Orders & Shipping
We ship from our warehouse in Brooklyn, NY. We ship to all addresses within the United States, including PO boxes and APO / FPO addresses. We also have the capability to ship to Australia and the European Union.
You can find more information on our Shipping Policy page.
Pre-orders let us make the right amount of gear instead of gambling on huge inventory, which matters a lot for a bootstrapped small business and our cash flow. When you place a pre-order, your card is charged at checkout and your place in the production run is reserved. Each pre-order product page lists our best estimate for when that batch will ship, and we will email you with occasional notes on where your product is in the manufacturing process.
As a thank you for trusting us with your money for a few months, we offer meaningful discounts on pre-order pieces.
You can find more information on our Pre-Orders Policy page.
We are not an “everything-in-two-hours” kind of company, but rather we believe that the best things take time. Most in-stock orders leave our warehouse within 24 hours, and standard shipping within the US usually takes about 3 to 7 business days after that.
If you change your mind or spot a mistake, email us as soon as you can with your order number and what you would like to adjust. If your order has not shipped yet, we can usually update the size or color, fix an address issue or cancel it for you. We are a small team and every order is touched by real people, so it is a big help when folks can double check their cart before they buy, but we will always do our best to help if something slips through. Once a package is with the carrier we cannot pull it back, but we can still work with you on a return or exchange once it arrives.
For pre-orders, the product page will show the expected batch ship date, and we will send occasional emails with production updates so you know roughly where things stand. Once your order ships, you will receive an email with a tracking link you can use to follow it all the way to your door.
If you realize your address needs to be corrected, email us as soon as you can. If the package has not gone out yet we can usually update it; if it has, we will work with you on the best next step.
We accept major credit and debit cards, along with common digital wallets such as Apple Pay or Shop Pay. All payments are processed securely through our e-commerce payment platform, so we never see nor store your full card number.
The only places we can accept cash & checks are at our in-person Terlingua Threads pop-up events or through our authorized Terlingua Threads retailers. The payment methods above are usually also accepted here.
Returns & Exchanges
We want you to love what you wear, not feel stuck with something that doesn’t work. You can request a return or exchange within our posted return window, as long as the item is in like-new condition (clean, unworn beyond brief try-on, and with tags/labels intact).
Because we’re a small brand, we also try to keep returns reasonable. Ordering multiple sizes with the plan to send most back ties up inventory and adds extra shipping and handling. It’s costly, slows down restocks, and creates unnecessary transportation waste. If you’re unsure on sizing, email us first. Provide us a few basic measurements and other brands that normally fit you well, and we’ll give you an honest recommendation based on your preferences before you order.
You can find more information on our Returns & Exchanges Policy page.
Email us with your order number and what you would like to send back or swap. We will walk you through the steps, provide any labels you need and let you know what to expect next.
For most returns there is a modest return shipping fee that we deduct from your refund. Exchanges for a different size or color are complimentary. We know many big retailers offer free returns on everything, but those costs get baked into higher prices and a lot of extra shipping and waste.
As a small brand, we want to be honest about the tradeoffs so we can keep quality high, prices as fair as we can make them, and still be here to make the next round of gear. If we made a mistake or a product is defective, we will of course make it right at our expense.
Visit our Returns & Exchanges Policy page to figure out when return shipping fees do & don't apply.
Once your return arrives and we have done a quick check, refunds or store credits are usually processed within a few business days. Your bank or card provider may take a few additional days to show the credit on your statement.
If something shows up damaged or clearly not right, email us with a few photos and your order number and we will take it from there. Depending on what happened, we will sort out a replacement, repair, or refund, and we will lean toward whatever feels most fair and useful for you.
Every piece of gear and every member of our community matters to us, so if something slips through, we genuinely want the chance to fix it.
Yes. Pre-order items follow the same basic return and exchange rules as in-stock products. Your return window starts when the order is delivered to you, not when you originally placed the pre-order.
Sizing & Fit
Our sizing is built around a relaxed, airflow-first fit. If you know your usual size in shirts or pants, start there and check our size chart for exact measurements.
- If you are between sizes and like an easier, breezier feel, we generally suggest going up one size so the fabric can float off your skin.
- If you are in between sizes and prefer a trimmer silhouette, staying with the smaller size will work, with the expectation that the fabric will relax a bit as it breaks in.
