We all absolutely love to wear denim, whether rain or shine. Did you know the popular blue denim was first created in a small French town called Nîmes? In fact, that’s where the word ‘denim’ comes from––de Nîmes, which was later anglicised to denim. The first denim trousers were made in the 1800s, but it wasn’t until the 1950s when cultural icons like James Dean and Marlon Brando brought jeans to popular culture, and soon they were everywhere!
The denim industry, globally valued at USD 110 billion in 2020, is only expected to grow bigger. Unfortunately, it is also expected to become dirtier and even more gluttonous, consuming resources and water like never before.
The cotton used to spin these beautiful denim fabrics, is one of the thirstiest crops on the planet. The WWF estimates that about 97% of the irrigation water from the Indus river in the Indian subcontinent goes towards crops like cotton. Furthermore, the textile industry in Asia has contaminated around 70 percent of the lakes and rivers in the continent. The contaminants include heavy metals like copper, lead, and mercury, as well as chemicals from the denim washing process.
Did you know that it takes 7,600 liters of water to make just one single pair of jeans? To put that into perspective, that is more than the amount of water consumed during showers by an average person yearly! Can we continue living the same way we did, after knowing what we do now? We need to make a change.
And so, we designed HMS in order to reduce the water consumption and contamination during the denim washing process. Where normal pumice stones dissolve quickly into the water, resulting in tons of wastewater, HMS is made out of biodegradable polymers that reduces contamination and uses 20% less water than pumice stones. Not only is it more environmentally conscious, but is also cost effective!
Tell your friends and family about the environmental costs associated with denim manufacturing. Contact your favorite denim brand or local denim manufacturers and ask them about their practices. Spread the word about HMS so that you can wear your favorite denim washes and vintage looks guilt-free!