Our Story

Over a decade ago, a group of Northern Michigan friends had a tight bond with many big dreams.  They wanted their bond to have a brand, giving a name to their unique union.  “Deuce Thirty One” (a play on the Northern Michigan area code '231') became the stamp on their friendship…and eventually the first stamp on their brand’s t-shirts.

Though some of the friendships now stretch across the nation, Lance Hill & Byron Pettigrew were drawn back to their Northern Michigan roots…and the ideas of these entrepreneurs began to brew yet again.

After happening upon a retail space at the Village at Grand Traverse Commons, the duo started to dream.  What began as one t-shirt design and two passionate people has grown into the local focused and nationally recognized lifestyle brand, High Five Threads. The brand itself is an ode to the Michigan Hands, used as a map for as long as anyone can remember, and a testament to all those who gotten dirty and helped, with their own two hands, to make Michigan the greatest place on earth.

In only two weeks the team had ten original t-shirt designs.  With an appreciation for small town America, they concentrated on relationships with local printing companies, Michigan product vendors, and spent dawn to dusk researching the t-shirt industry.  This was not an endeavor to make money, but rather market Michigan…bringing the mitten to the minds of our nation and promoting local business and young visions. The High Five Threads mission is simple:
Create quality products that promote buying and supporting local small businesses and entrepreneurs.
Tired of seeing Northern Michigan products sporting primarily cherries and up-north cottages, High Five Threads creates designs with both the essence of the land and the interests of its people.  Lance and Byron have lived throughout Michigan’s many cities and found home again in Traverse City.  They didn’t return for the cottages and cherries. Rather, they chose to make this home for the exceptional wine, amazing freshwater, craft beers, local farm food scenes, and the company of some of the most innovative and artistic people in the country.