Looking for something fun to do in Denver? If you are into fashion of any sort, hop on the light rail and visit Denver’s Thrift Pop, hosted monthly by Thrift Con, the #1 vintage streetwear clothing convention in the world.
Thrift Cons’ big event in Denver happens at the National Western Complex, but they also travel to other big cities like Vegas, Philly and LA.
“We normally do bigger scale events. We go all over the US, but we started here in Denver,” said Olivia Miller, a Thrift Con intern and reseller. Miller started thrifting in high school and attended many thrift con events, before hearing about an open intern position through Instagram.
When asked about her favorite part of the event, she said, “Honestly all of the five dollar bins are amazing. That’s where I find the stuff that I actually hold onto and wear a lot.” Yep, you read that correctly. Five dollar bins. In addition to the steals, Miller also loves the variety of different shops at Thrift Pop, and the networking opportunities that come with it.
This month’s event occurred last Sunday, Sept. 26, where 23 vendors sold a variety of clothing such as street wear, vintage t-shirts and lingerie. Even if it’s not your style of clothing, the music and food trucks make it a great day for the community.
Thrift pop was started to connect back with Thrift Cons Denver roots, according to Co-Founder Mario Conte. Conte has been reselling for about 18 years.“I owned a store in Five Points called Station for about five years befire thrift con, that’s kind of what led us into this,” Conte said. Most of the vendors at Thrift pop were met through just being in the reselling community around Denver.
“We are based here in town, our office is just up the street. So we wanted to do something for our friends and the community here,”said Conte.
According to Conte, they typically have the same vendors every month, give or take. But don’t fear, there will always be more thrifted goodies every time. Most of the vendors said that they thrift every day of the week.
Let’s take a look at two dedicated thrifters, Kyle and Morgan Dickey. Two reselling brothers from California who now reside in Denver, have an online store called @vintagewanderlust1031 where they specialize in vintage t-shirts and outerwear. Growing up in poverty and thrifting for basic essentials with their mom is what inspired their reselling journey.
“Then we realized we could actually make money off of this clothing, while shopping for stuff I like, too,” said Kyle Dickey. They have now been thrifting and reselling for almost 30 years. They actually got a chance to attend Thrift Cons’ huge event in Denver too, but you can catch them at the pop-up shop every month.
Francesca Souza Price, a Denver local since 2001 but originally from Brazil, thrifts and resells vintage clothing with her boyfriend. Her favorite part of the event is seeing everyone’s different styles. While there are people like the Dickey brothers, she has only been reselling for over a year. The thing she looks out for most at thrift stores is vintage lingerie. This is her third time at the pop-up, but they go to other pop-up events around Denver too.
October 30 is the last thrift pop event of the year, but as soon as it gets warm again, they will be back at it. Follow @organizedchaos (IG) and @oliviamiller4327 (Depop) for some awesome thrift finds and @303voyagevintage_ on Depop for some y2k/vintage items. For more information on future thrift pop-ups click here.
