Giving Back

We want to make a difference, not just a profit. We believe in a holistic approach to business—the better choices we make as a company, the better off we all are as a community. From our local community, to the Great Lakes that surround our state, we pride ourselves in the importance that M22 has placed on giving back.

Our Community

1% of all M22 profits goes toward preserving the area’s natural resources. Since our first day in business, we’ve donated a portion of our earnings to the Leelanau Conservancy. With your support, we’ve been able to help protect the land and water we all love. We designed our charitable giving this way because it reflects our team’s real dedication to the environment—not a one-time or off-the-cuff marketing effort, but a meaningful, ongoing initiative. 

Our Planet

As a company owned and run by a handful of Michigan natives, it’s our wish that everything we source be as local and sustainable as possible; we want to protect the land and water we love. We design and print all of our products right here in northern Michigan, and source them locally whenever we can. If we simply can't make it here, we work with world-wide producers who meet our ethical standards. We use U.S.-based distributors working with ethical manufacturers across the globe (never sweatshops). As a result, all of our apparel is sourced through WRAP (Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production) certified companies helping to promote safe, lawful, humane and environmentally friendly manufacturing. We believe these practices allow our business to both make a positive impact right here and throughout the world.

Our Future

We do everything that we can to make sure our company's environmental footprint is small, and keep looking for new ways to increase sustainability. Our shopping bags are recyclable and compostable, our M22 Challenge is a zero waste event, and we print our catalog on FSC certified paper. Because we hate the idea of plastic polluting our lakes, we recently installed a water station in our downtown Traverse City store for anyone who wants to stop in and get a refill.

We’re not perfect, but we’re trying, and we’ll keep trying to improve as the apparel industry progresses and more resources become available to us. Sometimes it’s not possible to source everything local. Sometimes we wish we were able to make an item more environmentally friendly. We strive to keep an ethical business philosophy at the forefront of our company. It’s only through your continued support that our small operation can keep heading in the right direction.