Campus Closet, a thrift store located at 4033 Weaver Avenue, opened on Aug. 24. The store is geared specifically toward college students by having clothes currently trending, business attire, UIndy apparel and more.
Campus Closet, owned by Jenny Bryans and her husband, Associate Director of Business, Entrepreneur, Sports Management & Marketing Professional Edge Center – University Advancement Kirk Bryans. Bryans said that she wants to give students the opportunity to sell handmade items and creations because this benefits students that sell their products and gets more foot traffic through the door.
Senior business administration major Dah Metrie Shaw sells his candles at the store. He makes all of the candles himself and has 14 different seasonal scents. According to Shaw, he experiments to see what scents pair well together to make new concoctions for the upcoming seasons.
“I have a candle business, it’s called Wahs,” Shaw said. “Basically, Wahs is a design firm, but the first phase of the whole business is providing a high quality, beautifully designed, low priced product. So candles was the first thing that just popped in my head when I first started the business, two years ago,” Shaw said. “I provide Campus Closet with my eight and 16 ounce candles. It’s all soy, all vegan and all handmade.”
Along with the candles, Shaw makes wax melts for college students to enjoy while they are living in the dorms. According to Shaw, he donates 20 percent of his proceeds to the Indianapolis Humane Society. His customers have the option to round up their purchase to the nearest dollar for online purchases, the rounded change goes to the humane society.
Kirk Bryans was aware that Shaw ran a business and because of this, he saw a perfect opportunity to help a student sell their product. Campus Closet doesn’t take any percentage of the proceeds from Shaw’s candles. Right now, Shaw is the only student selling his products, but Bryans said she hopes to have more students selling their items in the store. She said that her and her husband wanted to be able to provide a cheaper clothing option for college students since they are affiliated with the university.
“We’re doing this for the students and we want to give them an opportunity to have a place or a venue to sell their things. And for us, it’s a win-win because then we get more students in shopping,” Bryans said. “Really it’s a bonus to have the opportunity to sell their things. We want them to be able to get 100 percent of the profit. Really our focus was selling the clothes, so whatever they do is a bonus [for us]. And that’s why we would rather have them get the full amount.”
Bryans said that if a student comes in looking for something specific that is not in stock, she will keep an eye out for what the student is looking for. According to Bryans, her four daughters also help her look for items for the store. They help her pick out items that would interest college students because she wants to be able to cater as best as possible to the students of the university and their desire for affordable clothing.
“I love hearing from the students what they’re looking for, what their needs are,” Bryans said. “I’ve had a couple of students looking for specific things… so I want to kind of fill those needs for people. If they’re looking for something specific, then I know what to look for.”
