Welcome to The Yard

One of SU student’s favorite spots to shop vintage

By Cecilia Catalini

Articles of clothing are like time capsules. Each piece has its own story, and its own past. Buying second-hand clothing offers people something that today fashion mills simply cannot – history. To Syracuse native, Andrew Rainbow, vintage clothing is more than just a trend. This is why he began his weekly pop-up Vintage shop, “The Yard '', on his lawn at 1203 Madison Ave. Syracuse, NY.

Rainbow has always loved the history behind things, and during the summer of 2018 he started selling antiques at the CNY Regional Market. Rainbow describes one day that he found some old vintage band t-shirts at a garage sale, and brought them to the Market as part of his commodities. He sold them all. From there, he moved to the Syracuse University Hill area and officially started “The Yard” in August 2022. His vintage business only grew from there.

Rainbow’s search for vintage clothing does not come from one place; he looks for his pieces all over the area. Rainbow specifically seeks out items that can be dated to the 70s, 80s, and the Y2K eras. He tries to search locally through thrift stores and garage sales, but a good portion of items that fit his merchandise profile he finds on online sources such as Ebay, Mercari, and Poshmark. His pieces are often unique, with stories of the past attached to them. For this reason, he has found that people are attracted to The Yard.

“My favorite part about The Yard is when I find a really cool vintage item and I hear an audible gasp from someone who is coming and looking around at my stuff and goes ‘Oh my god! My dad had something like that!’ or ‘I can’t believe it! My mom bought me this in the 90s and I haven’t seen it since!’ I get to give someone a nostalgic piece of their past that they absolutely love,” Rainbow said.

His front-yard store is mostly known for selling fashionable vintage sports clothing. But, Rainbow said he is interested in finding and selling pieces with older, funkier patterns that were produced from smaller companies of the time. People love the clothing he sells because the pieces are unique to their time, and hard to find replicated in today’s fast fashion culture.

“That’s why I love vintage clothing. Honestly things were just made so much better, so much more creatively. There wasn’t as much uniformity and control with bigger companies monopolizing markets,” Rainbow said.

The Vintage Yard has grown in its popularity with people in the Syracuse area. From reposts on social media, to people sharing the shop’s location, The Yard is one of SU students’ favorite spots to find vintage clothing. Students say they enjoy the historical aspect of the clothing because some of the pieces belonged to alumni and are now being passed down to the current day Orange community.

“A good friend of mine picked up an old Syracuse crewneck that was actually from the 50’s because it had the old Syracuse logo on it. It was really cool and [Rainbow] told us the story behind it,” Leo Vagnatii, a freshman at SU, said. Found in a garage sale, Rainbow shared with Vagnatii that the crewneck had belonged to an older alumnus who was a Syracuse University legacy.

The success of The Yard at times has left Rainbow finding that he is running out of merchandise. He said he has expanded the sellers at The Yard to allow a few other close friends to share items that they find with the community as well. He explained he just wants to make sure that Yard-goers can find vintage clothes that they love.

“It’s been really encouraging by how much the student population has really enjoyed what we are doing,” Rainbow said.

As it looks right now, the Vintage clothing trend is not going away anytime soon. Rainbow understands not only the desire and relevance of it, but also the special meaning behind the clothing that connects all people from different Syracuse timelines and backgrounds. These clothing items offer a connection between past and present students, and a different way of expression that can come from second-hand apparel.

“Everyone wants to be unique, but there’s not enough unique stuff being made to support that kind of creativity,” Rainbow said. “I think vintage clothing is the only outlet that people have to show outwardly to the world how unique of a person you are.”

Make sure to follow @thevintageyard315 on Instagram to see all that “The Yard” has to offer.