Photos and story by Emily R. Condon
Racks of vintage thrifted clothes and shoes filled the open ledge outside McKeldin Library on March 10. An estimated 250 students visited the display, according to Ethan Pham of UMD Thrift.
Pham, a sophomore information science major, started up ‘UMDthrift” (@umdthrift on Instagram) over winter break. After five friends, Ben Chipurnoi, sophomore undecided major, Ava Reiner, sophomore finance major, Madison Collins, sophomore mechanical engineering major, Malec Fahmy, sophomore undecided and Elan Rosenberg, another sophomore mechanical engineering major joined his team, Pham decided to launch a pop up shop outside McKeldin Library.
“Living on campus my freshman year, I realized many people, myself included, don’t have access to go out and thrift or even buy clothes in person unless it is at the Stamp bookstore, which is pretty expensive,” Pham shared.
A love for thrifting inspired Pham’s vision of UMD Thrift.
“I’ve been doing it as a hobby for a few years now and every time I go I find things that either don’t fit me or it’s something cool that I personally wouldn’t wear,” Pham continued. “After countless times calling my siblings and my friends at the thrift store to see if they’d want these clothes I found, I figured it could be a good idea to bring all these clothes to school to sell them.”
The pop up shop featured music, a variety of items and a larger-than-expected crowd. The event, which was originally advertised to be from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. ended up wrapping up around 3:30 p.m. instead. According to Pham, this was due to an underestimation of buyers, and thus a smaller inventory.
“I’d say it’s pretty surreal. None of us have ever run a business like this before and to see it come off to such a great start is really exciting,” Pham said.
Cassidie Stevens, senior journalism major, and Jack Ellis, junior digital media major, visited the shop towards its closing on their walk back to Terrapin Row.
“It looked pretty picked out when I first got here, but I saw this cute shirt from Free People and it was only six bucks, so I thought that was a good deal,” Stevens said.
Ellis explained that after not seeing much, he found the perfect item for his style at UMD Thrift.
“I was like, ‘Ugh I’m not seeing anything I need in here. I need something that really speaks to me.’ I came over and I saw this very basic H&M t-shirt and thought, ‘I’m a very sensible guy. I need a very sensible wardrobe.’ The rest was history,” Ellis said.
Pham said that UMD Thrift has a lot of restocking to do, and the group’s Instagram announced that the shop will open again on March 28.