The Very Beginning

I awoke at 18 years old, grieving the loss of my brother and trying to manage a small clothing company.

Growing up, the message from my family was that you graduate high school and leave town. You go to school and land yourself a big stud job.

Zafer had mentioned Santa Cruz so I headed there. I attended UCSC in 2017, studying agroecology.

I found that it was pretty tricky selling clothing when you don’t know anybody and Hempsmith took the backburner. I met some really good friends and enjoyed the west coast lifestyle.

Ultimately, I broke my collarbone skateboarding and headed back to NC with my tail between my legs.

I landed on my feet when I heard about the College of Textiles at NCSU in Raleigh. I was 30 minutes away in Pittsboro and it was a perfect fit.

I decked out my brothers closet as our inventory management and started hand selling our tees.

Both my parents are local entrepreneurs and their circles quickly embraced Hempsmith. Everyone wanted a tee from the kid they watched grow up around town.

My neighbor taught me how to screen-print and I learned tie dye from another homie.

I outfitted our greenhouse as a dyehouse and we began cranking out the tees. We spent years tie dying in buckets and hand printing at home.

Our original dye house, built from an old greenhouse.