One Man’s Trash is a College Student’s Treasure
The only thing on sophomore Samuel Moreno’s mind during Week of Welcome was just to get a couple of students interested in his new club. Little did he know, he would end the day with over 18 pages filled with new members.
“I was absolutely blown away by the positive feedback from people. Like, I heard ‘I've never found a club that's spoken to me until now’ or ‘There's no other club that I would ever join because it's the only one that I have a real interest in,’ and it was just really eye-opening,” said Moreno.
The Thrift Club is a brand new club on campus that focuses on thrifting, reselling, and upcycling items. The club was founded by kinesiology major Samuel Moreno.
He was inspired to start this club by his cousin who started a thrift club at his university. Moreno originally got into thrifting because he felt his outfits weren’t cutting it anymore.
Many students took interest in the Thrift Club and signed up to join at this year’s Week of Welcome. Photo courtesy of the Thrift Club.
“I just went into Goodwill and started buying stuff and I started loving it,” said Moreno. He recalls one of his favorite thrift finds was a red Marlboro hoodie at the Salvation Army in Long Beach.
This hoodie is a rare item to find second-hand because Marlboro discontinued this item a while ago.
“Now this item is super vintage and valuable and when I found it I got it for like five bucks at Salvation right here in Long Beach,” said Moreno.
Shortly after getting into thrifting, he became interested in reselling. Moreno realized he could make money from finding rare items, thrifting, and reselling them.
“I found, like, a really cool pair of shoes that didn't fit me and I was like, ‘I could make like a hundred bucks on this right now.’ It's still like not even tapping into the potential [of] how much this stuff is worth,” said Moreno.
The main goal for the Thrift Club is to help students who are on a tight budget be able to find affordable and sustainable clothes they like. Moreno explains that last year he struggled financially and didn’t feel confident in the way he looked.
With this club, he wants to help other students who are facing the same struggles with their clothing. “It kind of opened my eyes to, like, what some other people are going through, because some people have worse financial situations or just don't know what to buy, and maybe they don't feel confident in what they're wearing. So, just being able to teach people how to shop and where to shop—that would be really cool,” said Moreno.
He hopes that the Thrift Club can offer an outlet for students to learn these skills.
Moreno also hopes that the Thrift Club can help educate students on the harmful effects of fast fashion. “I would love to like, teach people there is alternatives out there. It is cheaper and it looks better. It's just gonna take you more time, but I'm sure you're gonna feel a lot better,” said Moreno.
Moreno hopes that the Thrift Club can cater to every facet of the second-hand industry so that students can come explore what they want. The club hopes to host events such as student fashion shows, or to get a spot at a local flea market.
The Thrift Club would also be hosting upcycling events so that students can bring clothes that they don’t want or can’t wear anymore and upcycle them into new items.
He also hopes that the Thrift Club can collaborate with other fashion clubs on campus for different events. But creating a new club on campus isn’t easy, and balancing that with being a full-time student has brought some challenges.
The Thrift Club displayed some of their coveted finds to draw in students at Week of Welcome. Photo courtesy of the Thrift Club.
“We don't technically have any money, so everything's coming straight [from] my pocket. Like buying stuff [for] the club or buying our slot at Week of Welcome–just all coming straight out of my pocket because it's all brand new,” said Moreno.
As the Thrift Club makes its mark on campus, Moreno hopes that he creates a comfortable environment for students. He wants students who are interested in joining to find a welcoming space where they can share their passions.
“If you come and talk to me or you contact the club and you show up and you tell us what you're passionate about, we're gonna make sure that you feel comfortable,” said Moreno. Moreno explains that he doesn’t feel the need to follow a certain parameter of what the Thrift Club should be and students who are interested can get what they want out of it.
Even though there have been struggles with getting the Thrift Club off the ground, Moreno says that he is excited for the future.
“Hopefully we get a good outcome. Even if we don't, I'm sure we're gonna have a great time. It's gonna be tough for sure, but we got this,” said Moreno.