Three new vintage shops have popped up between 24th and 25th streets on Lyndale Avenue in the last year– Leisure World, Clubhouse Market and Final Stop Vintage. Running a brick-and-mortar store is a first for all of the owners.
Before opening along Lyndale Avenue, all the owners built their businesses with pop-ups and events like the Totally Rad Vintage Fest at the Convention Center before opening their brick-and-mortar stores.
According to these vintage shop owners, the vintage scene in Minneapolis is bigger than many people realize, and supportive. Since opening a month ago, Clubhouse Market owner Devyn Pineapple said that he quickly bonded with the owner of Final Stop Vintage a few steps north of his store.
Clubhouse Market’s neighbors at Leisure World said that the Lyndale Avenue cluster of vintage shops is advantageous to each business because people make a day of vintage shopping. Leisure World’s co-owner Joe Giwoyna said that there’s no real competition between the businesses because no two pieces of clothing they sell are identical.
Despite the different clothing styles in each shop, the owners had similar reasons for shopping and selling vintage: sustainability, uniqueness and clothing quality.
Fast fashion is a significant contributor to pollution from the production process to the shorter lifespans of each garment. Buying used clothing has been suggested as a way to avoid contributing to textile waste.
On a recent Friday afternoon, teenagers and young adults filed through the shops, sifting through the unique collections.
When asked why people should shop vintage, Leisure World co-owner Cookie Cameron said “it’s the only way to go.” According to Cameron, vintage clothing is a sustainable way to find one-of-a-kind pieces that "make you look hot."
LEISURE WORLD, 2457 Lyndale Avenue
Leisure World’s clothing hails from a variety of eras, but their specialty is the ‘70s. The clothes are organized by type of item and color. There’s a shelf of pottery for sale just behind the door, and a sizable hat selection. Co-owner Cameron said that the best part of owning the shop is the people who shop at the store and being part of the vintage community– she said that a quarter of her Instagram followers are from people she’s met through the store.
Cameron and Giwoyna said that they spend more time sourcing clothing for the store than they do selling. Though they travel a bit to find clothing, they mostly buy locally through estate sales or people selling to them at the store. Cameron’s criteria for buying clothing is “whatever excites [them].”
CLUBHOUSE MARKET, 2441 Lyndale Avenue
Just up the block at Clubhouse Market, you’ll find streetwear and upcycled fashion, which is used clothing with new alterations to give the piece another life. Co-owner Pineapple, who owns the store with his wife Kate Pineapple, finds used shirts and upcycles them by hand-painting or using silk screens to make them unique. The store is decorated with 90s and early 2000s toys and trinkets including Tweety Bird and Pikachu dolls. Besides the upcycled fashion, Pineapple said that Clubhouse Market is best known for its white t-shirts, like the rack pictured below. Clientele at Clubhouse Market include a couple Timberwolves players, according to Pineapple.
Before moving to Minneapolis in 2020, Pineapple had a fashion brand in Los Angeles. He pivoted to vintage when he realized that the brand contributed to fast fashion pollution.
In addition to the white and upcycled t-shirts, Clubhouse Market has eight vendors who provide different types of clothing and items, like rings and hand-made goods.
Devyn and Kate curate a lot of their clothing on road trips from Minnesota, where Kate is from, to Los Angeles, where Devyn is from. They hit garage stores, thrift stores, and other vintage stores, to find their goods.
“Anything that would bring a smile to my face then I think would bring a smile to anybody else’s,” Devyn said, regarding his buying process.
The best part of owning the shop, according to Deyvn, is bringing his dog to work.
FINAL STOP VINTAGE, 2431 Lyndale Avenue
At Final Stop Vintage down the block, three vendors and owner Jason Calboni contribute to the store’s cool style with mostly 90s to early 2000s streetwear. Calboni said that some of the most popular items at the store are Y2K pants like JNCOs, Harley Davidson gear and Nascar jackets– he can never keep one in the store for long before someone buys it.
There were some reasonably priced sports t-shirts and sweatshirts, including a Wally Szczerbiak jersey that my brother might have owned in the early 2000s, and some satiny femme clothing from one of Calboni’s vendors. A bathtub at the front of the shop had an assortment of garments for $5.
Like the others, he started his vintage business with pop-ups and then a shop in St. Paul for a year and a half. He values vintage clothing because of the sustainability aspect, and many of his garments are over 20 years old.
The vibe in Final Stop can be described as nothing but cool, with VHS tapes including “The Jerk” and “The Care Bears Movie” filling a shelf by the register and a limp clock reminiscent of the Dalí painting drooping over the front counter.
Leisure World is located at 2457 Lyndale Avenue and is open daily from 12-6 p.m. Clubhouse Market is located at 2441 Lyndale Avenue and is open 2-8 p.m. on Thursdays and 12-8 p.m. on Fridays-Sundays. Final Stop Vintage is located at 2431 Lyndale Avenue and is open 12-6 p.m. on Wednesdays through Sundays.
