This week we talk to Danielle Green, the owner of ADC an independent thrift store thriving and surviving in one of the most expensive cities in the world.
Danielle shares how she had to shift her game when covid hit, how to thrift for the average person and how to support independent thrift stores everywhere.
Enjoying the podcast? I am fiercely independent, and rely on listeners like you to help me stick around.
Can you share the episode on social media, or write a
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review in Apple podcasts?! I would be so grateful.
This week we talk to Danielle Green, the owner of ADC an independent thrift store thriving and surviving in one of the most expensive cities in the world.
Danielle shares how she had to shift her game when covid hit, how to thrift for the average person and how to support independent thrift stores everywhere.
Enjoying the podcast? I am fiercely independent, and rely on listeners like you to help me stick around.
Can you share the episode on social media, or write a
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review in Apple podcasts?! I would be so grateful.
ADC
Here's something you might not know about me. I always wanted to own a vintage clothing store. The great thing about the store I did end up owning was that it did have a vintage store aesthetic as well as an onsite tailor shop, which enabled me to make my client's clothing last, beyond that first tear or that 15 pound weight fluctuation.
So the clothing was all brand new, but the store definitely had a heavy upcycle vibe.
There's something about vintage and thrift. That just speaks to me. At some point during the pandemic. I think it was the second blurs day of January. I passed by a new store, opening up a thrift store. This is rare now. In downtown Toronto indie thrift stores were decimated in the past couple of decades from the insane rent increases. So I walked in, introduced myself and within 30 seconds of meeting the owner, Daniel Green.
I felt a strong kinship. Daniel has this gift of asking you the right questions and making you feel fabulous. She opened her store artisinal design company right next to Drake's on Dundas west. And she has a lot to teach us about taking huge business leaps of faith. Changing things up when the going gets rough and of course thrifting for the average person. So who is Daniel Green and what is ADC?
[00:01:27] Miranda Black: Do you call it a thrift store or do you call it vintage or pre loved? What's your.
[00:01:31] Danielle Greene: You know what? I have
mixed feelings about the word thrift, because for some reason there's like a negative connotation that comes with it and I think that ADC goes beyond what a traditional thrift store is. So for me, I just call it, a vintage store. Even though we don't only offer vintage.
We offer a lot more than that.
[00:01:51] Miranda Black: What do you mean more?
[00:01:52] Danielle Greene: Oh, okay. So what we offer is. Vintage clothing, but we also have really funky pieces that may not be vintage, they're modern and we also have rework clothing. We take clothing that we could not.
Sell or if it was damaged we take pre loved or use textiles to turn it into something new and different and fresh.
[00:02:15] Miranda Black: This is the way of the future. There's so many clothes on this planet. Right now.
[00:02:20] Danielle Greene: There's too much clothes on this planet, I don't know if you've ever been to a clothing recycling plant, but, there is just mounds and mounds and just like as high as the ceiling of just second hand clothing, ripped clothing that. Has not been repurposed and probably will never be sold in a traditional market again.
We have to get really creative on how we use. These damaged textiles and turn them into something fresh and new. We've been programmed to buy from fast fashion brands, when really we have all the fabrics that we need, we have all the denim that we need that we don't have to be polluting any more waters in order to produce some.
But it's up to. Each of us as companies to come up with creative ways that we can turn them into amazing pieces. You know, that. regular consumer. Would want to purchase.
[00:03:12] Miranda Black: Yeah. We need to be reminded how much toxic waste is produced from even just a P one pair of denim. And when I think about how much denim I've purchased over my lifetime.
[00:03:25] Danielle Greene: Yeah.
[00:03:25] Miranda Black: You know, it's, it's like now I want to make it last as long as possible, because if it takes 10,000 gallons of water, To produce a single pair of denim. Then I need to cherish it.
[00:03:38] Danielle Greene: Yes. Yes. Especially when we're going through a time where you've seen rivers just dry up, you know, I think that when people hear the facts sometimes about, how denim is produced, for example, they get bored, They're thinking, Okay. Yeah, that sucks. Well, anyways, I really wanted those pair of Sukot jeans. People choose to not look at the real problem. I think that sometimes instead of telling them the.
