It has been a busy month for James Hodgson and Samantha Shaw, owners of Peterborough-based t-shirt and print shop Nish Tees. In addition to Orange Shirt Day (Sept. 30) being one of Nish Tee’s busiest business days, they also opened a new retail location in downtown Peterborough.

On Sept. 1, Nish Tees opened a retail store, called Fresh Prints, at 219 ½ Hunter St W. The tiny commercial space will be used for walk-in purchases and for online-order pickup. This location will run alongside their existing, primary, location at 250 Sherbrooke St., where Nish Tees production takes place.

Hodgson and Shaw started Nish Tees our of their apartment in 2016. The business remained as a small operation until 2021, when the discovery of unmarked graves at residential schools made national news.

“It really drew a lot of attention to Orange Shirt Day. That made people come out and support us. We had actually started doing Orange Shirt Day a few years previous to that. We tie a fundraiser to it each year. We donate to a different recipient,” says Hodgson.

In addition to donating to local indigenous organizations, the sudden influx of business allowed them to move into a “proper production space” and purchase the gear they required to run Nish Tees.

Hodgson shared that his people come from Whitesand First Nation and that he has many family members who experienced residential schools. Hodgson shared that he felt, right from the beginning, it was important to participate in Orange Shirt Day.

Each year, Nish Tees chooses an Indigenous community organization to fundraise for with the sales of their orange shirts.

“We have been able to donate, since the rise in awareness, we have been able to donate between $7,000-$13,000 with our fundraiser,” says Shaw.

This year, Nish Tees will be donating funds to NATWIN, a “local effort working to provide essential goods and services to northern communities,” according to the Nish Tees website.

Nish Tees uses traditional Anishinaabe teaching in the design of their orange shirts:

“Our shirts are part of a series. There are going to be seven in total. […] Each of our seven orange shirts will represent one of the Grandfather teachings,” says Hodgson.

This year, their orange shirt depicts Sabe, which, according to their website, “teaches us about honesty and integrity.”

To learn more about Nish Tees, visit their website nishtees.ca.

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