The UK is also home to the world famous Vintage Football Shirts, who seek out the rare quirky shirts from yesteryear and resell them on their website (). They currently curate a massive collection of classic mainly NFL vintage merchandise. They grew tired with the now £80 plus, low quality printed jerseys available to European American Football fans, and took matters into their own hands. The UK’s ‘National Vintage League’, formerly ‘NFL Vintage UK’ () is leading the way in vintage US sports gear. To quote Paul Cantu’s thrifting accomplice, Kinky, when talking about art: “It’s what you make of it”. There is art out there to be discovered in the most unexpected of places, and it’s waiting to be recontextualised. As a friend of mine beautifully put it (shout to Benji!), it’s “wading through the flotsam of capitalism”. More recently, Vapourwave artists have been utilising snippets from strange sources (such as 80s Japanese Pepsi ads) in their music, and to devastating effect. I liken the vintage clothing scene to hip hop producers “digging in the crates” of old records to find the perfect loop or sample. In an amazing turn of fate, there exists a subculture of thrifters, who search through forgotten items and sell on the best finds for a small profit. We live on the verge of a capitalist dystopia, and so much has been produced that is no longer being used. There also seems to be a preference for items that are all over prints (front, back and sleeves) and stock car racing tees (think Indy or Daytona 500). The aforementioned Paul Cantu, also known as “The Thrift God”, will dig through the shop rails for items ranging from Tommy Hilfiger and Polo, to NFL/NBA jerseys, and most amusingly anything with Looney Tunes or Disney Characters embroidered onto it. The scene is thriving and has some hilarious quirks. You can feel good about your brand worship and you are making a small but positive difference. To be an environmentalist, and obsess over the big brand names is a paradoxical marriage of interests, but ‘thrifting’ as it’s called in the US, reconciles these two worlds perfectly. The high street behemoth chain stores produce clothes that inevitably add to an already swelling landfill, and are likely to be made in distant sweatshops. The mantra of “you can look fly and save money”, coupled with the environmental benefits of reusing clothes are a welcome antidote to the toxic fast fashion trend.
THE VINTAGE SCENE FULL
Paul Cantu’s videos are hilarious, and full of quotables (“Tommy for your Mommy”).
Being a vintage sports jersey enthusiast, my YouTube algorithms threw up my current hero, the “Thrift God”, Paul Cantu. The Vintage Scene: How can you turn old clothes into money? I was recently introduced to the wonderful world of the vintage clothing scene.
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