Whose T-shirt is it Anyway?

State pride shirts are everywhere. We attempt to find out who designed what, when.

Of course Michiganders are happy to showcase the Great Lakes State. And who doesn’t want to look good?

Welcome to the Michigan T-shirt. More and more people are proudly displaying their home state in clever and colorful ways. That’s true whether it’s M-22, the Michigan hand, the burgeoning brewing scene, or any of a number of other ingenious ways to represent.

No doubt the T-shirt scene is a crowded one. There are a plethora of T-shirt manufacturers/distributors around the area sporting various Michigan themes. Add those from downstate and it’s hard not to see someone sporting a Michigan T-shirt. 

Nick Madrick, the COO at M-22, said company founders Matt and Keegan Myers just made a couple M-22 themed T-shirts on a whim in the early 2000s. “There was no intention to turn it into a brand,” he said. Then they were featured in a story on kiteboarding in Traverse Magazine, and the cover shot included an M-22 shirt. “We started getting requests for shirts and would sell them from the back of a van,” Madrick said.

They branched out from T-shirts to hoodies, hats and mugs, all emblazoned with the familiar road sign. Until they hit on another idea: turning the lower peninsula a few degrees counterclockwise and using it as a V in LOVE. “That’s a sub-brand,” said Madrick.

Lance Hill and Byron Pettigrew started High Five Threads almost seven years ago. “Most everything was touristy and gimmicky then,” said Hill. “It was all moose and cabins, except for M-22.” 

The two were doing marketing and consulting and opened a shop at the Village at Grand Traverse because they wanted some office space. They decided to try their hands at the T-shirt business – literally. Their logo of two hands logo quickly became their calling card. “They wanted retail (at the Village), and we said we’ll do this on the side.”

When the business took off, they were as surprised as anyone. The two eventually opened a second store in downtown Traverse City, which they closed last year when more space opened up in the Village. “We almost quadrupled the size. We love what’s going on there,” said Hill, noting it’s easier to have more space in one store without the additional rent and overhead of a second location.

Beau Warren is another who has embraced the concept. The owner of Tee See Tee (pictured above) said he first got into T-shirts as a youngster. “As a lad I was a little chubby. I’d wear T-shirts that made a statement. It obscured the awkward days and I felt really good,” he said. Warren actually began making his own as a youngster, using puffy paint and neon colors.

In addition to playing off Lord of the Rings with a Michigan map shirt recalling the maps of Middle Earth and camping logoed shirts, he offers limited runs of shirts recalling the past, touting places like Dills, Tanz Haus and Arne’s Funland. “We did Skateworld two years ago and had such a huge response. They are always a limited run, and I get permission,” Warren said.

One of the owners of Livn Fresh disputes the notion his company sells apparel. That’s despite the evidence online, where there are models sporting the Michigan map on shirts, pants and bags. “We sell emotion,” said Tim Croll, who works with fellow co-owners Dave and Cari Samalik.

Among the company’s most popular items are the Great Lakes Girl line, which sport an anchor setting off the lettering. Another favorite is a play on the Detroit Tigers logo, with an old English-styled D, the cutout of the D being the lower peninsula and the upper part of the D the upper peninsula. “You have to be unique and original,” he said.

Livn Fresh is looking to extend the concept of state pride outside our borders, with another dozen state-themed shirts and ancillaries available, as well as sharing the fun with our neighbor to the north, Canada.

While most of the companies favor online sales with either a single brick-and-mortar location or wholesaling to other retail operations, Dave Michaels had a different concept. He owns three Momentum stores, with another three each owned by his sister and his sister-in-law.  His three stores — Charlevoix, Petoskey and Traverse City — are open year-round, while the others, located in summer hot spots like Glen Arbor, Frankfort and Saugatuck, are open seasonally.

The stores all stock a variety of clothing emblazoned with variants on the Great Lakes and other waterways. “Our main theme is water,” he said.

Josh Kent, the founder and CEO of Sunfrog in Gaylord, sells thousands and thousands of T-shirts across the country. He said the Great Lake State and the Lone Star State are the leaders among state-themed shirts. “Michigan and Texas are some of the strongest state pride shirts,” he noted. Sunfrog also exclusively prints for M-22. “They move a lot of product — millions of dollars.”

Given the hype and competition, some try to steer clear of the scrum. Ed Roth, founder and owner of Roth T-Shirt Company in downtown Traverse City, eschews any sort of “Love Michigan” designs in favor of his squiggly drawings set off by sayings such as “Love My Grandkids ... should have had them first.” But he too favors some local landmarks, such as area lakes and rivers, and the state’s craft beer scene, reinterpreting the peninsulas as a bottle pouring into a beer mug. 

All those in the business say the key to success is originality. Though it’s a crowded market, they seem to welcome competition, as long as everyone plays by the rules and don’t slavishly copy one another. “Anybody can grab a T and put Michigan on it and start selling them. We just make sure others aren’t copying us, and vice versa,” said Madrick. “They tout the state – you can’t get mad at that.”

Is there continued room for growth? Hill thinks so, with a caveat. “I don’t know that we’ve reached a saturation point, as long as you’re coming up with unique stuff,” he said.

“I don’t think Michigan pride is ever going to go away,” agreed Warren. He believes that enthusiasm about the state’s bevy of natural features, from forests to lakes and rivers, will always lend itself to expressions of Michigan love.

 

 

 

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