The facts behind it. I think we need to show them the possibilities. You know that you can have a great pair of jeans that are not brand new. You can have a fantastic pair. when I have people come into a stothee and they're like, is this new.
Or is it used, it's just like, why are you even asking to ask you know that this must be some good stuff!
[00:04:25] Miranda Black: Yeah, Why does it matter?
[00:04:27] Danielle Greene: Why does it matter?
[00:04:28] Miranda Black: Yeah, shifting the mindset
[00:04:30] Danielle Greene: Yes.
all, it's all in the head. on the head. I could take a pair of denim jeans I have at the shop. I could. Fold it nicely, put it in a brand new box and give it to someone and they would not know. They
[00:04:42] Miranda Black: Yeah, Because now.
They make distressed, I'm using quotes and
[00:04:46] Danielle Greene: Yes.
[00:04:47] Miranda Black: jeans. So they, they take a pair of denim and they use the gallons of water to make it. And then they use another 5,000 gallons of water to distress it, to do what we do in the lifetime of the jean, and then we buy it.
And what you're providing is it's already it's there.
[00:05:05] Danielle Greene: It's already done. It's there. It's perfect for you. You know, and we didn't have to use a little bit of water in order to do it. We we've saved so much.
[00:05:13] Miranda Black: How did you, get in into this. Line of business. Are you from fashion?
[00:05:19] Danielle Greene: No, I have no fashion background at all.
[00:05:22] Miranda Black: love it. I love it.
Cause neither did I. By the way I didn't either. So I would love to hear your story. I think it's great that a couple of non-fashion school.
Chicks talk about fashion.
[00:05:36] Danielle Greene: Yes. I think that sometimes people think, oh, you know what? I'm not qualified to do this. I, don't have any right to have an opinopinion about it. I haveright to even start a business without that background, For me. How I ended up in it. It wasn't even by my own doing, I already had aDC. As a business and, when COVID hit. And sales were not where it needed to be. My mother. Was pushing that I put up, uh, just a little bit of clothes inside my shop to hopefully get customers in.
[00:06:08] Miranda Black: what kind. Stuff. Did you have in your shop before the clothing then?
[00:06:12] Danielle Greene: I had a background in wedding planning. I had a wedding planning business before. And I opened up the shop and thought that maybe it would be a great place for me to have customer meetings in there sell some gifts right. We also had some floral as well in the store.
[00:06:26] Miranda Black: Oh nice. Like
fresh fresh flowers.
[00:06:29] Danielle Greene: yeah, fresh flowers.
[00:06:30] Miranda Black: beautiful.
[00:06:30] Danielle Greene: I didn't really think that business plan through. I don't even, I didn't even have a business plan. I just, I just kind of did it.
And I wasn't making much money at all. It was beautiful by just not profitable. And when COVID hit, I had to really pivot hard. And my mom convinced me to put a few pieces of clothing into the store. I had no money, so I got. Clothing from my mom, my aunt, my grandmother. And I put one rack.
[00:06:56] Miranda Black: So resourceful. Oh my God.
[00:06:58] Danielle Greene: Yes. You know what? My mom always says that. Um, desperation is the mother of invention. And, I was at that desperate point. And I had to get really creative and the best way to do that is to take clothing that was pre loved. And put it by a window. And hope that, customers would come in.
And, you know, When it comes to clothing. Women are like, Bees to honey, you know, they sit up. Ooh.
And customers started to come in, they started to roll in and then they're like, do you have any more clothes? Is there anything else? When are you going to have some size this? When are you going to have some size that, you know, And I was like, oh my gosh. And it turned into this huge thing. It went from one rack to two, two to three, three to four. And now.
About 95% of the store is clothing.
[00:07:48] Miranda Black: Oh, my, I actually just got shivers. That's a mate. What a huge success story. Just from like, just gonna try it out.
[00:07:55] Danielle Greene: Yeah. I think a lot of people are afraid of. Taking that first step.
You know, thinking, oh, it's going to fail. I always hear.
Denzel Washington, his speech, and he says, if you're going to fail, you need to, you need to fail forward. You they always say you need to have something to fall back on. I was like, no, I'm not going to fall back on anything. I want to fall forward. , and if you're going to fail.
fail.
right. Fail the right way, And so I figured, you know what it doesn't hurt, put a few pieces out and see what happens.
