Sifting through the Bli Bli warehouse of pre-loved clothes and picking out what to sell in his store, Jordan Armstrong remembers back to the days where he was wide eyed, adventurous and without a mode of transportation. He often caught the bus out of Palmwoods to explore Nambour or Maroochydore, the two suburbs that each contain more than 10 op shops clustered within walking distance of one another. Thrifting was an easy activity for a bored teenage boy.
“I fell in love with thrifting and op shopping, looking for treasure among the racks back when I was 14,” Jordan, now 23, says with a grin. “I liked looking for cool stuff; I never liked shopping at the Plaza. I liked finding things that other people didn’t have.”
Australia is the world’s largest consumer of textiles, most of which is considered fast fashion, with more than 200,000 tons of clothing ending up in landfill each year. Reusing, re-wearing and recycling clothes is one way to fight the fast fashion cycle and help reduce the clothing ending up in landfill.
It was during his frequenting of local op shops that Jordan accidentally stumbled on a business idea. He found treasures that weren’t his size but would fit his friends, and when he discovered they would pay him twice the amount he paid for the items, the vintage clothing entrepreneur was born.
“I would start buying stuff that wasn’t my size because if I found something that was really cool,” he says. “I felt weird not buying it because I mean it’s like $4 – how can I just leave this behind?”
Jordan says as he remembers the huge pile of clothes stacked in the corner of his childhood bedroom. “My friends would go through the pile and pick what they wanted and would pay me more than I paid for it because I was the one who went out and did all the leg work,” he says.
The business expanded and he sold clothes on his personal Instagram for almost two years. He then sold his clothes at the Fishermans Road Markets every Sunday and discovered the Brisbane Vintage Exchange markets.
“At Fishermans Road, I would maybe sell $400 worth of stuff but, my first day at the Brisbane Vintage markets, I sold almost a thousand dollars’ worth of clothes and the lightbulb just went off in my head,” Jordan says. “That’s really what started Premium Vintage (his own brand) and jumpstarted the Sunshine Coast Vintage Market.”
Moving from Sunday market to a permanent space in May took a great deal of physical and financial planning, but Jordan has discovered a new group of likeminded people: housing 15 different sellers instore allows the rent and bills to be shared among the people who contribute stock to the shop.
“I think the beauty with having all these sellers under one roof – even though their job is to just drop their stuff and get out of here – is we’ve got cheerleaders hyping up the store, creating social media content that we put out as well: it all helps,” Jordan says.
Jordan works with other charity shops to create events where people can fill a bag, and he drives the regular clothing exchange events and discount days within the store – anything to reach out to the community. Driven by wanting to serve customers and the community, Jordan works hard to deliver joy. The clothing, vinyl and beer markets still run monthy and take many forms, with different partners including Your Mates Brewing.
“Every Saturday we do a handful of t-shirts for a dollar – obviously we’re losing money on them, but it brings people in, it gets people interested,” Jordan says. “We’re trying to get Lifeline on board with our events to work together to promote secondhand clothing. It would be cool to see them come together for a market one day.”
Sunshine Coast Vintage Market is at 1 Mooloolaba Esplanade, Mooloolaba and is open Tuesday-Sunday. There are also monthly markets at various locations. https://www.instagram.com/sunshinecoastvintagemarket/?hl=en