Taking a moment to compare your measurements to the size chart before you check out will give you the best shot at getting it right the first time.
We strongly encourage you to check out our Fit & Sizing Guide before buying.
Our fabrics are pre-washed and we have already accounted for that initial shrink in our sizing guide, so they should not shrink much more once they are in your hands. You might notice a shirt feels a little snug right out of the wash, especially our knit pieces, and then ease up again after a few minutes of moving around.
Our woven shirts and pants tend to hold their shape a bit more, with a gentler relaxation over the course of the day. In a good way, the fabric “learns” your body over time. If you follow our care instructions, your pieces should settle into a consistent, predictable fit that feels better the more you wear them.
Over a day of walking, hiking or travel, the fabric will loosen slightly and drape a bit more, which is part of how it lets air move around your body. You should not see extreme bagging or sagging, but you will notice the pieces feeling more relaxed and comfortable by the end of the day than when you first put them on. That broken-in, airy feeling is exactly what we are aiming for.
We are not trying to reinvent the size chart or run super oversized or skin tight, so in general, if you wear a medium in most outdoor or everyday brands, you will probably be a medium here as well. The main difference is our fit philosophy: we build in a bit more room for airflow and movement through a more relaxed fit, especially in the shoulders and through the body, so pieces feel better once you are actually out in the heat. They are a bit airier and more forgiving by design.
We are starting with a focused size range and a single relaxed fit. Down the road, we plan to add sizes and alternate fits – if we don’t have what you’re looking for, feel free to let us know! It will help prioritize our roadmap and create more gear our community members / future community members will love.
Yes, absolutely! If you’re on the fence, email us and we’ll do our best to give you a real recommendation instead of “just buy two and return one.” It helps a lot if you can share your height, how you’d describe your build, and what size you usually wear in a few other brands. If you’re comfortable adding a couple of quick measurements (e.g., chest and waist), that makes our guess even better, but it’s not required. We’d much rather spend a little time up front helping you get it right than ship extra boxes back and forth.
Message us at info@terlinguathreads.com and we will do our best to respond in a timely manner.
Fabrics & Material
Our core fabrics are 100 percent woven hemp for button-up shirts and pants, and 55% hemp 45% tencel (natural plant fibers) for our knit hooded henleys. For strength and safety, a few hidden components like sewing thread, care labels or pocket linings may contain small amounts of synthetic material. There is no polyester or elastane in the main fabric that sits against your skin, because we want the part you actually live in to be natural, breathable and comfortable in real heat.
Our bespoke Terlingua Coyote buttons are made of 100% post-consumer recycled plastic.
Polyester and similar synthetics can feel light at first and they look great in a quick dry test, but at the end of the day, they are still plastic- based fabrics. In real heat, especially when the air is humid, they often trap warmth, hold onto odor and rely on chemical finishes to feel “dry.” Those finishes quietly wash out over time, so the shirt you bought for its performance usually slides back toward feeling like any other plastic layer.
Our fabrics behave differently. Hemp is naturally more breathable and hydrophilic, which means it keeps a thin reservoir of moisture at the skin and lets more air move through the weave. That helps more of your sweat evaporate where it actually cools you instead of getting flung to the outside of the fabric or dripping straight to the ground. You will still know it is hot outside in Terlingua Threads, but you are less likely to feel like you are stewing inside your own shirt.
There is also the longer term side of synthetics. Polyester tends to pick up and keep smells, sheds microfibers in the wash and is hard to deal with responsibly at the end of its life. Hemp breaks in, not down, and does not depend on fragile coatings to feel good in the heat. Our north star has always been finding the fabric that performs best in serious heat, and after a lot of testing there is a reason we chose hemp over cheaper, fully synthetic options.
We really like cotton. In our opinion, it is great for shoulder seasons and everyday wear in a wide range of temperatures, roughly from cool spring and fall days up into the low 80s. We have plenty of cotton in our own personal closets. The reason we use hemp instead of cotton for Terlingua Threads is that our gear is aimed at the upper edge of heat (~90ºF / ~35ºC). The extra tensile strength of hemp is just icing on the cake.
Once cotton really soaks through, it tends to get heavy, clingy and slow to dry, especially in humid weather. Our woven hemp fabrics stay more structured when damp, keep air moving and do not glue themselves to your skin in the same way. You will still sweat in Terlingua Threads, and we are not claiming magic or that they will feel like air conditioning, but most people find that hemp feels less swampy and recovers faster than a basic cotton tee or button up on a hot day.
