A next step for sustainability at Concordia

Concordia University’s Centre for Creative Reuse officially inaugurates its on-campus thrift store

Fringe Arts Nathalie Bucur — Published February 10, 2026 0 minutes

Operating as a pilot project through the Centre for Creative Reuse (CUCCR), Fripe Concordia offers students affordable secondhand clothing every Thursday throughout the winter semester, combining sustainability with affordability within Concordia’s thrift and fashion space.

Fripe’s presence on campus is still new. 

The thrift store began operating unofficially on Jan. 22, before hosting an official launch party on Jan. 29 in collaboration with the Sustainable Fashion and Thrift club, Second Soul. While the launch event drew student interest, Fripe now operates weekly throughout the winter semester, positioning itself as a longer-term addition to Concordia’s secondhand and sustainability culture. 

For students navigating rising living costs, affordability is a central part of Fripe’s mission. 
According to Noah Spivack, a sustainable development intern for Fripe, the project emerged from a lack of sustainable options at the university. Prices are kept affordable for students while still accounting for operating costs such as staff wages.

“Our market segment is students," Spivack said. “I think it’s super important that everything, from a price strategy and affordability standpoint, is geared towards that market. We are trying to make it as accessible as possible while also covering the baselines of what it means to be a business.”

On a more conscience-oriented level, Spivack's goal for the thrift store is to encourage students to be mindful of their possessions. 

“We have too many clothes in the world, and the ways we can become cyclical and love what we have [are] underrated,” he said. 

Items sold at the thrift store come from donations to the CUCCR that fall outside its usual reuse programs. 

Joshua Augusto, a third-year visual arts student who works a student staff position at the CUCCR, explains that the organization can now expand on its sustainability efforts thanks to Fripe. 

“This is just another way that CUCCR is tackling material waste," Augusto said. "So we’re now accepting donations that it couldn’t accept before, like clothing."

In recent years, buying vintage items and secondhand shopping have become increasingly popular among youth and students. On social media, influencers, as well as regular users, post thrift hauls, thrift try-ons or tips on how to thrift effectively.

While the trend has plenty of upsides, such as promoting the reuse of clothes and discouraging purchases from fast fashion brands, there remain consequences to thrifting's booming popularity. 

For one, items deemed as "vintage" are sold at secondhand curated stores for exorbitant amounts, especially compared to regular thrift store prices. 

Additionally, negative consumer habits, such as over-consumption, still persist, even if the excess of clothes shopping stems from thrift stores rather than fast fashion companies. 

Spivack, conscious about the rise of thrifting as a trend, worries that this popularity may have negative blowback once it is no longer trendy. 

“This is probably the best time for this project," Spivack said. "Maybe even five years ago, this might not have worked out.”

Second Soul, another club centred around fashion and thrifting, hosts regular clothing sales on the first floor of the Concordia Webster Library. 

However, the two clubs have important differences between them. For one, Second Soul is not part of CUCCR, but rather a student-run club. Additionally, Second Soul’s monthly events feature vendors selling vintage clothing and handmade jewellery, as well as local artists selling crochet art or prints. 

Despite these differences, the clubs frequently collaborate, with Second Soul frequently promoting Fripe’s events on their social media page. 

Additionally, clothes that were not sold are often donated to the Fripe by Second Soul’s vendors. 

“If vendors at Second Soul want to get rid of something that hasn’t sold for weeks, they will donate it to the Fripe," Spivack said. "We have a lot of items from past events coming from these vendors, so it works hand in hand."

The collaboration goes both ways.  On Feb. 5, during Second Soul’s thrift pop-up event, CUCCR offered free clothing repairs. Both vendors and attendees were invited to drop off their damaged clothing at Fripe’s mending table, where they could fix pockets and broken seams, reattach buttons and patch holes. 

Xavier Ohnona, a member of Second Soul, was working at the mending table, aiming to breathe new life into secondhand clothing. 

"A lot of second-hand clothes have been worn and loved and need attention, but they are perfectly good otherwise,” she said. “Today, we’ve fixed a lot of holes in jeans, reattached a lot of buttons and fixed some seam issues on shirts.” 

The CUCCR provided many of the fabrics used for patching and repairs, but many were brought in by the staff and organizers.

“For the summer, I have a lot of cut-off shorts,” Ohnona said. “So I take a pair of pants and cut the legs off of them. I always save the legs because it makes for nice fabric.”

For students engaged in Concordia’s thrift culture, spaces like Fripe and Second Soul also offer opportunities for discovery.
 
"There is always some unique item there that you wouldn’t be able to find, even online, that caters to a specific niche,” Ohnona said. 

Students can access Fripe on the ground floor of the J.W. McConnell (LB) building every Thursday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.