EAST LANSING — Mo Gerhardt had to use a trachea tube after getting out of the hospital years ago, and needed to hire a seamstress to modify clothing so it’d fit.
Now he’s making sure others don’t need to go to that extreme to find clothing that fits correctly.
Not only that, but attire that also represents a certain fandom.
Gerhardt’s new business, Every Spartan Apparel, aims to provide options for any Michigan State University fan.
The online store for Spartans fans of all types and sizes offers licensed traditional and adaptive clothing featuring, the first of its kind.
“Part of it’s from lived experience,” Gerhardt said. “There’s really no licensed apparel that brings together adaptive and traditional apparel.”
His line is the first licensed adaptive product specific to one university, featuring options such as tag-free, magnetic closures, side zippers and buttons, modified cuts for mobility users and some that can even be for someone recovering from shoulder surgery. “Traditional” Michigan State gear is also available.
He earned a bachelors degree from MSU in business administration and a masters in 2022 in athletic administration.
Gerhardt served 15 years (2005-2020) as an academic advisor for MSU’s college of natural sciences and women’s basketball student-athlete academic coordinator, so he has a love for everything Michigan State.
The 1996 Traverse City Central grad who lives only a few miles away from the East Lansing campus started everyspartanapparel.com earlier this year. The weekend of its debut, the website crashed due to heavy traffic. It was back up in 48 hours.
“As a Michigan State alumnus, former university employee, and fan, I understand MSU not only as an institution,” Gerhardt states on the website, “but as a culture built on access to opportunity and the belief that education — and community — should be available to all. Living with a physical disability has given me firsthand insight into how often accessibility is unintentionally overlooked, even in spaces rooted in inclusion.”
Gerhardt was born with muscular dystrophy and diagnosed at age 8.
He was told he’d be lucky to live into his teens. He turns 49 this fall.
Gerhardt — whose parents were TCAPS teachers and moved to Lansing in 2007 after retiring — fell May 23, 1995, breaking his femur in three places. He’s been wheelchair-bound since the accident as a junior in high school.
“I was really accepted by my peers,” Gerhardt said, “and that’s what really gave me the confidence to go to college and pursue my dreams.”
At the end of 2019, Gerhardt went into respiratory failure, couldn’t speak for two weeks and was hospitalized five months.
His trials and tribulations led him to struggle with finding clothes that fit someone in a wheelchair, let alone ones that represented his college fandom.
Then he was laid off from his online life coaching job in 2025.
“It was one of those life moments where you look in the mirror,” Gerhardt said. “I really had to sink my mind into something to not go into the deep end.”
The process took about a year to come to fruition — six months to research and plan, then another half year to make it official, procure product and set everything up.
The website — at least for traditional clothes — launched March 1.
Tariff issues delayed the adaptive side to April 1, but Gerhardt didn’t think April Fools Day was a great day to start and moved it back to April 2.
He said it took six months to get the required permissions from the NCAA and Michigan State. He sources from national suppliers and uses printers in Detroit and Chicago.
“It was an eye-opening experience for sure,” Gerhardt said. “Lengthy contracts, interviews. It’s like trying to get into a Brinks truck.”
Gerhardt said he’s been approached by others colleges, such as Arizona State, to offer similar clothing for their fans.
“There’s always been a void in the apparel market,” Gerhardt said. “It’s a thrill and validating to see schools come to me.”
Some MSU campus shops have also inquired about having hard lines in their stores.
Gerhardt, who just recently entered his name as an independent in the race for an MSU trustee seat, said his presentation to Michigan State was for the school to put its money where its mouth is for inclusion.
“My sales pitch was based around MSU being inclusive,” Gerhardt said.
Gerhardt said he might eventually branch out and start an ambassador program with endorsements from MSU student-athletes through name-image-likeness deals.
Erika Austin, the director of university trademark and licensing at MSU, said companies they work with must be members of the Fair Labor Association and Collegiate Licensing Company in order to assure proper business practices that wouldn’t make the university in a bad light.
“Because this is such a unique set of products, we were very interested,” Austin said.
MSU has partnered for around 400 types of products, including some crafters. Partners pay royalties, which go to the school’s general fund. The trademark and licensing office also helps its partners with product assortment and marketing.
“It helps MSU getting our brand out and reaching new customers,” Austin said. “We’re excited to have his products available. He’s offering a product we’ve never had before. Michigan State believes in his mantra of every Spartan.”