There is also a case to be made about saving water. Depending on the growing region and farming methods, some estimates we read suggest hemp can use on the order of 50% to 80% less irrigation water than conventionally grown cotton to produce the same amount of fiber. For a brand that takes most of its cues from deserts and other dry places, using a crop that asks less of already stressed freshwater systems makes sense to us.
We think of hemp, merino wool, and linen as a family of great fabrics, not enemies. Merino wool is fantastic as a soft, insulating layer in cool and cold weather and it manages odor very well (just as well as hemp). In truly hot conditions though, especially above about 90°F, wool can start to feel too warm and a little heavy, especially when it gets damp. It can also be more fragile when wet and is prone to developing thin spots and holes over time. Hemp was the clear winner for us in those “how do I survive this heat” days, because it moves air more freely, handles sweat without feeling spongy, and stands up better to repeated wear and washing. With that said, for snowboard season, I absolutely adore my merino wool inner layers.
Linen is an exceptional summertime fabric too, particularly for business formal and business casual wear in dry climates. It looks sharp and feels great when you are not carrying much and have easy access to an iron or steamer. We chose hemp over linen for the kind of use we care about most: hot weather, mixed humidity and often a backpack or camera strap involved. Hemp recovers faster when it gets wet, generally offers more UV protection, and is much more resistant to abrasion and long-term strain than linen typically is.
So TL;DR this is not an argument to abandon your merino or linen. Linen is still a great choice for a summer dinner or office day, and merino is hard to beat in winter. We created Terlingua Threads for a very specific use case when it is peak summer heat and you are actually going outside. In that lane, hemp gives us the mix of comfort and durability we want for clothes that are meant to last years, not just a season.
We’ve found that, yes, fabric color does matter. Light colors like our Desert Willow white and Chamisa tan and very dark colors like Obsidian black and Olivine green tend to hide sweat marks better than mid tones. Pale shades show less contrast when damp, and deep colors like black mask most patches once they begin to dry. Mid tones like Agave green or Prickly Pear pink can show darkened areas more clearly in the moment, especially in high humidity, even though the fabric itself still dries reasonably quickly once you ease off the effort.
If you know you are a heavy sweater and care about appearance, we gently steer you toward the lighter or very dark options (keep in mind that when fully-saturated, our white shirts like all fabrics will tend to be more shear). That said, sweat is not the enemy. Sweating is exactly how your body keeps cool, so we did not design these shirts to avoid sweat at all costs.
We know our gear is not cheap, and we do not expect you to take that on faith. We have come to terms with the fact that we are not expensive because we are pretentious, we are expensive because we are good. The short version is that we pay a lot more for what goes into each piece and we make them in smaller, slower batches. Our hemp fabrics cost roughly two to three times what many mass-market blends do, and we cut and sew in a small production studio in Porto, Portugal that pays everyone a dignified livable wage. On top of that, we spend a lot of time thoroughly testing and iterating in real heat before we sign off on a product.
When all is said and done, we are trying to build gear that performs, holds up, and feels worth reaching for year after year. With higher costs comes greater value – we would rather charge what it actually costs to do that well than quietly cut corners or design for planned obsolescence and bamboozle you into buying more and more and more. Fast, disposable gear (especially cheap synthetics) pushes people into a constant cycle of continuous spending and waste. Our hope is that Terlingua Threads gear earns a long, useful life and comes with you on years of adventures, not just one season.
Performance & Use
Hemp brings natural UV blocking and odor resistance to the table, so we start there rather than leaning on special coatings. Hemp fabrics can offer meaningful UPF without chemical treatments. Plus, the fiber structure helps slow the buildup of odor over long, hot days.
On many synthetic shirts, UV and anti-odor features are added as surface finishes that wash down over time, sometimes after only a few dozen laundry cycles. With hemp, the protection and odor resistance are part of the fiber and the weave, not a coating with an expiration date. You should still expect to wash your shirts (you don’t have to baby our gear), but you should not feel like they turn sour after one sweaty hike.
