Owner Spencer Edward Siefke says the name of the business comes from the Japanese Wabi Sabi, beauty and perfection. It is what he sees in vintage, sometimes quite damaged, clothing and what he strives for in his repair and restoration work. “That describes me repairing damaged outdoor clothing from landfills overseas and not perfectly mending them, but making them useful and beautiful because they are repaired.” He said he perfectly restores only rare items or items on customer request.
He said he sees beauty in the repair, which shows another layer of effort that went into the clothing. While I appreciate the idea, I’m not sure my family saw any evidence of imperfections as they grabbed two coats this weekend. One was a discarded National Park Service jacket you simply can’t find. Spencer said he originally had four of those, but the other three sold during Big Ears, which he described as very good for his soft opening.
You’ll see a Patagonia sign in his window. He doesn’t sell any new clothing, rather it is an indicator of the kinds of quality brands you’ll find inside. “We’re fixing from the landfills, so not all brands were made well in the first place.” He said fast fashion brands aren’t generally repairable, whereas brands like Patagonia, Carhart, Arc’teryx, L.L. Bean, Northface, Levis, and others are well made and may arrive at an overseas landfill with a small stain or minor damage, which he can repair.
He described an industry that has built up around shipping from landfills to shops and businesses like his. Often the groups buy clothing by the pallet and sort through it for the better, more repairable pieces. He said that sometimes unused clothing is shipped over as the company simply is finished with that line and wants to clear it out. Bazaars sprung up around the landfills to buy the bales of clothing sold at auction.
He purchases clothing from Pakistan, Egypt, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, and Moldova. He gets direct shipments from each place. Some of his actually comes from the landfill as it is discarded even by the groups at auction who are looking for more perfect items. “If its damaged, they don’t want to fix it either, even at the end of the line where it costs hardly anything.”
He points out that he gets a lot of fleece and outerwear, which is hardly worth dealing with for people who live in some of the hottest countries in the world. “From the Philippines I get vintage Japanese and Italian ski jackets from the 70’s and the 90’s because it’s too hot for them to wear. They are cool. They are very rad. It’s just too hot.”
Born in Florida, Spencer moved with his family to the Knoxville area when he was in second grade. “They handed out accents in the first grade, so I just missed out.” An Eagle Scout and later Troop Leader with the Boy Scouts, he graduated from Clinton High School in 2015, and lives in Clinton now. He enjoyed outdoor activities, like hiking, and so was familiar with outdoor wear, and began thrifting for his clothes. He realized he was seeing great items that weren’t his size and started buy those too, selling his finds to friends, then on Ebay.
He worked at River Sports and about three years ago began showing at markets with a canopy and clothing racks loaned to him by Riversports. “I tagged everything, set up, and I made my first $1,000 at my first market, just selling used outdoor wear at medium prices.” He said he feels so strongly about keeping good clothes out of landfills that he prices them lower than he has too. “Granted, there are some rare pieces that I sell. If an item’s worth $900, I can’t sell it for $20. I’m still selling it for cheaper. If I do sell for $700, that allows me to buy hundreds of tshirts that are worth putting back out into the world.”
A few months after that first market, with the success continuing at subsequent markets, he began considering finding a storefront. Still involved in Scouts, continuing to work at River Sports, he felt his passion leading him to doing the reclamation and resale work full-time. The current spot is a starting point, though he said eventually he might like to purchase a larger space, rather than rent.
For now, just the income from the Big Ears weekend paid his first three months of rent and he’s happy with that. He’s got a one-year lease and will likely pursue extending that. He expressed concerns regarding the current tariff uncertainty, as that impacts the cost of getting goods shipped to the U.S. He’d love love to have a place where he could add a loft and live above his storefront. “Do the thing I love doing there and die in that building!”
The store is stuffed with hundreds of articles of clothing and Spencer said he doesn’t have room to put out his larger collection. It’s quite different from from many recently opening boutiques who have to build a collection. “Every time I buy in bulk from a landfill or a rag house in the United States, 40% to 60% is ready to sell. It doesn’t have any major stains, it doesn’t have any holes. I can do one sanitized wash and put it on a hanger, tag it, and put it on a rack.”
The remainder requires some work, which Spencer now does in the shop. “The other 40% that wasn’t ready, has holes, has stains, needs stitching, needs a cover patch, or I need to tie dye it or make a stamp to go over a stain—that stuff sat in a box until, one, I had a week to do it all in one shot, or, two, I got a store front. Now I can bulk tie dye pieces, I can bulk stamp pieces, and get stuff out that’s more up-cycle rather than just restore and repair.”
He said he has a degree in engineering “so I always had a problem-solving mindset.” He said his concern for the environment caused him to want to sustain things rather than make things. “I found more joy in doing that . . . I think maintaining the clothes we currently have versus constantly overproducing more and more is important to pay attention to.” He also up-cycles, like taking a badly damaged rain jacket and making it into a fanny pack or backpack. He also makes hats from older materials. “We have enough stuff. We’re good.”
He sorts clothing into categories like t-shirts, shorts, fleece, jackets, and so on. He arranges each category by size, but not by gender, pointing out that most clothing, particularly outdoor clothing, has a waist size or an arm length and the originally intended gender doesn’t matter in the end. One exception is the fleece-wear which often has a waist taper for women.
As for price-point, “T-shirts run from $12 to $26 on average . . . shorts run about the same.” He said there are exceptions for rare items in each category. “Button-ups run about $22 to $40, a fleece about $30 to $60 if they are solid, patterned can run about $90 to $160.” He said if something is over $100, he makes sure it is 20% less than online prices for a similar item. Most vintage items also have their year of origin noted on the tag. He also told customers “Don’t forget to haggle if you like it!”
He held a grand opening First Friday and said he feels it helped him get the word out. He continues to operate outdoor markets. The Great Outdoor Market is open for business every first and third Sunday, the first at 71 South and third Sundays move around and are announced on the Instagram account. In the meantime, check out the new storefront at 122 South Gay and support downtown retail.