Two Ohio University students are taking advantage of the thrifting market by starting their own Instagram account, @ohiovintageco, where they sell locally-thrifted clothes.
Olivia Gemarro, a junior studying creative writing and sociology criminology pre-law, and Autumn Murphy, a junior studying history, are a couple who started thrifting on their own and bonded while doing it. Thrifting is a popular way for college students to shop for clothes due to the low prices, sustainability and vintage value.
“We always really liked thrifting,” Gemarro said. “We would go together. We would go on our own. We just thought it was fun, you never know what you’re going to find. Like you can find something that’s vintage or something that’s deadstock, which means they don’t sell it anymore.”
Gemarro and Murphy are passionate about how different thrifted clothing is from contemporary brands. While shopping at stores in the mall, it seems like what is available is always expected, and people end up dressing the same.
“We just liked the idea of going to a store and not knowing what you’re going to get, whereas a lot of the contemporary brands or styles are the same,” Gemarro said.
Thrifting used to be seen as something for people who were on low budgets, but people lately are noticing that the quality of the clothes is actually impressive.
“The whole stigma around thrifting is that you have to be poor and that’s not true,” Gemarro said. “Some people might thrift because they’re poor: either they’re poor college kids or are in poverty. There are also some people who want to be more sustainable with their clothing.”
The couple started their thrifting account on an app called Depop, but they realized they would reach more students on a popular platform like Instagram.
“A few months after we started our Depop account, we just started posting our clothes on Instagram instead because more people will be able to see what we have,” Gemarro said.
The couple researches the true value of items and prices them based on how much they are worth.
“We understand because we’re college kids, but some of these items are, maybe not rare, but definitely not things you would normally find,” Gemarro said. “We try to focus on buying brand name stuff. We know Champion is really popular, Adidas has always been popular and so has Nike.”
Gemarro said when they thrift Champion, it sells immediately because it is currently in style.
Murphy said they also try to find things that aren’t seen often, but have high value.
“We find things that you’re not going to find, like, in the Athens area, especially,” Murphy said.
Murphy said shipping is free in the Athens area, and her hometown is Chillicothe.
Although Gemarro and Murphy have not posted much on the account recently, they plan to get back to it as soon as possible. The stress from school has set them back more than they would like, they said.
“We’re definitely going to start posting soon because we’ve fallen into our class routines and our own routines,” Murphy said.
Gemarro said that over the summer, the two would go thrifting for nearly 10 hours a week.
Gemarro and Murphy said that OU students get student discounts. The amount of discount depends on the item.
“I think thrifting is a fun pastime to do with your friends. There are tons of ideas and styles you can create for cheap prices. You can transform an XXL t-shirt into a dress, a halter top, anything you want,” Hannah Shea, a sophomore studying wildlife and conservation biology, said. “I think Ohio Vintage Co. on Instagram is a great way to reach out to students interested in great, but cheap finds.”
Students are becoming more and more aware of the benefits of thrift shopping.
“I really enjoy thrifting in stores, but lately I’ve been following a few online thrift accounts,” Mallory Conner, a freshman studying integrated language arts, said. “I follow a few on Instagram, and was just informed of Ohio Vintage Co. The account is set up beautifully and I will definitely be checking out some items and purchasing them.”