Sweat is your built-in cooling system, but it only helps you if it evaporates at your skin. In very dry desert air, most fabrics feel at least decent for a while because sweat evaporates so easily. Where things really separate is when the air turns heavy. Polyester is hydrophobic: it repels water and sheds it fast, which looks great in a “quick dry” test but often means your sweat leaves the skin region before it has a chance to cool you. Terlingua Threads’ hemp fabrics are hydrophilic: they hold a thin film of moisture at the skin–fabric interface and keep air moving through the weave, so more of your sweat is turned into useful cooling instead of being wasted.
In dry heat, both fabrics can shed a fair amount of heat, though hemp still feels less clingy and plasticky. As humidity climbs, the ceiling for cooling shrinks for every fabric, but our modeling and field testing show that hemp preserves much more of your body’s cooling capacity (often 2-3X the effective cooling of polyester in real summer conditions). You will still feel the heat in Terlingua Threads, but you have a bigger safety margin and less of that “stewing in your own shirt” sensation.
Sleeve length matters here too. In humid heat, short sleeves or rolled sleeves let more skin release heat directly, so unless you need maximum sun or brush protection, we usually recommend our short sleeve shirts for muggy days. Our long-sleeve hooded pieces really shine in dry, high-UV environments where protecting skin from the sun is the top priority.
They do somewhat well around water, but they are definitely not swim shirts. Hemp performs best in light moisture scenarios like morning dew, humidity, sweat, and light drizzle. It is also very comfortable in salt air and around the ocean and feels nicer than plastic fabrics when the air is sticky.
Once you fully soak it, the story changes. Hemp absorbs more water than synthetics and can take a few hours to fully dry, so it feels heavier and is not ideal for activities where you are in and out of the water all day. In warm, wet conditions where you will also be cold afterward, merino wool may be a better choice because it can retain warmth when wet in a way hemp simply does not.
So for hiking near water, paddling on a warm day or spending time on the coast, Terlingua Threads hold up well and stays comfortable as it dries. For true swimming or repeated full immersion, we would still reach for purpose built swim or surf gear made for that job.
Hemp is a very strong fiber and we pair it with weaves and stitching that are meant to handle real use. Our shirts and pants have been tested on long hikes, hot travel days, desert scrambles and sweaty city miles. You should not baby them. That said, they are still fabric, not armor. Sliding down rocks, repeated snags or constant heavy pack rub in the same spot can eventually show wear.
Our goal is that you see pieces break in and pick up character long before you see true failure, and if you ever experience serious issues under normal use, we would like to hear from you so we can keep improving. In some cases, you may be eligible for replacement or repair options.
YES. Even though our fabrics can reach up to UPF 50+ for some of the products, they only protect the skin they actually cover, and real life is messy: shirts shift, sleeves ride up, fabric can stretch or get wet. Your face, neck, and hands still need protection (even with our hooded henley), and on long days in strong sun we still recommend a layer of sunscreen under the fabric for extra protection.
One of the things that quite candidly pisses me off the most in this space is seeing brands quietly (and sometimes not even that quietly) imply that you never have to wear sunscreen again if you just buy more of their clothing. If anyone had the right to say that, it would be us, but you will never hear us give bad medical advice as a kitschy slogan to sell product.
Terlingua Threads are designed to be one part of your hot weather kit, right alongside good sunscreen, good hydration, and good sense.
Honestly, no. These pieces are built first and foremost for hot weather. You will sometimes see hemp marketed as an all-season thermoregulator, but in our own testing we started feeling chilly in Terlingua gear on its own much below about 70°F. Our fabrics are designed to move heat away from you, not trap it.
For true cold or even properly cool shoulder seasons, we think you are better served by good merino wool layers from brands that specialize in winter gear. We would rather be clear about what our shirts do well than pretend they can do everything. “Does everything” is usually an insincere marketing line, not a physics reality.
Care, Repairs, & Lifespan
For most pieces, machine wash in cold water with like colors using a mild detergent. Avoid bleach and fabric softeners, which are hard on natural fibers and do not really help performance. Turning garments inside out can help protect buttons and reduce surface wear over time.
For drying, the best option for longevity is to hang dry or lay flat. Like most natural fiber shirts, they can feel a bit crisp right off the line, but that softens out within a few minutes of wear as the fabric relaxes again.
If you prefer the convenience of a dryer, using a low heat, delicate cycle is not the end of the world. From a purist standpoint, line drying will always be kinder to the garment (but as the founder I will admit that more often than not I put them on tumble dry on low heat when life is extra busy).
