The thrill of the hunt is the reason why Abdul and Dante were first in line at 1:30 in the morning for F as in Frank Clothing’s Fill A Bag vintage shopping insanity at Cambrian Hall Saturday.
The two friends were joined by six others half-an-hour later, one of whom was Mary Erasto who kindly lent a blanket to the freezing Abdul who huddled in the warmth of penguin-print fleece earphones doing double-duty as earmuffs.
“It’s not because we had to be here then,” said Abdul about being first at the door, “But it was because we had nothing better to do.”
The pair didn’t give up too much information about themselves, perhaps too tired from being up all night (or, perhaps, as one store employee who couldn’t have been older than 25 herself, wondered if their parents knew where they were).
But, at the end of the day — which was by noon for the annual Fill A Bag event — they were just two kids with a sharp eye for retro streetwear.
The sale started at 10 a.m. and F as in Frank Clothing owners, brothers Jesse and Drew Heifetz stood at the door to take ten dollars from each shopper in exchange for a blue, plastic bag. Two trips in 17-foot-long cube vans the night before resulted in four rows of clothing heaped in two-foot-high rows on the floor giving reason for the mostly young crowd to lose their collective minds.
“Holy crap, I don’t know if I can handle this!” and “Oh, wow. OK, it really is a free-for-all” summed the reactions of those who walked into the hall and froze for a second at the possibilities. Then it was scavenging madly through the piles, some jumping in to sit in the middle of the clothing chaos to snatch anything of personal value with the same intensity of people in those whirlwind money grab machines on game shows.
The crowd was let in through three stages. The first 100 in line were part of the first wave, and had the first pick while the first people in the second wave watched with both mournful and anxious expressions for 15 minutes before shoppers were cleared out and the next 100 were let in. Three waves of people got their pick with a few end-of-sale stragglers, altogether a far more manageable experience than last year when three thousand showed up.
“Basically what we say is that if you can hold the handles of the bag together, then you’re OK. We’re somewhat lenient,” said Jesse. “It’s a great event, we get tons of kids and adults out to have a great time, sorting though the clothes. A lot of people outfit themselves for one entire season through the sale. For us, it’s an opportunity to clear out stock and give back to the community.”
Vintage clothing has been in the brothers’ lives for as long as they can remember. Their father, David Heifetz, started in the business back east in 1967 when flower power blossomed, which included turn-of-the-century clothing and military style (look no further than the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Hearts Club Band album cover released the same year as an example of influence).
When the brothers were children, they used to play in massive crates of Levi jeans. When they were older, they modelled for dad’s clothing catalogs. Heifetz senior always did things differently, said Jesse, whether it was hiring breakdancers to perform in front of a store or holding midnight madness sales.
The nature of the business drew in cool people, and counterculture for Jesse and Drew was part of life’s normal scenery.
But before the brothers followed their dad’s path, they took their own. Jesse pursued a music career while Drew was a snowboarder during the mid to late 1990s. Neither option was financially viable so they turned to what they grew up with, starting out as pickers and supplying other vintage stores before discovering the eBay market and opening retail locations in Whistler (since closed), Toronto and Vancouver.
“We can’t thank our parents enough for allowing us to figure out our paths on our own,” said Jesse. “We don’t have any fancy degrees, our parents were lenient with us. Rather than have us go to university, they told us to do what we’re passionate about.”
They’re also passionate about giving back which is why unsold items go to charity.
True to fashion’s 20-year cycle, most of the sold items hark from the 1990s (think vintage T-shirts and camouflage pants) along with 1940s military coats and leather jackets.
And if you’re old enough, like the Heifetz brothers, you’ll remember the first time the L.A. Raiders and vintage Adidas track jackets that went into Abdul’s bag were cool.
[email protected]
twitter.com/rebeccablissett
