THTC Clothing - Lexicon

THTC or The Hemp Trading Company are a UK based clothing company who have been sponsoring a whole host of events and artists from the drum & bass and hip hop scene over the past year. Two brothers, Gav and Dru Lawson and friend Dan Sodergren set up the clothing company in opposition to man-made, polluting fabrics such as nylon and polyester whilst actively promoting the eco-awareness and ethical message that their threads carry. Keeping promotion on a street level THTC aims for the heart of the underground and design influences can be found in martial arts, skating and urban motions.

The unique clothing is manufactured in Nepal and China from the finest fabrics woven from strong and durable organic hemp and cotton. So far their clothing range consists of 'hemp denim', martial art themed 'dragon pants', screen printed and hand embroidered long/short sleeved shirts, with hoodies and sweats soon to come. Bold and humourous slogans such as 'Hippi Killa', 'No Sweat Shop', 'Globali$e', 'Burn Bush Burn', 'Fuck Synthetics' and 'NATO (Now A Terrorist Organisation)' are emblazoned on their t-shirts.

THTC realise that people today are making more of a conscious decision to make a moral purchase and points to the fact that companies like Nike and Gap are being shamed for running slave labour operations in third world countries. Up until early this century hemp was the world's most traded commodity and at the moment you can find hemp used in bank notes and tea bags for their quality of strength.

Some of the artists that can be found advocating the THTC cause are True Playaz, Randall, DJ Rap, The Mixologists, DJ Yoda (Spread Love), Rodney P & Skitz, Mr. Scruff, Techitch, Decoder & Kosheen, Tungsten & Morph, Wildchild, Nicky Blackmarket, 24Seven & Break Beat Culture, J-RAQ, DJ Kid, Ice Minus, Cause 4 Concern, Marcus Intalex, Impact and Sub Tub. MCs include Jakes, Piper, Trip, Jr. Red, Power & DRS. THTC have also teamed up with other artists entwined with the music culture such as graf writers and breakdancers.

THTC has taken not only to sponsoring artists but also club nights up and down the country and veers away from the more faceless corporate sponsorship that can sometimes be witnessed. Strong links have been formed with some of the One Nation events up and down the country, Emission in Reading, Life in Bristol, Traffic at Colosseum and Dekefex at Mass amongst others asserting the clothing companies street level promotion tactics.

In the not too distant future you can see THTC teaming up with some new found friends to produce a selection of hemp t's. Not releasing any names at the moment but you can expect to see some big record labels and promoters all taking up the THTC cause very soon. To see the THTC designs in effect simply hit up their website, www.thtc.co.uk.

THTC [The Hemp Trading Company] are offering up & coming street artists the chance of providing their artwork to be used as one of next seasons T-shirt designs. Two runners up will also be offered their own page on www.thtc.co.uk, under the street art section, to display their work, along with a biog and contact details. Royalties will be paid to the winning artist on sale of the T-shirts.

To take part please send your designs, as either jpeg. or gif. format to gav@thtc.co.uk