Farm to Fashion

This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

Many food and fashion brands are reacting to recent consumer trends by pushing their sustainability story as a part of their marketing strategy. Paul Ensor, co-founder of Hemprino, an apparel brand sourced from hemp fiber and merino wool, says they’ve taken a different approach, focusing more on the farm connection.

Ensor... "We've always been told not to lead with sustainability and actually what we find with our social media posts is that people probably connect more with the farm story than anything else. So where the product's coming from, I think that's probably been the key driver. It's just that connection from, you know, our farm through right through to the end product. It's interesting because we have been going out to fairs, trade fairs, and things like that and engaging more with customers over the last year. And it's fascinating. People come up and they just, they almost whisper it and they say, I really love him. And it's, it's funny that a lot, a lot of people love him, but they probably, for some reason, don't talk about it very loudly and, and, and things. So it's just, it's been an interesting process for us. And, uh, and. And a lot of people have been really enjoying learning about hemp and its environmental factors and things like that. So, yeah, a lot of it's the connection to farm. And the key thing for us has actually been to get out into the market and get people to get their hands on it, because the softness of it is, really sells it. So, just getting people to get their hands on it's been a really key thing for us too, to help sell."

Ensor says this is one of the ways they’ve been able to keep repeat customers.