And people loved it. They loved it. And then I ended up pulling out the florals.
Not having as much artisan products because my profit margin was super low on those. And I love it. I love it. And I've always had an eye for really funky pieces, but I just didn't realize it.
[00:08:40] Miranda Black: Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so then you were, you were not on Dundas. Yet, right. You know, On Drake's strip.
[00:08:47] Danielle Greene: Oh, no, no.
I was not okay. If you saw where the store originally was, you'd be like, what are you doing on Dundas? So I was on Kingsway drive in Kitchener, Ontario.
[00:09:02] Miranda Black: Well, oh my gosh. Even further out than I thought.
[00:09:05] Danielle Greene: Yes. Yes. I was in Kitchener. I was on a dead end street. You could see it from the highway, but you had no idea how to get to it.
It was deserted. You could count how many people walk by the store on your two hands within a full day.
It was completely just, the rent was cheap though. The rent was.
[00:09:28] Miranda Black: Right.
[00:09:29] Danielle Greene: So cheap, but there was zero walking traffic and that made me pu t on my entrepreneurial hat so hard because I had to figure out ways to get people in the store. Not depending on foot
[00:09:43] Miranda Black: Yeah.
[00:09:43] Danielle Greene: I was not in a downtown area at all. I was on the outskirts so I moved from Kitchener and I hustled hustle hustle during a pandemic. To the point that I was able to get my sales high enough. That I could move my store from a deserted street in Kitchener.
to t he downtown core of Toronto, right beside Drake's, old OVO store.
[00:10:04] Miranda Black: Incredible. Did you know that that's the area that you wanted to be in or were you just looking at a lot of different places?
the plan was not to be in Toronto. but I was having a huge amount of customers coming from downtown Toronto. To my Kitchener store to
[00:10:18] Miranda Black: Mm.
like,
they were seeking. They sought you out.
[00:10:21] Danielle Greene: Yes, they sought me out because I was so intense on social media. That they found out about me and then they would. Like actually do shopping trips all the way down to Toronto...sorry, all the way down to Kitchener to shop. And I was just like, really? There's no other stores in Toronto. Like I was thinking Toronto.
was already oversaturated.
Like, what am I doing differently?
So I actually reached out to um one of my customers. I'm like if I was to move to Toronto, where would you recommend?
[00:10:49] Miranda Black: Oh,
[00:10:50] Danielle Greene: and they said Trinity Bellwoods area. I looked into it. And Trinity Bellwoods just seemed like that. Perfect match it. Wasn't too busy. It's not too quiet.
It has the right demographic. And yeah, it worked out. I couldn't have chosen a better spot.
[00:11:04] Miranda Black: So when you first move in was, was Drakes store still there? It was open.
[00:11:08] Danielle Greene: No it wasn't.
[00:11:09] Miranda Black: This is an aside, but is he coming back?
[00:11:11] Danielle Greene: I don't
[00:11:11] Miranda Black: guys, you ever see him? Did you ever see him?
[00:11:14] Danielle Greene: No, I wish I did. I didn't even know that his store was beside me until I was putting up. Coming soon posters. Up on my window and. One of the business owners, came up to me and he's like, I hope Drake comes back and I'm like, Hey, Drake. And I love Drake and he's like, he's like, your next door neighbor. He used to be there. It was so busy. It was great.
hopefully he's going to come back. So everyone's wondering, but if you go on his website, you go on the OVO, it says temporarily closed due to COVID-19. So.
I know. I have a hope. I have a hope that he's coming backYes. Don't forget about the little people. Okay. down. I'll I'll boy.
[00:11:53] Miranda Black: Csssszy cars would drive up and. Anyone who doesn't know this area.
It's quiet. It's not queen west, it's only a block away, but
[00:12:02] Danielle Greene: It's a crazy mixture. I feel like it doesn't get as much hype as it deserves. I. I.
feel like Drake saw the potential in it. That's why he opened up his first store there. just want him to come back, come back to your roots.
[00:12:15] Miranda Black: Do you have any thoughts on how to make thrifting? More, accessible for the average person. And is that something you even want? Because I know some people are a little bit miffed that thrifting is becoming more. Popular, w what are your feelings on that?
