Made in Ely, Wintergreen Northern Wear withstands the test of time
March marks 40 years since the begin of the Steger International Polar Expedition. From that historic expedition got here companies nonetheless working at this time.
ELY, Minnesota — Every enterprise has to start out someplace. For Wintergreen Northern Wear, it started on a global stage.
The out of doors clothes firm bought its begin in 1983.
“My husband, Paul Schurke, was asked by Will Steger to join him on the International Polar Expedition for 1986. So then those two asked me if I could make the clothing for them,” recalled Susan Hendrickson-Schurke.
Besides eighth-grade residence economics, Hendrickson-Schurke didn’t know the right way to sew.
“I didn’t have patterns. I didn’t know what I was doing,” she stated. “I did funny things like I got the local newsprint and these end rolls and I would roll it out and I’d have everybody lie down and I would trace their bodies and then I would take measurements as if I knew what I was doing.”
Over the course of three years, she designed and sewed every thing from the clothes to the canine harnesses. It was as much as Hendrickson-Schurke to maintain the group heat and dry.
“I sewed until 8 o’clock that morning. When they all got on that plane, I was still sewing because they were still all coming in. ‘Could you do this? Could you do that?'” she recalled.
On May 1, the Steger International Polar Expedition made historical past with the first confirmed unsupported expedition to the North Pole.
Her clothes designs — together with the anorak her husband, Paul Schurke, wore — had been seen throughout the world in publications like National Geographic.
“I got to go to the Arctic with Will and Paul several times and I noticed the anorak that all the Inuit people in the North were wearing. I was just fascinated with that,” Hendrickson-Schurke stated.
For Paul’s anorak, she included some trim that was impressed by her Scandinavian roots.
That turned the signature piece for her out of doors clothes firm, Wintergreen Northern Wear.
Located in downtown Ely, the clothes remains to be made in-house.
Michele Anderson, stitching room supervisor, has been working at Wintergreen for greater than 10 years.
“It’s kind of like a family,” Anderson stated.
Each garment goes out with a card that tells the purchaser who made the clothes.
“It’s really fun to see our stuff out in the world,” Seamstress Diane Thomson stated.
Seeking a brand new journey, Hendrickson-Schurke bought Wintergreen in 2009. The new homeowners then went out of enterprise in 2013.
“I was so emotional,” stated Hendrickson-Schurke.
During the liquidation, she purchased some of the tools again and arrange store in her residence.
“I had to start up from scratch. There was no intellectual property or anything,” she stated.
Eventually, Hendrickson-Schurke bought the constructing again after which the identify and patterns.
In 2021, two households approached Hendrickson-Schurke about shopping for the enterprise. Solveig and Jackson Harren, together with Katie Kalkman and Gabriel Harren, purchased Wintergreen in 2021.
“One of our values is really to carry things like this on where there’s a great foundation of a business that has a shared mission with getting people outdoors and continuing to thrive in a world where there’s getting to be more and more lower quality alternatives and really maintain that handmade integrity,” stated Jackson Harren, president of Wintergreen.
Jackson and his brother, Gabriel, already had expertise working their family-owned enterprise, Northern Toboggan Co. in Warroad.
Wintergreen employs about 20 folks. While a lot of the stitching is finished on the second ground of Wintergreen’s storefront in Ely, additionally they make use of residence sewers from the surrounding space.
Several experiences estimate that solely about 2-3% of clothes bought in the US is made in the nation.
Jackson stated their items converse for themselves, saying, “They’ve already withstood the test of time and they will continue to.”
Hendrickson-Schurke added, “It’s pretty special to have something made from people you know.”
Wintergreen Northern Wear
205 E Sheridan St.
Ely, MN 55731
A KARE 11 documentary, “The Legacy Will Steger Built,” will air on KARE 11 on Saturday, March 14 at 6:30 pm You may also watch it now on YouTube.
