All-in-one organic cloth pads with a Zorb core.

Have you ever put off an activity simply because it coincided with your heaviest menstrual day and you weren't certain if your pad would perform well enough?  Have you ever found that your pad has migrated to an unfortunate position after even just an hour of light exercise?  Have you ever needed to wear your pad for an extended period of time because there was no convenient place to change it and as a result, there was overflow into the wings and onto your clothing?  Have you ever wished there was a pad that was reasonably thin yet highly absorbent and waterproof?  Have you ever wished your pad kept you cleaner?  If you answered yes to any of these questions, then Venture may be the right pad for you.

Venture Cloth Pads are an exciting new addition to our pad line.  They were created to meet the menstrual or stress incontinence needs of women who are constantly on the go who need a pad to match their active lifestyle. However, with that said, we feel this is an amazing pad design that will delight any woman, no matter your activity level.   

Construction

Similar to our Heavenly Cloth Pads, organic hemp fleece is the backbone of our Venture Pads.  Organic hemp fleece is soft, extremely absorbent, breathable, and will move with you due to the stretch of the fabric. Hemp is a wonderful fabric for those with chemical sensitivities for two reasons. First, hemp grows well without herbicides, fungicides, or pesticides and is considered an  organic plant.  Second, from field to fabric, hemp is "finished" using eco-friendly processes leaving no toxic chemical residue in the fabric.  Additionally hemp is naturally antimicrobial, antifungal and resistant to mildew. 

What sets our Venture Cloth Pads apart from our Heavenly Cloth Pads is that they are an AIO (all in one) pad with a highly absorbent two layer exposed core sewn on top of body of this pad.  

Venture Core

The exposed core consists of a top layer of hemp fleece and an under layer of Zorb.  Zorb contains only tangled cellulose fibers from bamboo/cotton/viscose and poly micro fiber,  These  fibers are non-allergenic, durable and easy to sanitize.  Zorb can trap moisture & absorb 10x its weight in moisture in half a second; 20x faster than cotton, bamboo or hemp knits.   With Zorb placed directly under the top layer of hemp fleece, it acts as both a trapper and director for fluid.  

Fabrics such as cotton, hemp,or bamboo alone will absorb moisture extremely well in their own right, but the liquid will eventually migrate in all directions as the fabric  becomes more and more saturated.  The more migration, the more liquid comes into contact with your skin in areas you'd prefer it did not.  Worst case scenario, the pad can eventually leak - usually from the wings.  However, with the addition of Zorb directly under the top layer, fluids are immediately trapped into the core and directed down into the middle of the pad.  Rather than spreading out toward the winged areas, fluid will collect at the center and spread toward the front or back of the pad keeping you cleaner and drier - even on your heaviest day.

Our exposed core is contoured for comfort and stability.  This design helps immensely in keeping the pad exactly where you placed it.  It resists bunching up. The front and back of the core "step down" into the body of the pad so you won't feel like you are sitting on a plank on either end.

Venture Body

There is little doubt that Zorb is an amazing fabric that has revolutionized the cloth industry.  Zorb literally absorbs liquid faster than a sponge, but it can also be wrung out like a sponge and this is where hemp fleece comes into play. Zorb must be paired with another very absorbent fabric to lock and hold liquid.  We've paired the exposed core of this pad with a full body layer of hemp fleece.  With a layer of hemp both above and below the Zorb, liquid is absorbed quickly into the center of the pad and held there extremely well keeping you cleaner overall.  

Under the hemp fleece body layer is a layer of ProSoft ProECO PUL that covers the entire pad wing to wing and front to back for total protection.  This PUL has been laminated to an organic cotton jersey knit.  The organic jersey knit side of this special PUL is the layer you will feel as the backing to this pad. This is a breathable, waterproof, American-made, environmentally safe PUL that is extremely durable.  It is able to remain waterproof even after 300+ hot washes.  This PUL is soft and stretchy making it a good match to our Venture Pads.

Sizes and Uses

We offer our Venture pads in two sizes: 9 inch and 12 inch.  Please note that our estimates for incontinence loss capacity do not equate to menstrual flow.  As blood is thicker than water, our pads can typically contain and hold more blood than urine.  Our estimates for incontinence loss are on the conservative side meaning they do not reflect what the pad will hold at saturation limit.  They reflect what the pad can absorb without wicking out the sides.