[00:12:32] Danielle Greene: When it comes to. Thrifting becoming more popular. I think it's a good thing. Okay. Because I think for a long time we have been.
Pushing for people to explore those avenues. And they're always hesitant to do it. They're thinking, oh, it's dirty. The place smells like, I've had people say like most thrift stores smell like a dirty diaper.
Um, and that's not true.
[00:12:52] Miranda Black: No.
[00:12:52] Danielle Greene: There are so many. People opening up thrift stores or secondhand stores or vintage stores that are amazing.they are modern. They are, Fresh and new and innovative. So you can thrift without doing it. The quote-unquote traditional way. Now there's different types of thrift.
I think that's an understand. There's the charity thrifts. There's a for-profit secondhand stores. There are consignment stores. So I think that in order to, to thrift, you got to figure out where do I stand? What kind of look am I trying to go for? What brands do I love? Cause we all have our tried and true brands maybe the fit is just right. You love their colors and the style and the cut. , but you want to do it in a way that is not, , affecting the environment in a,
in a negative way. So some of the ways that you can do that is to go to consignment stores. A lot of times you can get a product that you would have gotten at the mall, for so much cheaper and sometimes it's not even worn.
[00:13:49] Miranda Black: Right.
[00:13:49] Danielle Greene: people have. Yeah.
some people have a Shopping addiction. You know, and so they just buy a bunch of stuff. And it doesn't fit or it's not what they really wanted. And they bring it to a consignment store for it to be sold. So. You can do a little bit of vintage. You can do a little bit of modern. You can do a bit of luxury and still look really good too.
actually look better. You can look better than you did before.
[00:14:11] Miranda Black: It's like , mixing it in not necessarily being a hundred percent. Vintage, some people can do that.
[00:14:16] Danielle Greene: Yes.
[00:14:17] Miranda Black: But if a little bit more mainstream, maybe you just want to add a few pieces.
[00:14:20] Danielle Greene: exactly, you'll hav don'to be perfect when it comes to living sustainably. You just need to try. It's okay. To be imperfect. Sometimes we feel like we have to be all in or all out. You can, support living sustainably. But still doing the way that, you still feel good about, Right.
[00:14:40] Miranda Black: Yeah. Maybe some tips for the average person, Just introduce a few pieces into your wardrobe at first. And try it out. okay, I'm just going to go for shirts today. You have a pants at home, you have a jacket.
[00:14:51] Danielle Greene: You're like, I'm gonna get some shirts. And I'm going to go thrifting for these shirts. So you already have an outfit in mind. Don't. Don't just go to the thrift store and be like all Willy nilly. And you just like, you feel confused because some of them are very cramped. There's a lot of product and it can be overwhelming. And sometimes that can be too much.
So if you already have an outfit in mind, that you want to add that shirt to. Go and you look for a shirt that is the color that you're looking
[00:15:15] Miranda Black: Yeah, take the, even take the outfit or wear it To just To make your job easier.
[00:15:21] Danielle Greene: And you can find sometimes, a great piece to a difficult piece you have at home. Cause we all buy, A dress or a pant. And we're like, what w what in the world could go with this? And sometimes you need to see it visually working with something else. So bring it with you in your bag.
[00:15:35] Miranda Black: And talk to the store owner, right? They use them as your resource. When I was a store owner, a lot of people would come in and they don't, they don't want to make eye contact with you and they do.
[00:15:47] Danielle Greene: It's so awkward. You're like, uuuh,
[00:15:49] Miranda Black: I work here.
I know every single piece in this store.
What are you And if you just approach and say, Hey, listen, I need some help. It cuts your, it cut s your time down, you know, just like let's get to it.
What, what goes with this?
[00:16:05] Danielle Greene: Exactly. You know, I can tell who is a new. Shopper, like someone who's not a pro, they will. Walk through the entire store within 30 seconds. Not looking at anything and run out.
And I find that like, if. They ask for help and say, Uh, you know what, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. I am more than happy to help. Just tell me I will pull pieces for you. you'd be surprised. A lot of us are more than happy to give our opinions on how that look is coming together, know, and be like, Hey, how about you? Try this on with that.
