Sagamok Anishnawbek entrepreneur gaining traction with clothing company
By Sam Laskaris
TORONTO – While the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has seen many businesses close their doors, at times permanently, Mitch Gegwetch has done just the opposite.
The 27-year-old Ojibwe, a member of Sagamok Anishnawbek, launched his clothing brand business, Our Feather Clothing Company, this past March, just as COVID-19 started sweeping the globe and hitting home, forcing restrictions on businesses.
Gegwetch has seen a fair bit of success with his online business, which sells T-shirts and hoodies. Our Feather apparel includes Indigenous phrases or slogans, some of them humourous ones.
His bestseller to date is a T-shirt that is a parody of the famous Nike slogan, Just Do It; but instead of the Nike checkmark, the Gegwetch-designed T-shirt has a feather and the words, JUS’ DO IT DEN, underneath.
“A lot of people thought it was really fun and started buying it,” he said.
Some of the other slogans on his shirts and hoodies include LIVING YOUNG, WILD AND CREE, YOU’RE ON STOLEN LAND and #LANDBACK.
Gegwetch said it was only natural he started his own company.
“I’ve always had entrepreneurial spirit since I was really, really young,” he said.
During the past few years, Gegwetch, who now lives in Toronto, has worked with a number of Indigenous companies in the non-profit sector. He found it frustrating applying for funding for various projects.
“I was always being denied funding because I wasn’t able to twist and turn into what they wanted,” Gegwetch said of those who were distributing funding.
But things are now different that he has his own clothing company. And yes, Gegwetch realizes there are various other Indigenous companies out there that sell their own brands of clothing. But he believes he is doing something different than the others.
“I looked at Indigenous clothing brands in Canada and the U.S.,” he said. “None of them were really doing anything for the community.”
That’s where Gegwetch is keen to be different.
He will be giving back to the community in three different ways.
For starters, he will be a sponsor for various events. As an example, Gegwetch sold shirts this year for Orange Shirt Day.
He took some of those proceeds, $445, and donated it to the Orange Shirt Society, the non-profit organization based in Williams Lake, B.C., which started Orange Shirt Day in 2013.
Gegwetch also plans to work with Indigenous artists, who will help design some of the Our Clothing apparel. He plans to reward these artists with up to 25 per cent of the profits of sales with their artwork.
Gegwetch also plans to donate a portion of his profits each year to a different Indigenous group. He will be making a donation this year to Water First, a group based in Creemore, Ont., which works to help address water challenges in Indigenous communities across Canada. This work is through training, education and collaboration.
Up until now, Gegwetch has only been selling T-shirts and hoodies, but he’s looking to grow his company by adding other accessories.
“I’m looking to expand the inventory now that I’m gaining some traction,” he said, adding he will probably soon be adding Our Feather hats and key chains to the products he will be selling.
Gegwetch has been running the company out of his Toronto home. After selling the products himself, he then utilizes three suppliers, two in Ontario and one in B.C., to get the goods to customers.
“I sell the products and then they handle the order and ship it out,” he said.
Gegwetch is hoping his company grows to the point where he can have his own facility to work from.
“It’s working for now,” he said. “But eventually I want to have a shop or facility to do things on my own. In the future, I want to do that. Hopefully, I can open up a shop where they can print and deliver everything in house.”
Those looking to purchase items or require additional information van visit the Our Feather website.