Black-owned vintage market, Thrifty Fitz aims to make the thrifting experience better for everyone.
The largest vintage markets tend to be in major cities. Here in North Carolina, that means Charlotte, Raleigh and Durham. Greensboro, despite being the third largest city in North Carolina, didn’t have a reoccurring vintage market of its own.
Toni Cantini and Shanna Simpson, the founders of the Thrifty Fitz market, saw that problem and decided to combine their love of fashion with their love of Greensboro.
“My business partner Shanna and I have been doing markets in a bunch of different areas,” said Cantini. “We were meeting a lot of people at markets that were from Greensboro. They would say that there wasn’t anything going on in their city.”
The partners collaborated with Steel Hands Brewing in order to create the space for the city of Greensboro, allowing resellers and shoppers of Greensboro to meet in one place.
“The next market is going to be in December,” said Simpson. “The goal is to have these markets monthly at Steelhands Brewing by the middle of next year.”
Increasingly more consumers are turning to thrifting as a way to find unique pieces and save money.
“I moved away from retail stores because of prices and also because there’s nothing in there that’s not being mass produced,” said Joshua White, a nanoengineering PhD student at N.C A&T. “You get a more unique feel when you go out and thrift, visit vendors, and just get more unique pieces.”
With the growing problem of fast fashion, it can be harder to stand out. Fast fashion is the rapid mass production of clothes which shortens the trend cycle from 20 years to just a couple months.
People like Cantini and Simpson create these markets to organize a space for resellers and thrifting enthusiasts alike. Now that there’s one in Greensboro, local fashion lovers have a chance to enjoy this space.
Thrifty Fitz will host their third market on Dec. 8 at Steel Hands Brewing from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Steel Hands Brewing is located at 1918 W Gate City Blvd.
If you’re interested in attending or vending at their next market, check out their Instagram page @thriftyfitzmarketnc.
