Dear Oshki community,
I am thrilled to announce a new partnership that will significantly advance Oshki’s efforts towards a more sustainable future.
We recently brought on three Great Lakes area investors to help grow our efforts and allow me to pursue Oshki as my full-time focus moving forward.
These investors share Oshki’s passion for environmental sustainability and have a proven track record of driving change. With their support and expertise, we’ll accelerate our impact in the fight against plastic pollution as we work towards becoming the world’s most sustainable apparel company. Their investment will help Oshki pursue the expansion of our product offerings and scale our impact efforts towards the ultimate mission of reaching a closed loop supply chain: where 100% of plastic used in Oshki products is directly sourced from our beach cleanup efforts around the Great Lakes. This goal continues to be my reason why.
I started Oshki six years ago with a mission to accomplish 3 things:
1. Great Lakes Preservation
Growing up near the shores of Lake Michigan, preserving the Great Lakes has always felt like a personal responsibility I had to the community, rather than an act of charity. Unfortunately, the Great Lakes are facing an array of mounting threats, and insufficient government funding has only exacerbated this situation. I founded Oshki, with a firm focus on promoting the preservation of the Great Lakes as our core mission
2. Create Earth-Friendly & Fashion Forward Apparel
In 2019, Oshki became the first company to use 100% United States plastic waste in all products through the redesign of our supply chain. Since 2000, the average US consumer has purchased twice as much clothing and kept each garment half as long. Oshki creates long-lasting, sustainable apparel that combats against the ever-increasing movement of fast fashion.
3. Empower the Next Generation
It all stems from my desire to help other kids be equally inspired by the vast, clear waters the Great Lakes have to offer for many generations to come. 90% of plastic waste in the Great Lakes ends up on beaches. Due to this being much different than the way ocean plastics and their cleanup efforts work, the community approach is incredibly important in the Great Lakes region. We all have to do our part.
The path to achieving this mission hasn’t always been clear. Whether it was managing Oshki as a side project while attending UofM or bootstrapping our way through difficult supply chain challenges in a global pandemic: there has always been uncertainty. Even through these times, Oshki has diverted over 150,000 plastic bottles worth of plastic waste from the Great Lakes region and around the US.
While we have accomplished much, I am confident that Oshki can do so much more. I am grateful for this opportunity and cannot wait to see what we can accomplish. With this significant capital investment, we will be able to expand our product offerings, improve the impact we are making, and help share our story with more of the world. Thank you for your continued support!
Sincerely,
Jackson Riegler
Founder of Oshki
Great work!! Thank you.
You are amazing, as is your mission, Mr. UM grad. (Go Blue!) You might consider reaching out to Robert Sheehan of The Umbrella Academy, who is dedicated to environmental activism and has great visibility. He’s practically a resident of Toronto at this point, and has filmed scenes in which he’s taken multiple dunks in Lake Ontario. You guys seem like a dream team.
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