TEXAS NEIGHBORS | SUMMER 2019 Grown, made and worn in Texas By Jessica Domel Multimedia Reporter The next time you slide on a pair of Wran-gler jeans, check the tags. The cotton they’re made out of may have been grown right here in Texas. Big Spring farmers Vance and Mandie Smith were selected by Wrangler to provide the cotton for the Texas jeans and t-shirts in the brand’s new Rooted collection. “I think it’s a very exciting opportunity and feel very blessed,” Vance, a member of the Photos and video courtesy of Wrangler Howard County Farm Bureau board of direc-tors, said. Vance is a fifth gen-eration farmer in the Big Spring area, but his family has farmed in the United States for about 200 years. The Smiths were cho-sen by Wrangler for the land stewardship and conservation practices, according to Roian Atwood, Wrangler’s director of Sustainability. “They are using cover crops in the off-season, using drip tape, a complex rotation, conservation tillage techniques, and all of these good land stewardship practices have a beneficial result to the environment—bet-ter water infiltration into the water table and better water retention,” Atwood said in an interview with the Texas Farm Bureau Radio Network. After the cotton is harvested on the Smith’s farm, it is shipped to Georgia where it is spun into yarn and made into fabric. It’s then sent back to El Paso where it is cut, sewn and washed. “What’s neat and interesting about the Rooted Texas jean and the cotton by Vance and Mandie Smith is the details that we put into it—all the surprise and delight trims that emulate state pride and highlight where it’s from,” Atwood said. The abbreviation “TX” is on the shank of the jeans. On the back patch, there’s a silhouette of Texas, and on the inside pocket, there’s a description of where the cotton came from. “There’s actually Vance’s signature there that says this cotton came from our farm, and we stand behind it,” Atwood said. The collection is currently only available on the Wrangler website, but it will soon be available in select retail outlets. A women’s jean is also in the works. “We also want to expand with different growers,” Atwood said. More information on Wrangler’s Rooted collection is online at www.wrangler.com/ collections/wrangler-rooted.html. WWW.TEXASFARMBUREAU.ORG