Anthony Patorti and Alexander Wade have always loved thrifting. As young adults, the Rutland County natives would bond over weekends spent at “the bins,” their nickname for the no-man’s-land of textile waste organized by major thrift store chains, such as Goodwill, where brave souls could sift through huge containers of unsorted clothing in the hopes of striking gold.
But those adventures exposed the two friends to an uncomfortable reality: A mind-boggling amount of clothing ends up in landfills.
That led the duo and friend Sara Eversden to create Krusted Gold, a textile recycling company with a brick-and-mortar shop in downtown Rutland. People can drop used clothing in one of three donation boxes scattered throughout the city. Patorti and Wade then collect the textiles and sort them into three categories: unique vintage clothing, to be sold on clothing racks; “Grade A” clothing, to be sold in by-the-pound bins; and “Grade B” textiles, to be recycled for rags. Nothing goes to waste.
“It’s kind of like farm-to-table thrift,” Wade said.
At the downtown location, which opened in March, customers can purchase a pound of “Grade A” clothing for $3 or browse through the racks of vintage items, all of which are priced below $10.
“We’re trying to find a nice middle ground where people who don’t want to dig can find stuff on our rack and people who get a rush through digging can still do that in a relaxed environment,” Wade said.
While the enterprise is technically for-profit, the owners donate any earnings to local charities. Both Patorti and Wade, who have backgrounds in tattoo artistry and service work, are now running Krusted Gold full time.
The thrifting trend is alive and well. In an April 16 cover story, Seven Days reported that Vermont’s largest reuse chain, ReSOURCE, did $3.2 million in sales last year.
Since opening, Wade said, business is going well. The team has received a “crazy amount” of donations, including nearly enough “Grade B” textiles to fill a tractor trailer, which they’ll sell to a recycling company.
Wade, Patorti and Eversden want to turn Krusted Gold into a Rutland destination. They host musical performances once a month and have other events planned.
Said Wade: “There’s a lot of cool things happening in Rutland … if you’re willing to dig for it.”