And,
[00:16:38] Miranda Black: Like, that's the, that's the fun part of the day, right?
When come. That's the best part is.
It dress up.
[00:16:45] Danielle Greene: It is. I always tell customers when they come in, By the way, you know, while you're in there, if you want to come out, like we love fashion shows. So feel free.
Come on out. Let me see what you wear it. I'll tell you if you're looking good or if you're looking crazy, don't worry. Like. I'm here to help you. And I think that's what, is missing. When you think brick and mortar stores versus online, there is an experience and there's a connection and there's a level of customer service.
That comes with brick and mortar t hat you cannot ever get with an online experience.
[00:17:18] Miranda Black: It actually is a nice little segue into your online store, which is really extensive.
[00:17:23] Danielle Greene: Oh, Thank you. Thank you working on. I want to add way more products to it, but for now it's pretty good. It's pretty good.
[00:17:30] Miranda Black: And do people buy, do people pull the trigger online and buy a piece? And it works out? I can't. So walk me through how I would. ever buy vintage online or thrift.
[00:17:41] Danielle Greene: Oh, well, I have customers that only buy online. They have never stepped foot in the store. So, yes, there are people who pull the trigger and they are more than comfortable to purchase online.
And you know, how, and this is how you can shop comfortably online. You've got to know your measurements.
[00:17:59] Miranda Black: Hm.
[00:18:00] Danielle Greene: You have to know your measurements and you have to know your materials too. Knowing not only about how it feels, but, , the mixtures. Right? So for example, most, fast fashion brands their genes have elastane in it. They have spandex, So that 2% is what makes those. Jeans just, you know, slip onto your body so easily. So if you take a look online and you see a pair of jeans and it says 2%. Spandex in it, you know, that it has some give.
But if it has a hundred percent cotton, the measurements are the measurements and it's not going to stretch. It's not going to stretch for you,
right.
So get out that measuring tape you used to use back in, you know, Uh, sewing class or home ec and measure yourself. I always recommend that you, for example, if you're looking for a dress, right. You want to dress? It's very similar to when you already have. Measure that dress. Take it out of your closet.
And measure it and you'll find that there's so many similarities. You'll find the blazers that you always purchase always fit, have, like from armpit to armpit are. 40 40 inches, right. All the way around and like the arm is always 24 inches long. So if you look online, And you see those measurements, you know, it's going to fit you.
Right. Look at your clothes what is the mix what textiles are made to make your pieces all the time that you always tend to pick up are you hardcore on polyesters? Are you hardcore into like rayon? Take a look at that and you can purchase successfully online
Another thing take a look at the social media of that. Thrift or vintage store. A lot of times they have live sales that go on. It's kind of like the shopping channel which is what we do at ADC we will try on the clothing or we will talk about the clothing, put it up to the camera. If you have any questions about the ? Material, is it itchy?
Scratchy? Is it soft? Is it
[00:19:51] Miranda Black: and you you can ask that in real time on the live sale.
[00:19:55] Danielle Greene: Exactly. and you get a higher level of customer service that you wouldn't get with any big conglomerate. Company. We're more than happy to show it to you because we're a small company and every purchase counts.
[00:20:06] Miranda Black: , you mentioned a little bit ago about how there's different kinds of thrift, how there's the charity shops. There are the four profit shops. And I don't know if you know where this is going,
but.
[00:20:18] Danielle Greene: yeah.
[00:20:22] Miranda Black: Value village. Value village is a little bit of, it's it bothers me. They bother me a lot because they are for profit. They act like a nonprofit. And it's where most people give their clothing to. And there are so many other options, right?
What do you, do you know much about Value Village? How do you feel about.
[00:20:46] Danielle Greene: Do I know much about value village. Um, Huh. I'm telling you they've they have.
Oh, no, they have used their marketing, very effectively to persuade, customers into believing or persuading the public into believing that they were a nonprofit. And for many years, I believed that they were a nonprofit company.
[00:21:06] Miranda Black: Me too.
[00:21:07] Danielle Greene: Because of the signage. And the way they presented themselves, I used to. Like drop off a lot of stuff to, value village. Once it became clear to me, the more that there, it was publicized that like, They are a for-profit company. That's US-based making.
