Our Story

Iron Roots was founded in 2017 by three friends who saw a different future for sportswear. Annoyed by the amount of plastic used in sportswear and the lack of natural options they decided to take matters into their own hands. Identifying two challenges within the industry, Iron Roots sets out on a journey to tackle them. On one hand, the need for more sustainable production of sportswear is the reason we use only natural materials like hemp and lyocell. On the other hand, the bad labour practices caused all over the world by the industry made us decide to try and set up our supply chains as locally and transparent as possible. This way we can work towards a better future for everyone involved in the making of our products.

Behind every product that we made there’s a story. From the materials we pick, to the people that make them, we always want to tell you what the story is behind them.

Hemp: The main resource we use in our sportswear is hemp or also known as industrial hemp. Not to be confused with its smokable counterpart marijuana. To make it clear: they both come from the family ‘cannabis sativa’, but hemp has negligible amounts of THC in it. Which is the psychoactive substance that causes people to get high. This means that you can’t get high of hemp, and thus there’s no use in smoking it. Check out our blogs if you would like to know more about hemp and other interesting subjects.

Hemp is a very sustainable alternative to other materials such as polyester and cotton. Since it doesn’t need any pesticides to grow, and requires a lot less water and energy than the alternatives.

Hemp has been used over centuries in all different kinds of products such as sails and ropes. This is mainly because of the immense strength it offers and its durability. While hemp has been used in clothing too, you rarely see clothing from it now. We want to change that!

T-Shirts: So the t-shirts that are made with our performance blend (55% hemp / 45% organic cotton) are actually put together in our home country: The Netherlands. We import rolls of fabric from China and make t-shirts out of them in a city called Enschede. By doing the cutting and sewing locally, we can guarantee that there’s no bad labour practices going on.