These Michigan Highways Are So Popular They Have Their Own Merch

There are likely only a few things popular enough for you to consider wearing merch inspired by it. Perhaps a favorite band or sports team.

But a favorite roadway?

Highways are often so mundane and commonplace no one gives them a second thought.

But there are some roads that do have, and deserve, merch. Think the fabled Route 66. Or, if you're in Key West, you can't avoid the End of the Road merch from US 1.

But there are Michigan roads that are famous and well travelled enough to have fans.

One is M-22. That road runs along the coast of Lake Michigan from Manistee to Traverse City past Sleeping Bear Dunes and making an arc through the Leelanau Peninsula.

M-22: The Scenic Route's Superfans

The road inspires t-shirts and bumper stickers.

The road and its merch are so popular there was a long trademark fight between a producer of M-22 swag and the state of Michigan.

The passion for M-22 has gotten out of hand over the years. The roadway is so beloved by tourists that signs for the road have been stolen. That rash of theft led the state's Department of Transportation to print bland M-22 shields without the M or paint the roadway number on the pavement.

M-28: The Upper Peninsula's Main Artery

There's another Michigan road that gets some merch love and that's M-28 with runs nearly the entire length of the Upper Peninsula from east to west. The road is the longest state highway in Michigan. Yooper locals and tourists would be hard pressed to avoid it during their travels.

You can find M-28 merch at souvenir shops in the UP.

READ MORE: Joke about a New Upper Peninsula Interstate Highway is Actually a Brilliant Idea

Why Roads Become Icons

Michigan is rare to have state highways that inspire an iconic status. There are a few others across the nation. North Carolina's highway 12 runs along the Outer Banks. California's Route 1 is the Pacific Coast Highway. Florida has its A1A running along the Atlantic and inspiring the name of a Jimmy Buffett album, forgiven even if it gets the type of highway shield wrong in the cover art. (It should look like this.) Last, perhaps, of the famous state routes is Nevada's 375 the Extraterrestrial Highway.

Each of these roads, like federal highways Route 66 and US 50, the so-called Loneliest Road that spans a desolate stretch of Nevada, are about place. Or, perhaps better stated, the places the roadway leads you to.

👇🏼BELOW: The Only Destination For These Special Highways are Michigan State Parks👇🏼

These roads transcend their duties of getting you from one place to the next and become the destination in themselves.