Billions of
[00:21:25] Miranda Black: Bill billion. They have 300 stores worldwide and they've been sued twice in the states for acting like there. And I probably got to get my wording correct. In case anybody ever tried. Come back at me. But they were sued twice for, misleading the public and to believing that they're a not-for-profit.
When they are not.
[00:21:46] Danielle Greene: And that's the thing like Value Village has they have a lot of really cool stuff. Like you can get really cool pieces there. But I, and they're not the first ones to ever be a for-profit company, but I think that transparency is so important and people understanding. Where their donations are going. Some people don't care.
don't care, but The way that they present themselves. The deception. It just puts a bad taste in your mouth. And it, unfortunately from the way that they presented themselves.
A lot of, I truly believe a lot of, charity thrifts, legit, nonprofit. Uh, charity thrips have suffered the consequences, the quality of donations. Have and still are greatly effected. You could go to value village and look at all the brand names and, and quality items that they have versus a charity thrift.
And the reason why is because those small charity thrifts, they don't have. The the huge, um,
[00:22:45] Miranda Black: P P Yeah, they
[00:22:47] Danielle Greene: don't have this huge PR,e PR they don't have the marketing. They don't have, the amount of employees, to promote and make their brand stand out. So they get like whatever's left. They get the crumbs that fall off the table.
[00:22:59] Miranda Black: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:23:00] Danielle Greene: And it's, it's just so sad. I can't believe when Ifound out I was like, what..
And then you really look at the wording. Now, if you go, you look at the wording of their posters, you realize really worded it real good and
[00:23:12] Miranda Black: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:23:13] Danielle Greene: you think that majority of the money is going to. A nonprofit when really they're getting.
Some change.
So. And I can.
[00:23:22] Miranda Black: I can.
edit this out if you're not into this, but I just had idea last night. That wouldn't it be nice if you local thrift stores could benefit from people. Dropping off stuff, but then I thought, well maybe, maybe the local thrift stores don't want, you know, it's a lot of stuff to sort through. How do you feel about
people looking to their local thrift stores to donate their stuff versus taking it to the value village. You, you being a local thrift store.
[00:23:50] Danielle Greene: , well, you know what? Okay. So. Before I even get into that. One thing I got, I gotta say is. ADC is a for-profit right.
Value village is a for-profit, but I think what makes us different. And I'm hoping that the listeners understand that's what makes us different is that. ADC for example, like a lot of other smaller thrifts, ,
It's owned by people who live beside you who know your name. Who will give you, , an extra dose of customer service that you would never get from, from a huge,
[00:24:20] Miranda Black: The village.
[00:24:21] Danielle Greene: We had Yes, a huge blue blush, you know, So your donations actually do help us and they are appreciated. And I find that people are already doing that. I've had many people come in who are already customers. Or some that are not customers ask. I have some stuff. It's okay. If I donate it to you, I'd rather bring it to you than to bring it to this other place, you know? And.
Majority of the time I say.
yes. Unless it's something that like, I cannot do anything with like, I don't sell furniture. There's certain things I don't sell, but if you have clothing. that you have brought to value village or any other big place like that. Ask.
Just ask and we'd be more than happy to take it. A lot of the local thrifts even the. The charity thrifts, they'd be more than happy to take them too. Let them know because sometimes they have a lot of stuff in their back room and they can't take anything
[00:25:13] Miranda Black: Right. just a, it's a call or an email away, right?wherever you are There may be whatever little small town there's generally. And it's most often it's a woman.
Workin' that thrift store
[00:25:25] Danielle Greene: By herself,
[00:25:27] Miranda Black: herself, doing all the things.
And then that stuff gets taken to Value Village, maybe you could just call her. General I'm generalizing, but call them. And find out, do you want this stuff?
this help your day? And if it
[00:25:43] Danielle Greene: And then oa lot of times and a lot of times it does help because, we're already struggling.
, especially with COVID many are struggling. Just asking helps. And, also because, the secondhand market has really taken off, it's become even more competitive to even get items. It's.
not as easy. Everyone's trying to sell online themselves. Everyone's turned into a vintage reseller, you know, so it's become even more difficult. There's so many layers to it. But.
