The search for a vegan beanie that is not acrylic or polyester

Many beanies currently are made of synthetic fibres, usually acrylic (= polyacrylic), or polyester, or a blend of the two. This is great because these are not from animals.

For a while I've been looking for one that's made from 100% cotton or hemp (or a blend).

Well, ... check out this beanie:

I would call this a late 1990s Jamie Thomas beanie - by the French skateboard wheel company par excellence "Haze Wheels".

Haze Wheels is a skateboard wheel company from Paris, France, founded and run by Betrand Soubrier. He was so nice as to send me these photos of the material label:

Note that the fold-over beanies (= cuffed beanies) by Haze Wheels contain sheep's wool. (There was some incorrect info on their website saying one of the fold-over beanie was 100% cotton - this is not correct.)

You can follow Haze Wheels on instagram ... if you're inclined to take part in the demoniacal system that is instagram. Just click follow, log out, and go skate.

Side note: Many beanies also have wool (from sheep), but I don't use wool because animals can be hurt when they are sheared. Shearing itself doesn’t necessarily harm sheep, but in large-scale or rushed operations, animals can be injured or stressed.

And where do "farmed animals" (of any kind) usually end up before they get very old? The slaughterhouse. Of course, technically, you can obtain animal hair from an animal of you happen to be friends with that animal, say you have a rescued sheep in your garden/sheep stable. But I don't.

Check out this BBC article of PETA being criticized for exaggerating that wool is as bad as fur. Sometimes it maybe, sometimes not. But even if it's not as cruel as fur, that doesn't make it animal-friendly.

In the BBC article, the the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is quoted as saying "that sheep were not killed for their wool as animals were in the fur industry, and there were 'standards in place' for their general welfare."

That's technically correct, but "standards" are not always adhered to, and even if they are: Sheep are usually raised for their wool and meat - both make it profitable - and eventually they are slaughtered for meat. But that is an abstract way of looking at it. If they didn't slaughter sheep, it would be very expensive to raise them and feed them until they die of old age. This would make wool unprofitable.

It's very similar with dairy products and beef. Dairy cows are slaughtered for beef, but slaughter is an integral part of a dairy cow's life. Same with sheep. Slaughter is an integral part of a "wool sheep's" life, i.e., slaughter is an integral part of the wool industry’s production cycle.

 Of course, there are always exceptions. But the exception proves the rule.