Racks stuffed with jeans, jackets and t-shirts fill nearly every inch of Thread Up Oxford’s new store at 127 W. Church St., just a block away from the bustling foot-traffic uptown.
On Sept. 1, the local non-profit dedicated to upcycling textile waste opened the new location, called Uptown Threads, in hopes of luring in more of the student population.
Shana Rosenberg started Thread Up in March 2021. Its first retail store, now a warehouse, opened at 5156 College Corner Pike in August 2022.
Rosenberg said that store quickly ran out of space after opening, but the company didn’t have the resources to expand.
As clothes and other textiles began to build up, she said she took a “leap of faith” and used what cash the non-profit had to rent the new storefront and hire more employees.
Seven paid employees now work for Thread Up. Two remain at the original location, while the others help manage the new store.
“We just were at the point where we [could] put enough clothes out, and we weren’t in a good enough location to have output,” Rosenberg said. “The clothes were just sitting there and, every once in a while, people would buy a bunch. But, that wasn’t the best way to do business.”
The original location of Thread Up is located in a strip mall near a tattoo studio and mattress store in College Corner. Clothing racks were scattered about and yarn and fabric cuttings piled up along shelves.
The new location has more space for customers to shop and free parking.
Kira Beck, store manager of Thread Up Oxford, said increased foot-traffic has been promising, especially among students.
“I’ve had some students come in and say they live right across the street and that they’re going to come in all the time,” Beck said.
Leah Wasburn-Moses, a professor of educational psychology at Miami University, said she has shopped at Thread Up Oxford over the last two years, often visiting with her 15-year-old daughter. She said although the original location wasn’t far, it felt out of the way.
“I guess when you live in Oxford for a long time, you have this really, really small view of where you want to drive on a daily basis,” Wasburn-Moses said. “When you live in Oxford, it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s so far to drive.’”
With the new uptown storefront, Wasburn-Moses said she’s likely to visit more often and that she is excited to see “the mixing of students and community members.”
Sue Jones, a Thread Up shopper and volunteer, said she watched the non-profit evolve from a project in Rosenberg’s house to an organization with two dedicated storefronts. Jones, who had also been Rosenberg’s first and second grade teacher, said she was impressed by the amount of textile waste that Rosenberg has been able to reduce.
“I am surprised so many textiles and clothes were donated there just from Oxford,” Jones said. “I had no idea that amount of stuff would be going into the landfill. I think what [Rosenberg] has started and has committed to is amazing. I am very proud to know her and to be a part of her life, really.”
Eventually, Rosenberg said she plans on turning the original Thread Up Oxford location into a creative reuse center with sewing machines and materials available for public use. She also hopes to open the new storefront, Uptown Threads, an additional day each week.
The retail store is currently open from noon to 6:00 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, according to Thread Up Oxford’s website.