Just ask that is the lesson of the day. ask.
[00:26:17] Miranda Black: Lesson lesson noted. You mentioned. Reworking clothes. Do you do that right now?
[00:26:23] Danielle Greene: I'll tell you a bit
[00:26:24] Miranda Black: Yeah, reworked clothes. And if you have plans for that in your future?
[00:26:29] Danielle Greene: Okay, so rework we take clothing that is damaged. Right? So if it has like a big stain or there's a rip. Or maybe it's a really not very pretty piece that maybe no one will be able to figure out what to do with this piece.
And what we'll do. We'll cut it up. And we'll turn it into something else or we'll add patches or we will hand stitch, really cool designs on it, A whole bunch of really cool things to turn it into a brand new piece and re-introduce it into the market.
A lot of rework um, I'm not exactly a hundred percent sure on the, on the numbers. So don't quote me on this, but something like. What I like a regular thrift about only, I think only about 10% of what's on the racks actually gets sold.
then the rest is sent to third world countries and landfill and stuff like that. So only a very small percentage of what's on these racks actually gets sold to
[00:27:22] Miranda Black: That's at a traditional traditional thrift store, like a value village or, oh,
[00:27:27] Danielle Greene: Yeah, sorry.
Even sometimes you're a nonprofit even. Non-profit thrift. A lot of this stuff does not get resold. Because of the conditions in maybe the style of the clothing, whatever the reason is it just doesn't
[00:27:39] Miranda Black: Because they're not reworking it. So if you donate a stained outfit, which nobody should
[00:27:45] Danielle Greene: They don't even put it on the rack
[00:27:47] Miranda Black: goes, straight to landfill.
[00:27:48] Danielle Greene: Yes, it goes straight. The majority of that stuff goes straight. , that's why, we try to get creative with our clothing before we, we pass it on. now plans for the future. I would really like to have one or two,
part-time or full-time. Seamstresses, that completely deconstruct and sew them into. Your pieces that we can use every day, whether it be pillow cases or handbags, or, crop a shirt and add like an elastic at the bottom, whatever it is, I would like to. Really expand on that and turn those pieces into modern looking pieces.
That you know, people of all age groups would be into wearing. Maybe even those that never really buy secondhand.
[00:28:29] Miranda Black: Right. Yeah, because then it becomes quote, unquote, new.
[00:28:32] Danielle Greene: Yes, it becomes new. It's just, it's just a crazy concept that like, if we change it up, All of a sudden it's new huge brands are now starting to accept clothing that their customers are done with. And then they they're turning them into something else or reselling them.
but what a lot of people don't realize is to rework a piece it's very expensive. , it's a lot of work and some pieces are in deplorable condition. You know, so you're thinking I really don't want to waste this piece so what can I do with it. There's a lot of room for innovation on that end on how to really turn these pieces that.
[00:29:06] Danielle Greene: that seem like they'll never be put back into the market again and put them back out. But in a way that's affordable and can be profitable.
[00:29:13] Miranda Black: Yeah. That's I guess that's the. That's the hurdle, right? To make it cost-effective.
Time time effective and also look nice. Is.
[00:29:22] Danielle Greene: And made in an ethical way that, you know, people are making a living wage,
[00:29:26] Miranda Black: Yeah. , is there anything that I didn't touch on that you wanted to talk about?
[00:29:31] Danielle Greene: Hmm.
One thing I gotta ask you, you know, Miranda, you have such a fantastic taste. Where, what is your inspiration when it comes to your, your, your fashion
[00:29:43] Miranda Black: my
[00:29:43] Danielle Greene: you have like, It's so. Beautiful. And just like you have like pops of color and it just your clothing, it just suits your, your, your body so well, like w.
What inspires your fashion and how did you end up loving thrift?
[00:29:56] Miranda Black: Well, I think as a lot of people come to it, it was financial. You know, when you're a teenager, you don't have a lot of money.
And I don't know how I, I guess it was being in Kensington going to Kensington market when I was a teenager.
