Custom🍁ISH is proud to call Calgary home—a city on the traditional lands of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), the Tsuut’ina Nation, and the Îyârhe Nakoda Nations (Chiniki, Bearspaw, Goodstoney). This is Treaty 7 territory, and home to many diverse people and cultures.

We don’t take lightly that we’re building something creative and meaningful on land where promises were broken and control was taken, not freely shared. The original stewards of this place practiced sustainability not because it was a trend but because it was survival, connection, and care. That legacy shapes how we do things here, from sourcing to stitching.

Calgary is known in Blackfoot as Mohkínsstsisi meaning “elbow,” for the bend in the Bow River where waters meet. That name holds deep symbolism for us. Our family, too, is shaped by powerful convergences: of Prairie settlers and Black ancestry, of the East Coast’s rugged roots and the Prairie’s wide sky. We are descendants of settlers who’ve been here for four generations, of African American people stolen from their homelands and enslaved, and of proud Newfoundlanders with their own deep ties to land and sea.

That makes our son part of a story that bends, flows, and meets—one that spans colonization and resilience, displacement and rootedness, loss and love.

So, yes, we make custom embroidery but beneath the thread is a deeper weave: truth-telling, culture-sharing, and community-building. For us, creating ethical, personalized goods isn’t just a business choice, it’s a commitment to something bigger—a commitment to land, legacy, and living with integrity.