Sewing Needles and Climbing Carabiners: Stitching Together the Story of Mio Mi Clothing
article by Katie Geraci
Before Miriam Schlotzhauer was the creator and owner of Mio Mi Clothing LLC, she was a bicycling acrobat in Austria, a trained HVAC technician, and a passionate climber. With an unconventional path leading to Mio Mi Clothing, Schlotzhauer created the company to merge her passions for climbing, mountain sports, and sewing.
Sitting in her warmly decorated home that overlooks the Bridger Mountain range in Bozeman, Montana, Schlotzhauer tells me of her childhood in Vorarlberg, Austria: “I grew up very simply, and I think that’s what made me as a person.” Her simple, but cozy home attests to her upbringing, as she says, “I never expected much, and I was a happy kid. I was outdoors a lot.”
Miriam hasn’t always climbed, though. Her love of sports was established at a young age with artistic cycling— a sport involving acrobatic routines on a bicycle. By age 10, she won the Austrian mastership for her age group. But, it was at the affordable Roman Catholic all-girls private school her parents sent her to that Miriam learned how to cook and sew. She says, “I probably would have chosen a different school, but now, sewing is my main work, so I’m very thankful for that experience.”
Following school, Schlotzhauer switched gears and began a 4-year apprenticeship to become an HVAC technician, which meant attending school with 600 men and four women: “I was pretty proud that I mastered all of the challenges that this job brought in a very male-dominated category.” Miriam is the only Austrian woman to have finished that apprenticeship with honors.
Through all of these experiences, Miriam continued participating in sports. She also broke her back twice: once while snowboarding in 2008, and again in 2011 at the freestyle academy in Switzerland. She spent a year recovering from her injuries, wheelchair-bound for a short time. “I didn’t know what to do,” Miriam says. “I was a little depressed.”
A friend invited her to come climbing, and Miriam was hooked. She did her first big climbing trip several months later in southern France, where she met her husband, Henry, on top of a mountain. Schlotzhauer began climbing with zeal, completing coaching certifications for Austria and Switzerland— fully certified for coaching both indoor and basic outdoor climbing.
When she had her first daughter in May, 2014, ideas sprouted for Miriam about starting her own company and tying it to her passion for climbing. “I loved the idea of sewing my own stuff,” Miriam says. “I never had a sewing machine. I couldn’t afford it. Our apartment in Austria was really small.”
“Life is hard, but no matter how hard it is, there’s always a light at the end— you just have to find it.”
While waiting for her green card, she took off with Henry and their two-year-old daughter in a self-renovated camper for six months, roving through Spain, Italy, and Switzerland. The simple living style Miriam was raised amongst was mirrored again for her: “We saw that living minimally and modestly made us so happy.”
Once they moved to Bozeman and she had a sewing machine of her own, Miriam found a name for her company: Mio Mi. “Mio is Henry’s nickname for me, and ‘Mi’ means ‘my’ in my dialect.” Miriam started her LLC with the help of a friend, while pregnant with her second child and working part-time. Now, through her online store, she offers outdoor and sports clothing including: t-shirts, tank tops, long sleeves, and beanies. She orders some of her items pre-made, and then re-designs and re-uses the fabric for her own purposes, fully taking ownership of the design of each piece. Miriam explains that she thinks fabric is an incredible material: “So many people and machines touched that shirt before you bought it and before it was even a shirt.”
All of her products have a handmade finish or are completely handmade, like her chalk bags and chalk buckets. “I’m not a machine that produces 2,000 of these and sells them to everyone,” Miriam says. “Every stitch makes it unique.” As a way to promote her company, Miriam tries to support athletes with her clothing and gear, wears her own products, cold-calls companies, and uses social media. No element of her company goes untouched by her work ethic.
Schlotzhauer tries to purchase fair trade items made in the U.S. and tries to keep her prices fair: “When you buy something for $5, the people who made it probably didn’t have the best paycheck. I don’t buy a .50 cent shirt and sell it for $50.”
For design inspiration, Miriam turns mostly to nature, music, and people. “In nature, the colors that our eyes see, you can’t put in a photo, you can’t put on fabric, but you can get pretty close.” Miriam notes she “also needs emotions; that’s why music is really important to me.”
Like many small businesses, Schlotzhauer admits she isn’t making much money. But, like many who follow their passions, she’s happy with the pace and loves what she does. She spends her days with her daughters, allowing family to remain the focal point of her day. “When the kids are in bed, the lights in my sewing room turn on,” Miriam says. “The machines are vibrating, and my creative mind is materializing ideas that I collected during the day.”
“There is no happiness without sadness, no strength without weakness. Life always needs both.”
In her business and personal life, climbing is never far away for Schlotzhauer. She works out in unlikely places: doing pushups on the carpet while playing with her children, climbing on the wall and hangboard that Henry built in their garage. “I take every chance that I can, that’s my training schedule,” Miriam says, relating to many mothers and business owners alike.
Nestled amongst mountains again, though far from her childhood Alps, the outdoors remains rooted at the foundation of Schlotzhauer’s family dynamic. Whether bouldering or developing new climbing routes, the family loves exploring Montana’s outdoors: “I think Montana is a perfect place to try to become a better person.” As in her business, she says the family “always [tries] to be respectful of nature and people and leave a small footprint.”
Miriam is always working on fresh designs and functional products that help people pursue their own outdoor experiences with the care and attention she brings to each product. Her products can be found on her website, and her chalk bags are also sold at Spire Climbing Center in Bozeman. She also does hemming and mending services by appointment.
Despite her ups and downs in life, breaking her back twice, moving across the world, mothering strong daughters, and running her own business, Schlotzhauer remains optimistic in all that she does.
“Life is hard, but no matter how hard it is, there’s always a light at the end— you just have to find it,” Miriam says. “And if you lose that path or way, it’s okay to be in the darkness for a little bit,” she adds. “There is no happiness without sadness, no strength without weakness. Life always needs both.”
