Our Story

Nomads: Tribes of people who live in harmony with the seasons. The oldest method of human existence. People who travel to follow the generous gifts of the earth, rather than tailoring the earth to their needs.

It might sound cliché, but the dream of creating our sustainable styles began in the year 2000, out of the back of a small VW van, with just a few rolls of fabric and a sewing machine. We relied almost entirely on the kindness of our friends, who would let us use their living rooms as sewing studios, and encumber their bathrooms with dye baths. Gotta love your own tribe.

Through our nomadic lifestyle, we grew to appreciate living sustainably, in harmony with our community and our surroundings. It only made sense to find and use fabrics that fit this mandate.

At that time, Hemp was just starting to emerge in the clothing industry as a viable fabric source. Even though our ancestors had used it for thousands of years around the world, hemp had a slow entry into the mainstream clothing industry. This was partly due to the oppression of its sister plant, Cannabis, but also because the process used to weave the plant into fabric was pretty rudimentary at that time. Remember all those early hemp styles? Shapeless, wrinkled, cardboard-looking clothes. Going green is one thing, but looking as if you just put on a potato bag is another. We wanted to use this amazing fabric, but knew that it needed to be moved towards something softer that we could use for our cross-over urban/tribal styles.

After some searching, we found our “partners in crime”: fabric manufacturers who were willing to develop products that would suit our styles, and help take hemp into the mainstream. Now, 20 years later, we have worked together to develop a variety of stretch textiles ranging from soft, durable hemp fabrics to organic cotton, soy and bamboo that are truly unique to our brand.

Even though Nomads is now an international company with retailers stretching to almost all continents, we still value our grass-roots feel, and take pride in our one-on-one service. There is no automated phone system here. When you call, you will reach us directly, and will get the information you need within seconds. Along with a devotion for eco-textiles and an environmentally sustainable lifestyle, we also take pride in employing fair labor in the construction of all our garments. While we do manufacture in China, we spent the time and energy to source out the most environmentally friendly, fair-trade factory we could find, so that we were sure we were passing guilt-free, planet-friendly savings on to you.

Now in our 20th year, we offer two highly sought after collections of stylish and funky clothes per year in the most comfortable and tough natural fibers available to mankind. Green fibers are the way of the future. Using the natural products provided by Gaia there is no need for the earth to suffer for fashion. We are dedicated to the idea of not only sustainable clothing, but also a way of life, and will keep pushing the quality of our clothing and fabrics forward with innovative and modern designs that perfectly reflect our place and time on this wonderful planet.

Welcome to our tribe,
Louis and Anik (the Nomads)