LaLa loves going to the thrift store...it's her hobby. She usually stops in on her way home from the gym, so three times a week she engages in meditative combing through the racks in search of treasure.
Some days she buys nothing and some overzealous days she brings home something we ultimately decide to return. But most time she is able to find very good value that truly augments our regular retail purchases.
Like a royal blue $21 Paul Frank Julius Tee for only 99c or the time she bought a small shoulder bag to replace her bulky gym bag and found money in the outer pocket.
Well LaLa found a North Face winter shell for $8 last week. The new version of this North Face jacket retails around $300. While some of that price is just because of the North Face name, they got their rep building high quality gear, so the rest of the price is for a fully featured jacket. LaLa needed something both wind and waterproof mainly for winter shoveling and she ended up with something very versatile that is high quality and durable.
Our friend "GearGirl", who works at Eastern Mountain Sports part-time brought over her Gore-Tex cleaner (Nikwax Tech Wash), gave us care instructions and walked us through all the jacket's features (pit zips! who knew?)
In order to clean and "revive" the jacket, we will use the tech wash (*not* regular detergent) and then either dry it for about 20 minutes in the dryer or air dry and pop it in the dryer for only a few minutes to heat activate the water repellant coating. And then it should be as good as new! But for less than 3% of the price ;)
Don't forget, as long as it is not from the North Face outlet (the O in North will be blacked out on the tag), it's still got the lifetime warranty. If it falls apart, bring it to a retail store and they'll replace or fix it for free!
ReplyDeleteREI does the same, I had them fix a broken zipper just last year. Good finds!
Great tip! No black "O" so we're in business...thanks jonathan :)
ReplyDeleteI have bad thrift store karma. I've gotten a couple of decent things over the years, but 90% of the time, when I go to thrift stores I get annoyed because I can't find anything good and then it makes me not want to waste the time of looking again, and of course if you don't look, you don't find.
ReplyDeleteAnd I need a new parka this winter!