Chelsee-Marie Pettit shares her Aaniin journey

Chelsee-Marie Pettit

By John Wirth, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

ᐋᓃᓐ Aaniin, a trailblazing Anishnaabe apparel and jewelry retailer, extends its business wisdom to their community. “My advice is just going out and do it, like, don’t wait for the perfect idea. Don’t wait for the perfect opportunity,” says Chelsee-Marie Pettit, founder and owner of the Toronto based company.

Launched in the summer of 2021, Aaniin offers both its own line of streetwear clothing as well as products made by 16 featured Indigenous artisans and a further 19 “coming soon.”

Chelsee-Marie Pettit

Introducing herself, Chelsee says, “I grew up in Sarnia, Ontario. I am a member of Aamjiwnaang First Nation. When I was about 18, I jumped around Ontario, lived in Ottawa, London, Ottawa and then I settled in Toronto just before starting the business.”

She envisioned her brand would foster familiarity and validation from Anishinaabemowin speakers and further spark an interest in others. Being interested in fashion from a young age Chelsee explains, “I wanted to be a fashion designer when I was 8 years old until I was like 20. And then after I dropped out of fashion school, I just never looked back.” Furthermore, Pettit reflects on the idea which set this business in motion.

“I was just walking in the street in downtown Toronto and thought I saw someone wearing Indigenous syllabics on their clothing. Right away, I just felt this sense of inclusion in the city that I just never felt before, and I just had so many questions, like what language was it in? What did it say? And obviously, where could I get? I walked closer to ask the person, and then as I walked out, I realized it was actually just a triangle.”

Cheslee wanted to make sure that her customers were informed about what they were wearing.

“When I was first coming up with a business idea, I was a little wary, putting Indigenous translations on shirts in case people wearing it don’t understand what it says or exactly my thought process of the triangle story.”

Her solution? To add QR codes that are accessible through most smart phone cameras on demand. Pettit describes, “The QR codes at first used to just go to a link on my website, just the homepage and now they all go to their own unique translation pages.”

Chelsee collaborates almost entirely with professional Indigenous models to display the products in her online store.

Aaniin strives to provide apparel that is ethically sourced “100% Cotton, 100% Sustainable, and 100% Made in ‘Canada’ bestselling Tkaronto Design.”

Chelsee enacts a reclamation of naming on the urban center of Toronto, back to its origin of Tkaronto. It means, “where the trees are standing in the water. Chelsee created [it to] show the trees as the Toronto skyline and the water reflection with the current city scape.”

She shares a behind the scenes look through the journey that has led to providing the apparel line. Initially she wrestled with a conflict: “I think it holds a lot of Indigenous people back because we want to do things sustainably, but because we want to do it sustainably, we don’t want to impact the Earth in negative ways. At the same time, there’s so much more impact that we can accomplish if we just get started with what we do have access to in front of us.

“You can always aim to make those big changes later – [like with] the whole fashion industry itself. The houses that are non-Indigenous, Canada based manufacturers, a lot of them still either buy products overseas and then ship it in and then they assemble the products in person. The biggest issue with sustainability in fashion is shipping.

“So right off the bat, I was like, well, I’m not going to pay like five times mark up just to get the same quality fabric as overseas. So, I started going to overseas. But that was after I built up my inventory and cash flow with blanks that I got from a local T-shirt company.”

Starting humbly and sourcing locally oftentimes does not result in successful start-up bottom lines, however it was always intentional to create a sustainable business model; both financially and ethically.

Chelsee’s business plan has been recognized by the Indigenous venture investment reality tv show “The Bear’s Lair,” which airs on APTN. She was featured in the third episode of its second season. Returning for the finale, she won the $100,000 investment main prize and is the Champion of season 2!

Chelsee elaborated on her relationship with the payment card corporation: “MasterCard has been a great supporter for the last few years. I was a grant recipient for one of their women owned business grants. Back almost two years exactly. I found out that I was one of the recipients of their purified by MasterCard Grant.”

She says that winning it, “was a really crazy experience” and a, “saving grace” amid battling the rising costs of operating in Toronto.

Pettit candidly shares: “I had two stores in December, but last November I closed my store. It was open for about a year and a half and it was bleeding money left, right and centre. It was very difficult to keep my head above water.”

Chelsee is proud to announce that, with the partnership of MasterCard Canada, “We’re about to do this giant, 6,500-square-foot-pop-up, right in downtown Toronto at The Cadillac Fairview, Eaton Centre.” it will be held over the Christmas shopping season at the “busiest mall” in eastern Canada, from the 29th of November through the entire month of December. Chelsee-Marie Pettit’s enterprise is bringing Indigenous culture to the holidays.

However, her sights are set on greater goals than just this season; Pettit declares her intent for the event: “The @aaniin.hello POP UP is a final push to prove people want this to be a permanent business in the Canadian economy for the Indigenous community. I’m so excited to see my initial vision of my Indigenous department store come to fruition.”

She wants to “take everything I’ve done” and “streamline” her business and “three to five other businesses next year and hopefully more the year after.”  She has goals to take what she has learned and eventually create an equity-based fund where every Indigenous community across Canada would have access to the profits that are generated by the companies it creates. This idea has its roots in her experience with the startup business.

“We don’t really have where you call up other family members who might have money. And say, Can you give me like a $20,000 line of credit? $50,000 investment for my business?”

Chelsee addresses where she sees the greatest impact, “I really see it [becoming available] to communities across Canada, and I could work with the entrepreneurs that are on their reserves.”

Chelsee-Marie Pettit releases her public statements through the company’s official @aaniin.hello Instagram. She also provides news through their membership benefits, located at www.aaniin.shop.

 

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