Premium streetwear brands meet vintage band t-shirts at a new store downtown opened by a University of Guelph student whose sneaker collection was overflowing.
At 11-years-old Ben Deleeuw started collecting sneakers and by 15 he bought a collection of 80 pairs of shoes he re-sold for $10,000.
Shoes turned into streetwear and vintage clothes. He’s been collecting a heap of clothing for the last three years. In the summer he filled a 500 square foot storage unit with vintage t-shirts, jeans, and sought after sneakers waiting for the right opportunity to come around. Deleeuw is the franchisee of Vintage Meets Hype at 11 Macdonell St.
Vintage Meets Hype started in Waterloo by Nick Rodes in 2021.
Deleeuw wanted to open a store once he graduated from marketing management at U of G but decided to open three months ago since he had an opportunity.
He’s looking to attract hypebeasts from all over. People from Toronto have come to store for Chrome Hearts, a popular streetwear brand. He thinks Guelph is behind on some trends but hopes the store can broaden their horizons.
Most of the inventory is from customers the store buys from. It sources items from overseas and from rag houses. Rag houses tear up unsold clothes from stores and turn the scraps into rags for factories or throw the material out.
By sourcing this way it helps keep clothes out of the landfill. Where the rag houses are located is kept under wraps by resellers. “I pay a premium to get into those factories. And what you can do is go through piles of clothes and just look for valuable things that you think you could sell or make some money on,” said Deleeuw.
When his sneaker obsession started his parents didn’t understand it. He would resell shoes and his parents thought he was selling drugs. It wasn’t until Deleeuw took his dad to a sneaker convention that he got on board. “He couldn't believe his eyes to see 1,000 people in this room just doing the same thing I was, just trying to make money during the day, basically. And it's just a bunch of hustlers trying to flip items all day,” said Deleeuw.
He’s seen how the industry has changed since 2015 when streetwear was becoming part of the mainstream. “Now there’s this huge learning curve in the industry.” Counterfeits are common and it's harder to tell what's fake.
Vintage has fakes too. People will print graphics on shirts and make it look old.
“I’ve been scammed in just about every way possible,” he said. He’s had reputable sellers he’s worked with pull an exit scam on him. Fake products are delivered then the seller blocks the buyer’s phone number and blocks them on social media. In some cases the sellers move countries. The last time this happened Deleeuw was scammed out of $3,000.
He was sick of getting scammed so he’s learned how to spot fakes. On shoeboxes the barcode is textured when it's the real deal. Specific stitching, indents in the sole of a shoe, the feel of material, quality control stickers are all indicators of authenticity.
People can have their items verified by him at the store at no cost.
There’s a vintage community in Guelph he talks shop with. Thrifters will drop by with their latest Value Village haul and go through it piece by piece to show Vintage Meets Hype staff.
Deleeuw’s prized possession is a pair of 1985 Jordan 1 OG Chicago sneakers. It was the first shoe Michael Jordan released “and they’re still wearable, believe it or not, after 40 years,” he said.
Down the line he wants the shoes to be part of an archive he wants to start with rare pieces. Instead of a museum it would be a collection of the first created streetwear pieces to present day, people could buy for a premium cost.
He’s looking forward to him and his team continuing to share their knowledge about vintage and streetwear to the Guelph community.