cotton print top with Ecolutions hemp bag; clay-dyed cotton shirt by Earth Creations; handmade recycled-fabric bags by Erda; organic cotton stretch top.
Years before hemp clothing came to Red Bank, a shop on First Avenue in Atlantic Highlands introduced curious customers to a natural and organic way of life that didn’t carry a hacky-sack stigma. Although The Calming Essence Body, Mind and Soul Store puts a good deal of its focus upon all-natural soaps, skincare products and cosmetics — they were the sole local source for Shea butter products long before it appeared as an ingredient on supermarket shelves — owner Claudia Moses and sister Stephanie have featured hemp, flax and organic cotton clothing for women and kids since they opened their doors in 2005 (they relocated just a few doors away to 68 First Avenue last year).
The back racks at Calming Essence sport a selection of styles from manufacturers like Earth Creations, Under the Nile and Bossy Baby; hemp and recycled-fabric handbags are spotlighted from Ecolutions and Erda. It’s certainly worth the safari to the back of the store, although the jewelry, lotions and homewares offer up their own set of temptations and distractions.
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September 11, 2008
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