Swarthmore junior Brendan Cook launched a thrifting business, SwatFlea, selling curated vintage clothing to students at Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Swarthmore and the University of Pennsylvania over the summer of 2022. With an easy smile, Brenden excitedly welcomes scores of students to his tables, quilts, and racks full of carefully selected apparel. Student crowd his stand in the bitter cold of Bryn Mawr in January and the (frankly troublingly) warm February breeze at Haverford.

Working across the Consortium came naturally for Brendan. Emily Cook, Brendan’s sister, graduated from Bryn Mawr during the 2023 fall semester. She has helped him “on the side,” since he launched the business. Both siblings have an interest in fashion, inspired by their mother’s passion for thrifting. Their mom took them around to flea markets and thrift stores in their childhoods. Brendan says he’s brought her along to pop-ups in Philly, where she’s “embarrassed me in front of possible buyers.”

While fashion is the main focus behind Brendan’s business, he’s also interested in making an impact on the planet. As Brendan folds a shirt, he says to cluster of customers, “If you buy something here it means that you won’t get something online from a store that sells fast fashion, treats their employees terribly, and makes the clothes to be worn like five times.”

In the U.S. alone, it is estimated that 11.3 million tons of textile waste are produced and discarded every single year. Climate anxieties within Generation-Z, coupled with an interest in clothing and fashion, has produced a booming thrifting industry. Furthermore, Gen-Z is encouraging other generations to engage in sustainable clothing consumption. Penn’s research with Forbes showed a 81% jump in second-hand clothing consumption in the Baby Boomer generation from 2019 to 2022.

SwatFlea is just as invested in its costumers as it is in the environment. Brendan haggles with his shoppers, adding a playful dimension to the process of buying clothes. When a potential buyer hasn’t been paid by her job yet, he still sends her on her way with the clothing, laughing and said that he trusts her to pay him back when she has the money. Brendan has a casual, albeit effective, approach to the sales aspect, and he says the business has continued to grow.

Brendan launched his business from Swarthmore, after he started selling clothes he thrifted to his friends out of a tub in his dorm. He is currently on a break from Swat to focus on his academic and mental health, but he says he could happily see himself buying, curating and selling clothing “forever.”

You can keep up with SwatFlea on Instagram to see where Brendan will be selling next.

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