Our Story
Not Sorry Goods is a Midwest-based brand that's all about looking good, feeling good and doing good - unapologetically. By upcycling pre-loved garments with our bold designs, focusing on eco-friendly materials and sourcing ethically-made goods, our intention is to be a leading sustainable & inclusive retailer of the future.
Learn more about the Not Sorry Ethos here.
“We realized that we were done saying sorry for who we are, so we created a brand to empower us and others to be the most authentic, unapologetic versions of ourselves."
About the Founders
Dy-Min Johnson
Detroit native Dy-Min Johnson is an entrepreneur who turned her thrifting habit into a sustainable business. Her love of thrifting began when she was in high school and remained a part of her lifestyle even while working for fast fashion retailers throughout college. After landing a job and graduating from the University of Michigan (go blue!), she quickly realized that the corporate life alone didn't bring her joy so she started a style blog to showcase her creative passions.
That blog - coupled with her corporate marketing experience and retail background - led her to dream up a brand that created sustainable and affordable apparel. She quickly learned that it was expensive and not so good for the environment to produce her sketches from scratch. Instead of quitting, she decided to do what she does best - thrift. By taking pre-loved clothes and adding her own twist to them the Not Sorry brand was born.
Soon after, she left her corporate job behind (but kept the blazers) and earned her industrial sewing certificate from Henry Ford College. Free from the restrictions of corporate life she began to fully embrace herself and cultivate a platform for others to do the same. She's determined to create opportunities for those that are overlooked and give voice to those that don't feel heard. Today she focuses on the overall operations and strategy for growing the brand and community. The goal of creating sustainable change + positive impact remains her compass.
Jess Minnick
Jess Minnick grew up in south Florida and graduated from University of Miami (FL) in 2011 with a Bachelors of Science in Public Relations. This is where her passion for branding & design grew as she sharpened her skills building out the university gymnasium's digital brand & social media footprint.
Jess moved to Detroit in 2012. She had visited the Motor City for its annual techno festival Movement Detroit, and fell in love with the city. She knew this was the perfect place for her to settle and start a creative business.
Jess spent the first few years in Detroit bouncing around at different jobs. Looking back, each position she held prepared her for Not Sorry Goods. Her final stint in the corporate world before going full-time at Not Sorry was as the Director of Marketing at the Troy Chamber of Commerce. This position helped grow her leadership abilities, organizational habits, networking techniques, marketing & communication skills. From there she made the jump to full-time at Not Sorry Goods in 2018.
Not Sorry Goods has been the most rewarding experience of Jess's life. With little background in fashion design, embroidery or sewing, Jessica tackled these trades head-on and started taking classes at Tech Shop, where she would go after her day job and spend hours practicing on a consistent basis, developing techniques that refined her abilities. Nowadays, she's usually running multiple machines at once and teaching others how to use all the equipment.
In addition to being the machine whisperer, Jess leads the creative team at Not Sorry Goods. Her designs focus on themes that intersect identity, culture and current events. They spark conversation around social & sustainable change, fueling community initiatives that hope to leave the world a more inclusive & equitable place for all.