[00:30:10] Danielle Greene: Oh, yeah, Oh, oh yes, I do. Courage my love.
and a lot of trial and error, I would say. And then I lived in New York . I lived in the east village where it was. At that time, there were tons of thrift stores and that was all I could buy. And that was also when I turned to, I'm going to call it dumpster diving, but it was more like dumpster daintily picking.
[00:30:33] Miranda Black: Um, because people leave stuff and in New York you can get, I would get like $2,000 sweaters that people had folded up put really nicely on. And. It's only luck, right? Because the next moment it would have been gone. If I wasn't walking by, at that moment
But people put stuff out and it's good. Good stuff. So. Yeah, trial and error, trying stuff that looked silly. And, um, and then. Getting to sort of go swinging on a pendulum like, whoa. And
now. I feel like I've got it just right. I add like this. My sweater is thrift. My jacket is new, but altered. And not new. I mean, it's like, it's probably 10 years old, but it still looks great. So why get of it?
Um, yeah, I'm a big fan of mixing new with vintage. And vintage also allows you. To blow through those. I'm going to call them mistakes because it's not as, um,
It. A, it's not as bad on the environment. You're buying something new. I think it's great to experiment with your style.
Using vintage.
[00:31:41] Danielle Greene: And. And it can be so fun.
[00:31:42] Miranda Black: It's fun. It's low stakes and you can find amazing, amazing pieces. I think it's so cool. It's like a good way to kind of like bring in a little luxury, mix it in with the vintage, with the modern. And it represents what the. What the market's like right now.
[00:31:59] Danielle Greene: You can go to www.artisanaldesignco.ca. Art is anal design co.ca.
[00:32:05] Miranda Black: That's how I say it. say it. Art is anal.
[00:32:08] Danielle Greene: Art is anal. Well, it kinda is right right. Book an appointment, and ring your stuff in. We take men's and women's clothing. We'll go through it. And then if there's pieces that we'd like to carry, then. Uh, we will sell it on your behalf for 90 days. And if it sells you get 50% of the selling price. And then we pay you out.
It's a great way for you to be able to clean out your closet and get some money back and in return as well. And you're also supporting a local small business. That is just trying to create opportunities. And, you know, live comfortably.
[00:32:43] Miranda Black: W.
[00:32:43] Danielle Greene: I want to be able to move out my mom's house. One day you know,
[00:32:48] Miranda Black: I, my kid's only seven. I'm like, I like that idea of my kid moving back with me and starting their own business.
[00:32:55] Danielle Greene: Yes.
You know what I love living with my mom. I'm not going to lie. I really do.
It's been fantastic. It's great. You know, it's just after awhile. You're just like, I feel like I'm supposed to be out of here by now.
But my mom loves it.
Well, we covered all our topics here on how to thrift, where to take your thrift.
[00:33:15] Danielle Greene: We've talked about our inspirati, how to thrift online. Line. Even if you learn one thing from this, I hope that it was inspirational and it gets you in that second hand market.
[00:33:26] Miranda Black: Yeah. Oh, nice. Thank you so much. I appreciate your time. I really do. I know that retailers are just slammed busy right now. So taking this much time with me. I'm I'm blessed. Thank you so much.
[00:33:38] Danielle Greene: My pleasure. Thank you so much.
Okay, so shopping vintage, thrift, consignment, whatever you want to call it. It is a really strong way to slow down textile production on this planet. Another way is to take care of the clothing we already own. So we get more wears out of it. If you're someone who really likes to shop, maybe you could shift some of that shopping energy into caring for your closet energy.
On the next episode, we talked to Jacqueline Sava from soak wash, a biodegradable laundry company made right here in Canada.
[00:34:09] Jacqueline Sava: And that's what we're trying to do. Right? take out those sweaters, use them more often, keep them clean because you don't realize how unfresh your garments are until you refresh them.
just like you said, you didn't realize how much extra dirt was still sitting on that shirt until you soaked it. And then you're like, oh
[00:34:23] Miranda Black: Shocked.
[00:34:25] Jacqueline Sava: yeah, there it is. Right.
If you've never been blown away by a simple bottle of laundry detergent, you've never tried soak find out how soak wash shocked me the next time on what's this place. Thank you so much to Daniel Green and the whole team at ADC, you can find them online@artismaldesigncode.ca and be sure to follow them on Instagram.
I will see you next week.