Meet the Innovator: Mikala Meidl of Ambient Inks on Building a More Sustainable Music Industry

In an industry where creativity meets production, Mikala Meidl is proving that sustainability and success can go hand in hand. As CEO of Ambient Inks, she’s redefining what it means to make merch responsibly by empowering artists to tell their stories through ethical production, education, and impact-driven merch designs.

From DIY screen printing in her college dorm to leading one of the most respected eco-conscious print shops in the country, Mikala’s journey is a reminder that doing good can—and should—be part of doing business.

We asked Mikala to tell us her story.

How did you get started at Ambient Inks?

I screen printed in college and was a graphic design major and had heard about Ambient Inks through some friends and some of the people that worked there. I got connected with them and started literally at the ground floor. I was washing screens. I was cleaning squeegees. I was folding T-shirts and that was 11 years ago.

And then through my time at the company I slowly moved into production management. I moved into managing our web store and fulfillment, into account managing and working with our artists, and then eventually had done everything in the company and moved into operations. And I'm now in my role as CEO.

How would you describe Ambient Inks’ mission?

Our mission at Ambient Inks has continued to evolve and change, but one of the terms that we coined a few years back was this idea of, “Good attracts good.”

And I think that's really been resonating a lot with me and with the company recently is this idea that if we're doing good things as a company, whether that's through sustainability or conscious business practice or philanthropy and volunteer work, that will attract similar clients and people with similar mindsets.

And this idea that if we're all doing good, we're all supporting one another, that we're contributing to the bigger picture and contributing to just the world being a better place.

What makes Ambient Inks different when it comes to sustainability?

I think the reality is that anyone can source sustainable blanks. But I think what Ambient does really differently is we are really big on the education side.

So we work with our artists for them to really understand what each blank is, what each apparel vendor offers, and then they can kind of choose what's the best direction for them to go.

I think another part that sets us apart in sustainability is that we do both our production and our fulfillment in-house. So we have a lot of control over the process where a lot of other larger merch companies don't have that ability.

So we can choose to use sustainable packaging in our fulfillment. We have a paperless production facility. We have different equipment that's sustainable, whether that's using an auto reclaim machine so that we're washing screens more efficiently with less water, or we use no plastic in our screen making process. So that was a huge evolution for us. And we're just constantly looking at ways that we can innovate. So it goes beyond just what our clients can do, but also what we're doing internally.

Tell us about your Bon Iver collaboration.

Bon Iver i,i merch line was a huge step for Ambient and for Bon both. We've been really fortunate to work with Bon Iver for over a decade now and we both really challenged each other.

I think sustainability was on the forefront of both of our minds at that time, so when Bon approached us and said, “Hey, we wanna do a 100% sustainable line,” it was a really unique opportunity, but at the time it also came with a lot of challenges. The reality was there weren't a lot of apparel vendors that were doing sustainable garments.

But I think what Bon's also just done a really great job at is recognizing that as musicians they have this amazing platform that beyond their music they have an opportunity to tell a story and to speak about their values.

This was an opportunity to talk about how detrimental the textile industry traditionally has been, and to kind of challenge that narrative and explain to fans that there is another option. The reality is that a fan's gonna buy a shirt no matter what at a show. They want that tangible item. They want that thing to bring home.

And I think there's also this idea that sustainability is just garments, but there's also something that we really focus on—having high quality prints, high quality designs—because ultimately if someone's holding on to that shirt for 30 years, that's more sustainable than the shirt that they wore one time and are gonna donate.

What do most people still misunderstand about sustainable merch?

I think one of the things we talk a lot about is that people have this misconception that if you have to choose either sustainability or profit. And I think that narrative has changed a lot too. There’s a lot of blanks that are out there that are a lot more affordable and so people can choose to still make profits and still have a good markup on their shirts but then be able to use a sustainable blank.

And I think what we’re seeing too, from the merch booth side, is it’s just continuing to raise the cost of shirts at the merch booth. And so the reality is by an artist maybe charging $5 more for their shirt, that’s the difference of them having a sustainable blank or not. And then I think the other part that we’ve really focused on too is just this idea of progress over perfection. 

I think people also have the misconception that if we’re not perfect, if we’re not doing everything perfect, we’re not sustainable. Or if I’m doing one shirt sustainably, that’s not good enough, I need a full line like Bon Iver does. And the reality is that’s not attainable for everyone. And so that’s something that we’ve really shifted to focusing on and celebrating, is that a small band doing one fully organic cotton shirt is something to be celebrated even if their full line’s not that.

Click here to watch Mikala Meidl’s full interview with Lane Seven. You can find Ambient Inks at https://ambientinks.com/ and @ambientinks on Instagram.