Our knits and henleys are fairly wrinkle resistant and travel easily. Our 100 percent woven hemp shirts and pants behave more like linen. They can crease in a bag but relax and look better again after a bit of wear. Folding instead of stuffing and hanging them up when you arrive at your destination will go a long way.
For more persistent wrinkles, a good wash and dry will always reset them. A few small wrinkles are part of the “lived in” look that will patina over time, and we think that looks rather rugged and cool.
Yes. You can iron on a medium setting or use a steamer to relax wrinkles, especially on woven shirts and pants. Avoid very high heat directly on trims, labels, or buttons and test a small area first if you are unsure. Most of the time a quick steam or a bit of gravity on a hanger is enough to get things looking presentable again.
Natural woven fabrics like hemp are very repair friendly. Small holes, seam pops or worn spots can usually be handled by a good tailor, cobbler style repair shop or an outdoor gear repair service. We do not yet run a formal in-house repair program, although it is something we are aiming to offer one day when we have more scale and cash reserves.
If something fails early in its life, email us at support@terlinguathreads.com and we will work with you on a fair solution rather than quietly nudging you toward a trash bin. We would much rather see our pieces patched and back on an adventure than thrown away.
You can find about repairs and whether issues are covered by our warranty on our Warranty & Repairs page.
Over time you can expect the fabric to soften, drape a bit more, and if you're lucky develop a bit of a patina (especially on our wovens). They should pick up the kind of character you usually only see in favorite jeans or boots. Seams and fabric should remain sound under normal use.
If you wear a piece hard you should see it wear in, not fall apart. If you do experience serious breakdown with reasonable use, we genuinely want to hear about it so we can understand what happened and keep improving for future batches.
Special Requests & Other Questions
Right now we are not set up to do one off custom embroidery or name personalization on individual orders. We work in small batches and try to keep our production simple and focused so we can get the core product right and keep costs as low as possible without compromising quality.
For larger groups, we might be able to accommodate (depending on the request). For example, if you are outfitting an outdoor tour company, a guiding service, a trail crew, a small business team, or even an outdoor trades crew, we may be able to explore something special. Send us an email at info@terlinguathreads.com with what you have in mind, how many pieces you are thinking about and your timing, and we will let you know what feels realistic and what the costs might look like.
When we say we give 3% of net sales, we mean 3% of our product revenue, not 3% of whatever profit might be left at the end of the year.
Here’s how we calculate it:
- We start with our total product sales for the year.
- We subtract refunds and returns, plus any discounts or promo codes applied to those orders.
- We also exclude shipping fees and taxes, since those flow straight through to carriers and governments.
What’s left is our net sales – the product revenue from gear that’s out in the world being used. We donate 3% of that amount to the causes we’ve committed:
- 1% to US National Parks conservation
- 1% to K-6 STEM education in the Sonoran Desert (California's Imperial Valley)
- 1% to programs for adults with intellectual & developmental disabilities in Portugal
We’d never want you to keep something that doesn’t feel right for you - your comfort and trust come first. Our goal is simply to be predictable and transparent: when you do find pieces you love and keep in rotation, a fixed portion of that revenue always goes to these places and programs.
Yes! If you are looking to outfit a guide crew, team or company, email us with roughly how many people, what pieces you are interested in, sizes, and your timing. Feel free to reach out to info@terlinguathreads.com, we would love to learn more about how we can keep you and your team cool.
Right now Terlingua Threads is available directly through our website and at the occasional pop up or event in Southern California or New York. We are in the process of finding a small number of retail partners in the United States, Australia, and continental Europe, and we will list them on our site as they come on board so you can see where to find us in person.
If you have any stores in mind that you think would be a perfect fit for Terlingua Threads, we would love to hear from you. We have a strong preference for independent, family-owned gear shops.
If you would like to carry Terlingua Threads in your store, please email us and we would be happy to see how we might be able to collaborate.
We hope you do. Our hang tags feature park-inspired art and fun facts that we designed and created from durable natural materials so they can live on as bookmarks. The fronts of some of the tags also include peel-off stickers you can put on a bottle, notebook, or cooler. If you like the gear enough to keep it, we would much rather see the tags that come with the gear put to use than tossed straight into the bin.
Email us at the address in our footer and a real person from our team will read it. We will do our best to respond as soon as we can. We genuinely appreciate hearing from people who are thinking hard about their gear - we view feedback as a gift, because it means you’re invested enough in us to help us get better.