Our 9 inch pads are perfect for light to moderately heavy flow - day or night.  It is recommended for stress incontinence with a 2oz. loss or less.  This size has been a top choice for petite women and teens but is in no way limited to smaller women. The 9 inch pad is very discreet yet offers excellent protection and absorbency.  The exposed core is slightly contoured for comfort but not too much so as not to reduce the absorbency capacity of this pad.  This pad size is approximately 3" wide when snapped closed.  NOTE: As of November 2019, the 9" size has had a slight tweak to it's shape to make it more ergonomic.  

Our 12 inch pads are excellent for heavy flow days, excessive gushing, overnight use, or any case where extended wear and maximum absorbency are of utmost concern.  It is recommended for stress incontinence with a 3oz. loss or less.  The 12" pad offers a more contoured exposed core with larger surface areas in the front and back.  This pad size is approximately 3.25" wide when snapped closed.  While some women like a smaller more discreet pad, others find a larger pad more comfortable.  As always, try each size before buying in large quantities.

Pads are sold with nylon snaps applied..  Cloth pads are best worn with form fitting underwear.  When worn correctly, the pad lays in, you fold over the wings and snap it closed.  If your underwear do not fit properly, your pad may still shift  See our page: 

 See also:

• Are your cloth pads compatible with your underwear? 
• Cloth Pad Sizes Demystified
• Why Choose Hemp Textiles for Your Cloth Pads?
• Venture Cloth Pads and Equine Emergencies

Care and Washing

All materials are pre-washed before sewing to ensure that most shrinking is done.  

You may wash and dry your pads in your washer and dryer on any setting.

Before use, your pads will need to be conditioned through multiple wash and dry cycles.  Due to its strength, hemp fabrics need more conditioning than plain cottons, flannels, and most other fabrics used for cloth pads today.  Don't be tempted to "baby" your new pads.  Hemp requires  a vigorous break-in.   We recommend you wash and dry at least five times on hot settings with vigorous agitation before you begin trying them out.  Throwing them in with the white load will help break the fabric in much faster than washing them alone.  Hand washing will NOT condition your pads so we do not recommend this when your pads are "new."  Hand washing after your pad has reached maximum absorbency is fine.  Line drying, however, will render a very stiff pad so drying in a dryer is still recommended.  You can test your pads for absorbency by pouring a small amount of liquid on the top of the pad.   If the liquid soaks in immediately, the pad is ready for use.  If the liquid sits on top of the pad for a few seconds, the pad needs more conditioning.  Hemp tends to reach it's peak around the 10th washing so keep this in mind when making a final determination if the pad is working for your needs.

Please note that our Venture Cloth Pads will require a longer dry cycle than our Heavenly Cloth Pads due to the exposed core.  While we do consider this a drawback to the Venture design and any cloth pad design in which multiple small layers are sewn tightly together, we feel that the benefits of Venture pads far outweigh the longer drying period required.  As a rule, hemp fabrics are very "thirsty" and do require longer drying times as compared to cotton fabrics.  This "thirst" is what allows hemp fabrics absorb and hold 3x better than non-hemp blended fabrics. 

Our customers generally put their soiled pads into a container separate from their usual laundry.  When they were ready to wash, they ran the pads through a rinse cycle first, then washed like their white loads.   Do not use fabric softener nor dryer sheets as they will coat your pads and interfere with absorbency.  As far as laundry soaps go, we've tried eco-friendly soaps, handmade borax type soaps, and many name brand soaps and found none adversely affected the pads.  So our soap recommendation is going to be whatever your personal choice is.  The only thing we do not recommend is bleach.  If staining is an issue, sunning the pads works wonders.   Over the years, we've had zero complaints about "stinky hemp" and we believe this is doe to the more open construction of these pads allowing them to be fully agitated and cleaned well.

For storage of soiled pads while on the go, our customers found a Zip Lock to be perfect.  You may also consider a wet bag option.

How Many Do You Need? 

This depends on your personal cycle and how often you want to wash.  Figure out an average number of pads you use per day and the how many days you want to go before washing.  So if you use six pads a day and want to wash every three days, you would need 18 pads.  Another thing to consider is the more pads you have in rotation, the longer the pads will last.