A Michigan Fibershed Study:
Community Landscape Analysis for Michigan’s Regenerative Textile Futures
University of Michigan SEAS Team (left to right): Tien Vo, Macy Zalud, Kelly Egusa, M'Lis Bartlett (SEAS Faculty Project Advisor), Tosin Lawal, Alex Bissell.
In January 2024, five University of Michigan graduate students in the School for Sustainability and the Environment (SEAS) embarked on a thesis project working as consultants for Michigan Fibershed. The students set out to learn more about Michigan’s natural fiber and textile community.
Now complete, their work lays the foundation for future action as we move toward regenerative, locally-rooted textile systems and away from the harmful impacts of global fast fashion.
Below is a summary of their findings.
You can check out their full report here!
What We Learned
Through background research and in-depth interviews with local farmers, millers, designers, and retailers, the team mapped the current state of Michigan’s ‘soil-to-soil’ textiles cycle.
Opportunities for Growing Michigan’s Natural Fiber Economy:
Michigan grown flax on display at Ann Arbor Fiber Arts Expo (AAFAX). credit: Lia Giannotti Photography.
Strong Community Network and Support:
The growers, processors, designers, makers, and retailers that make up Michigan’s fibershed system is a collaborative, tight-knit network where knowledge, resources, and mentorship are readily shared. This supportive environment fosters the growth and resilience of local fiber businesses.
Business Development Potential:
Opportunities exist for securing investment, adopting new technologies, and adding value to raw fiber through local processing and creative product development. Guidance in navigating grants, loans, and business plans can help more producers access funding. Innovative marketing—including agrotourism and direct-to-consumer sales—can offer new ways to reach customers.
Education & Awareness:
There is growing interest in sustainable, locally sourced textiles. Workshops, classes, and community engagement can increase public understanding of the value and benefits of locally grown natural fibers, while making known the exceptional product qualities compared to synthetics. Educating both consumers and industry members is key to transforming Michigan’s textile natural fiber economy into a strong, regenerative and localized system.
Barriers to Growing Michigan’s Natural Fiber Economy:
Financial Barriers:
High startup costs, slim profit margins, and limited access to grants and loans make it difficult for local fiber businesses to survive and grow. Small Michigan producers, and the retailers that them, struggle to compete with subsidized, larger operations.
Infrastructure Gaps:
Michigan lacks enough processing mills and manufacturing facilities, creating bottlenecks at every stage. Long wait times and the closure of key mills force producers to send fiber out of state, driving up costs and limiting local production capacity.
Loss of Knowledge:
Essential skills in fiber farming, milling, and textile production are disappearing as experienced practitioners retire or close and few training resources exist. Many consumers are also unaware of the true value and benefits of local, natural fibers.
SEAs team representing the Michigan Fibershed organization and project at the Ann Arbor Fiber Arts Expo (AAFAX) in spring 2025. credit: Lia Giannotti Photography.
The Voices of Michigan’s Fibershed
Barriers
“I don't know at what point we will actually have made enough money to pay off the equipment. It's going to be a long, long time. [...] Two years and we're ridiculously in the red. We're just trying to pay for the wool we keep buying.”
— Michigan fiber mill owner and operator
“...my prices are fairly high, and it's based on the true cost of what we're doing [...] And so when you incorporate fair wages into everything, this is what you have. And I'll have people say, ‘I want your hat, but I can't afford it.’ […] as a vendor, I make like $5 off of each product for me to be there that day. […] The farm is getting paid. The sheep are being fed, everybody is being taken care of. But it is nice that people still pay for that, you know?”
— Michigan sheep farmer
“Most of them—their family has done it for so long. So who's going to learn how to run these machines in 10 years?”
— Michigan fiber mill owner and operator
“There’s not enough mills. [...] we already do have all these sheep that can’t get processed because there’s just not enough mills to do it.”
— Michigan fiber mill owner and operator
“No one has ever not helped us answer a question or connected us to people [...] we call these people, and they're like, ‘Well, you know, so-and-so down the street might have an answer for you, and I'll get his number one sec.’ Everyone in Michigan has been so [...] like, we said, it's a pretty tight knit community, and it's pretty cool.”.”
— Michigan textile designers
Opportunities
“There's something very empowering about learning how to process your own fibers and dye your own yarns and things like that. It opens up a whole world for people, I think.”
— Michigan fiber shop owner that sources regional, natural fibers
“If you were to center on one foundational pillar or what [Michigan natural fiber economy] is going to help build back,—it’s a community. You can’t run a farm, big or small, without a community.”
— Michigan sheep farmer
“I’d love to help other people start mills. I’ve gotten probably 20 calls [from customers] looking for somewhere to take [their] wool [...] I’d love to be able to send them to another mill.”
— Michigan fiber mill owner and operator
Recommendations for Our Next Step Actions
To nurture and expand Michigan’s regenerative natural textile ecnonomy, the report recommends Michigan Fibershed to:
Create Educational Programs: Develop programming on benefits of local natural fiber (e.g., benefits to local business owners and economies, benefits to environmental and human health), as well as skills workshops, to Michigan communities to preserve and spread essential knowledge and skills throughout the state’s fibershed.
Create a Connection Platform: Build tools, such as a Michigan Fibershed Directory, and opportunities that support networking and collaboration among fiber producers, makers, and advocates across the state.
Develop a Community Survey: Beyond long-form interviews, survey the Michigan Fibershed farmers, millers, textile designers and makers, and retailers to facilitate future research, and a policy, grant, and funding resources tool.
Advocate for Policies that Support Local Fiber: Work towards policies that encourage sustainable, alternative textile systems at every level.
We’re excited to share that we are already getting started!
Work is underway on a Michigan Fibershed directory and a statewide survey to help guide our next steps.