Old clothing is finding a new home with the help of university students selling their thrift finds on Instagram.
Thomas Craig, a third-year student at the University of New Brunswick, started @freddy_vintage, an account where he sells vintage sportswear.
“Going into thrift stores and looking through all these used clothes, that’s what I live for right now,” said Craig.
He learned to spot vintage clothing from watching Youtube videos. Looking for certain tags, stitching or style trends can indicate whether a piece is vintage.
Craig sells clothes that are around 15 to 20 years old. He can put in up to ten hours a week between finding, mending and cleaning clothes.
Craig started buying basketball jerseys from thrift stores for himself. He said the low price and interesting pieces attracted him to thrifting. Craig noticed some great pieces that weren’t his size, so he started selling ones that he liked but didn’t fit in.
Josée Cooper, a St. Thomas University graduate, created @evangelinethrift, an Instagram account where they sell second-hand clothing.
Cooper shops at thrift stores for their own clothing, but gets clothes to sell through donations and “mystery boxes.”
“Mystery box” clothing comes from websites that sell clothes by the pound.
While customers can ask for certain categories of items like denim or graphic t-shirts, the person buying doesn’t know what’s inside the box until it’s unpacked.
Sometimes it’s disappointing, but Cooper said sometimes they find great pieces.
Cooper started thrifting with their family when they were a kid and it’s important to them to keep clothes out of landfills.
They started their account in 2018 as a way to get rid of excess clothing.
“I had no choice, I started selling them because I had to get rid of my impulsive purchases,” they said.
Cooper likes that thrifting makes it possible for them to provide accessible prices to their customers. Prices on their page range from $8 to $30.
Instagram reselling isn’t their main source of income, they said on a good month it will cover their groceries.
“I really just love doing it,” said Cooper.
