Illinois Vintage Fest hosted its second event in Champaign-Urbana last Saturday. The halls of Lincoln Square Mall in Urbana were buzzing with eager shoppers, students and locals hoping to find unique merchandise. 

Illinois Vintage Fest started during the pandemic in 2020 after founder Shayne Kelly lost his job and sought a new, unique business model to attract customers. He partnered with Ben Justice, who quickly became interested in Kelly’s cause and helped him expand his business. 

“There was no real event for vintage clothing, so we decided to make one,” Kelly said. “We took our opportunity during COVID-19 to, in a safe way, create an event that fostered a community of people who love old, sticky clothes, and it’s been awesome.”

The event initially started out of Kelly’s garage and has grown immensely over the last four years, with events all across the Chicagoland area and traveling events where the group targets different college campuses. 

Many of the vendors at these events travel far to sell their products due to their loyalty to Kelly and Justice and the large number of customers these events typically attract. This is especially true for Jacob Meiss, a vendor from northwest Indiana, roughly 100 miles from the C-U area. 

“These events, especially Illinois Vintage Fest, I would totally recommend,” Meiss said. “Not only are they good events with good integrity of items, but the people running them are good people which I care about.”

A commonality among vendors is their appreciation of the community Justice and Kelly have developed for those who appreciate vintage clothing. However, the event is not restricted to vintage clothing alone. 

Some vendors have a vast repertoire of vintage items, from shoes, movies, games, children’s toys and more. Some even sell their own works, such as handmade jewelry, art, designs and other accessories or decor items.

Not only is Meiss a loyal vendor to Illinois Vintage Fest, but he is also one of the vendors who sells his artwork.

“The more I’m leaning into selling my own art and graphic design, I usually want to sell to college kids so they can appreciate the fact that I made it as opposed to just thrifting something like that,” Meiss said. 

Meiss is not the only one who appreciates the crowds that college campuses bring. Most vendors see an upward trend in the turnout of people in college towns. 

“Over the past year or so, we have been putting a pretty big emphasis on college campuses,” Justice said. “Most of our vendors’ customer demographic is mostly college students.”

As the thrifting trend has become more popular in the past few years, there has been a resurgence in the popularity of thrifting events among younger generations — whether they are searching for less mainstream clothing or just outfit inspiration. 

“I think it’s super cool when you recycle things and make a business out of it,” said Tarun Velamoor, junior in ACES. “Just walking around the event, I’ve seen so many kids from U of I and a ton of locals. It’s really a great crowd. It’s always fun, the vendors are awesome and a place like this is just a great place to be.”

Vendors utilize this appeal to students and the college-aged demographic to promote not only their products but also the overall cause Illinois Vintage Fest attempts to promote.

“We do a lot of charity work every year,” Kelly said. “We try to do at least one or two big charity events a year and some smaller ones every few months or so.” 

Kelly and Justice hope their cause resonates with shoppers and vendors through much more than clothing and other merchandising. They promote an environment of recycling and environmentally friendly products while choosing various charities to give back to each year.

Illinois Vintage Market’s next event is in Wheaton, Illinois, a northwest suburb of Chicago, on Dec. 14 and 15 at the DuPage Event Center and Fairgrounds.

Students can also look forward to Kelly’s new vintage shop in Urbana, which he aims to open in the spring of 2025.

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