Sunday conversation with Wayne Zink of My Sister

In 2003, Wayne Zink watched TV with shock and awe during the battle of Baghdad. The invasion convinced the philanthropist that it was time "for good people to do good things in assertive ways," he said. He founded Endangered Species Chocolate that year, a socially responsible chocolate company. His follow-up cause in 2015, My Sister, came about with the help of a best friend since third grade who is involved in fighting sex trafficking worldwide. Zink, chairman of My Sister, and Mandy Multerer, CEO, formed a Twin Cities benefit corporation to bring awareness to sex trafficking and help women and girls affected by it. Their company donates 10 percent of proceeds to My Sister and partner organizations such as MN Girls Are Not For Sale and Maiti Nepal. A new store selling a full line of clothing and accessories in Uptown Minneapolis opened last week. Zink talks about the products designed for the cause and the company that provides aftercare and educational and employment opportunities for survivors.

Q: Describe what customers will find in the new shop.

A: They'll see a welcoming, safe place. There are T-shirts for men and women, beauty products, jewelry and other brands. Every brand we carry is giving back to that fight.

Q: Who comes up with the somewhat provocative slogans on the T-shirts?

A: We spent 18 months in national focus groups with women, and we're drawing on what we heard. We listened to women ages 12 to 70-plus. We heard about objectification, feminism and buying sex.

Our goal outcome was to find out how women who don't know about sex trafficking would feel about the issue. What they said informed how the brand looks. The number one selling slogan for women is "You're not the boss of me." For men, it's the T-shirt with "Feminist" on it. On opening weekend, "Girl Power," "Stand Up" and "Stop Traffic" were popular.

Q: What brings buyers to My Sister? The cause or the clothes?

A: Our core consumer is someone who is cause-centric. The trick is to give people a high quality product. They don't think a cause-related item will be good quality. With our apparel we use great fabrics and pay attention to the fit. Women wanted a different fit and silhouette, so we gave them lots of fit options. The screen printing is a durable, water-based ink. We also have unisex styles for the person who doesn't want a fitted tee. The website [mysister.org] describes the different fits.

Q: So the brand is secondary to the cause. How much have you raised so far?

A: We started May 4, 2015, and we've given back $72,000 to the nonprofit from online sales, pop-up sales and events. That's about $20,000 more than we projected. We're hoping to triple that number in the next 12 months.

Q: Talk about the models you use in the fashion pictures online. Is there an attempt to get more body shapes and ethnicities?

A: We represent a range of age, size and ethnicity. They're not all 18 and waiflike. We just did a photo shoot in the Twin Cities with a mixed race woman, a Hispanic, a Native American and a black woman.

Q: Your goal is to sell fashion while fighting for a cause. Is that difficult?

A: It's a delicate balance of sales and fighting for the cause. Women may say there needs be more variety and diversity in ad modeling, but they tend to buy based on pictures of women who are thinner and prettier.

Like Endangered Species Chocolate, we were looking for a medium that people feel good about. The tee is something people are familiar with. It's related to supporting causes, and it's an entree into higher fashion.

Q: Why did you want to add a retail store?

A: The store is necessary to have more people see the product in person. We think Uptown will give us good foot traffic and a demographic predisposed to supporting our cause.