Geordan Hay’s thrift store treasures have gained her a following of shoppers who crave the 90s trends they never experienced. Posting pictures of her eclectic and vintage finds is more than just a creative hobby. Hay, who has been selling thrifted clothes on Instagram for a few months now, introduced her business called Thanks! It’s Thrifted in July of 2019. While thrift shops have been around forever, Hay makes it easier for her fanbase and customers.
Instead of having to sift through racks on your own and try to imagine how you’ll style a thrifted shirt, Hay does the job for you and models the item in an outfit that’s fit to post on Instagram. Running her Instagram for a few short months has turned into a booming business, and since July, she’s had over 100 Instagram sales and two pop-up shops outside of Urban Outfitters downtown to showcase and sell her products.
To get the best advice from a professional thrifter, VALLEY had a Q&A with the one and only vintage queen, Geordan Hay.
VALLEY: How did you get your start?
Geordan Hay: I didn’t really get into thrifting until the end of my senior year of high school and into college, but once I did, I really started to like the idea of having unique clothing that not everyone else had. I would have people saying, “Your shirt is so cute,” or, “I love your sweatshirt! Where’d you get it?” and I’d say “It’s thrifted!”
People started asking me to be on the lookout for specific items or to take them thrifting with me. I kind of threw out the idea on my personal Instagram towards the end of last semester about starting a page selling some of my thrifted finds, and I had a lot of people express interest in it. I put it off for a new months because I was a little nervous, but I finally made it at the end of July, and from there it’s really grown and taken off.
V: Where do you find such cool pieces?
Photo posted by @thanksitsthrifted_ on Instagram
GH: I will occasionally go to the Goodwill in State College and other smaller local thrift stores around here, but for the most part I do most of my thrifting outside of State College and in my hometown, about an hour and 30 minutes from Penn State. I definitely have certain thrift stores and places to go that I favor over others. No one in my hometown does what I do or wants the older, vintage items I’m looking for, so there’s always a ton of cool things I can find. I’ll walk out with enormous bags full. It’s definitely something I look forward to doing throughout the week and every weekend.
V: What are you studying at Penn State, and does your business correspond in any way to your major?
GH: I’m an advertising major and in addition to my Instagram business, I work at Urban Outfitters where I was just promoted to the Women’s Style Specialist. Both my job at UO and my Instagram page work together really well in bringing out my creative side, and creativity is what advertising is all about. At Urban, I’ll start to dress the forms, put outfits together on the fitting room doors and do other projects with the women’s clothing there. Being the Women’s Style Specialist is cool because I’m able to see new styles and trends and translate that into fun outfits for my Instagram page. I think it’s easier to picture yourself wearing something when you see it on a mannequin or on a person with a full outfit on, so that’s why I really wanted to do that for my page.
V: Are most of your orders with Penn State students, and how do you get the clothes to them?
GH: When someone buys something I’ll typically meet them somewhere on campus or they’ll come to my apartment. It’s really whatever works best for them. I want to make sure they’re not going out of their way. However, I would say the majority of stuff I sell I ship out to people that aren’t from around here. The farthest place I’ve ever shipped to is actually California!
It takes a lot of work, selling clothes and being at school at the same time. I have to make sure I’m going out to get shipping supplies and shipping the clothes out in a time that I feel is fast enough. I like to make sure people are getting their clothes quickly. It’s so worth it when people DM me thanking me and loving what they got.
V: Tell us more about your pop-up shops! When do you plan on having them, and how were the past two you’ve had?
Photo courtesy of Geordan Hay
GH: If not monthly, I hope to have one every month and a half. I hope to have my next pop up at the beginning of November. My managers at Urban really support me doing this, and I’m so thankful they gave me this opportunity in the first place.
This past Friday, the pop-up was to start at 4 p.m., and people were on the stairs waiting for it to start around 3:15-3:30 p.m., which was absolutely crazy to me to see. A lot of people have told me they’ve turned on my post notifications on too, and that blows my mind. I’m so grateful.
My favorite thing about pop-ups is being able to interact with my followers and other people. It takes a lot of time and traveling to find what I want to put out at pop-ups, but seeing people happy about what they’ve just bought from me, there’s literally nothing that tops that for me. I absolutely love doing this and want to keep selling and finding clothes people love for however long it keeps growing.
Check out Hay’s Instagram @thanksitsthrifted_ where she posts outfits daily of items she’s selling, and be sure to keep a lookout on her page for announcements of when her next pop-up is so you can get first dibs on her dope finds!
