Bulldog football players turn passion for vintage streetwear into business

by Chuck Gordon

A pair of Wingate football players are becoming adept at locating treasures among other people's discarded clothing - and they're learning how to run a successful business in the process.

Elijah Barnes and Sam Cowher, both rising-sophomore linebackers for the Bulldogs, have turned a side hustle selling vintage clothing into a steady money-making operation this summer. On most Saturdays, you'll find them camped outside Jack Beagle's, a restaurant and bar in the NoDa neighborhood of Charlotte, chatting with passersby while selling T-shirts, jerseys, caps and even jorts.

"We grew a bond through football at Wingate," says Cowher, a marketing major from Concord. "We're like-minded, we love fashion, we love the idea of running a business. We work together well."

The business, called SNE Vintage, is going so well that Barnes has cut back his hours working at a restaurant in north Charlotte this summer to devote more time to hunting for the perfect football jersey or Grateful Dead T-shirt.

Either Cowher or Barnes (often both) goes out each day searching through thrift stores for an item that will put a smile on some buyer's face. Years of refining their taste in vintage streetwear have made the football teammates discerning buyers, and a fairly low percentage of the items they sift through get the thumbs-up.

"You have to have a good eye, for sure," Cowher says.

"Some days, being in a thrift store all day isn't that fun, looking through a million different clothes," says Barnes, a nursing major from Polk County, by way of Duncan, S.C. "But the times where you find a really good piece, that's when the moments are worth it."

Barnes and Cowher started out selling their finds last semester in weekly pop-up shops on McGee Promenade. They made decent money and enjoyed seeing items they'd sold being worn around campus.

When the semester was over, Cowher wanted to continue the enterprise, so he started scouting around for a location to set up shop. NoDa turned out to be perfect - it's got good foot traffic on Saturdays and offers the types of customers who prize vintage clothing.

They found that sales were even more brisk. "We thought what we were making at Wingate was really good until we started going to NoDa," Barnes says.

They typically set up around 10 in the morning and stay until 4 or 5 p.m. "The time flies by when we're out there," Barnes says. "It doesn't even feel like we're out there that long. We're talking to people and just enjoying our time."

T-shirts are their biggest sellers - NASCAR, Harley-Davidson, AC/DC. Generally, the older the item, the higher the price. Current trends are T's with splashy, all-over graphics and jean shorts. In the fall, they'll sell more jackets and full-length jeans.

If Barnes and Cowher aren't at NoDa on a Saturday, it's because they've booked a stall at a vintage-clothing market in Charlotte, Durham or some other metro area in North Carolina (SNE also sells online). At markets, Barnes says, they're among the only part-time vendors, but they've got big plans. "By next summer we're hoping we won't have to work a summer job," Barnes says.

Although each of them says that football and school are most important right now, Cowher says their ultimate goal is to open a brick-and-mortar store. "Really grow our brand in general online and on social media and get enough sales to get a store, turn it into a real business," he says.

That's when the hands-on business education will ramp up considerably. Keys to success will be "finding a good location, finding really good sourcing that's really consistent," Cowher says.

Cowher will be able to work on that this fall, since a knee injury will keep him off the field this season. But first, SNE Vintage will return to campus: The duo plan to hold a back-to-school sale soon after students return for the fall semester.

Click here to find SNE Vintage at the online marketplace Depop and on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.

July 19, 2024

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