However, for some executives who have built their businesses around specific cultures, the ethos of DEI is inextricable from their missions. The founders of Mabï Artisanal Tea and Issei Mochi Gummies, and the president of Minnetonka Moccasin Company, took to the stage at the Fast Company Grill at SXSW earlier this month to share how this approach to business shapes, rather than detracts from, their success. 

Education over exploitation

For Jori Miller Sherer, president of the shoe company Minnetonka, reconciliation and community work are top of mind. Founded in 1946, the Minneapolis-based business has sold Indigenous-inspired moccasins since its inception, though it was not founded by nor did it employ people from those communities. The company first addressed and apologized for its history of cultural appropriation in 2021, hired a reconciliation advisor, and began working with Indigenous artists to design their products, which included a partnership with Red Lake Nation member Lucie Skjefte on a rebrand of the company’s signature Thunderbird, or “Animikii” shoes. 

“One of the first things that we did was get to know people in our local community and just listen and learn from them,” Miller Sherer said, noting that a number of Indigenous people reside in the Twin Cities. Over 40% of Minnesota residents who identify as American Indian live in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, according to a 2021 report from the Minnesota Department of Health.

For the Indigenous designers Minnetonka works with, “it isn’t just about sending a check or having a royalty payment, which of course we do,” Miller Sherer said. “It is about really giving them the microphone and giving them the spotlight.”

Jerry Grammont, the founder and CEO of Mabï Artisanal Tea, echoed this sentiment. Grammont, who is from Haiti, was inspired to start his iced tea company in 2020 to blend wellness and taste. His teas contain mauby bark, an ingredient used in traditional Caribbean beverages that is believed to offer a variety of health benefits. Grammont is mindful of how he can use his product to educate consumers who may be unfamiliar with the drink and the region it originates from. 

“I find that when we’re educating our customers around our culture and what we’re doing, we’re also selling the product itself because it’s directly tied to it,” he said. “It’s not about the financial gains. It’s about how we bring this wellness ingredient to the States.”