The Upper Peninsula Supply Co., located at 221 W. Washington St. in Marquette, is shown. It provides U.P. apparel, local gifts, artwork, stickers, prints and more.

MARQUETTE — If you’re from the Upper Peninsula or lived here at any point in your life, you’re proud to say it.

Yooper pride is many things — the ability to persevere through tough and challenging times, a strong sense of community, passion for the outdoors and more.

One Marquette business is helping locals and visitors alike celebrate the U.P. pride.

U.P. Supply Co. first opened for business online in 2008 before breaking into a brick and mortar space right in downtown Marquette at 221 W. Washington Street in 2017.

Owner of U.P. Supply Co. and official unofficial ambassador of the U.P. Bugsy Sailor grew up in Baraga eventually leaving to attend Michigan State University. In his time away, he found a passion for educating others on the U.P. and the Great Lakes and decided to create a business focused on celebrating the peninsula.

“We always want to provide the customers with delight,” Sailor said. “We want to provide the U.P. in a fresh way that they haven’t seen before but we hope that they find something unique and special to celebrate the U.P., whether it be for themselves or a gift for someone else.”

The store and website carry a variety of products with unique designs like stickers, wooden keychains, “Uff Da” mugs, U.P. beanies and Hogback Mountain topography T’s.

“We acknowledge the stereotypes about the U.P. but we don’t play those up. We try to keep everything classy, more designer focused, but we try to come up with designs that have an original thought to them and a bit of a back story,” Sailor said. “One classic example is the Upper Peninsula tree ring shirt that we have. It’s been a longtime favorite of customers but that was inspired by my father who is a forester and taught me about the tree rings at a young age.”

Designs are created by Sailor himself as well as other local artists, designers, screen printers, and a few products from other stores.

“There’s never been a more important time to support local artists and small businesses and we’re the epitome of that. I would say we’re a microbusiness even,” Sailor said. We’re tiny but so many of the dollars spent here go back into the community whether it’s supporting events like Plaidurday or Fresh Coast Film Festival or back into the pockets of local artists and screen printers, so a dollar spent here really goes back into the community.”

Aside from the products, it’s U.P. Supply Co.’s goal to represent the U.P. unique and different ways like through their special campaigns such as 906 Day, held every Sept. 6; Plaidurday, a worldwide celebration of plaid held the first Friday of October; and the occasional April Fool’s joke like yoopersingles.com.

Though celebrators of the U.P. may not be able to visit the store in the coming weeks, Sailor encouraged all to check out upsupplyco.com to view products and creative content on U.P. happenings like the exclusive U.P. Mountain Dew Label, history on the U.P. and the Edmund Fitzgerald, to view photos of every sunrise on Lake Superior in 2019 and much more.