Specialty thrift stores are a big deal in Provo.
Low prices, unique fashion, and environmental conscientiousness are everything a college student wants in a shopping spree—and for BYU students and local alums, it all comes together in thrifting. Specialty thrift stores—shops featuring a curated selection (’80s apparel, vinyl records, shoes only)—are popping up all over Provo, with at least 10 secondhand startups in town. Here are two thrift shops with BYU ties.
Nordic Inspiration
“She’s a big part of my soul,” Satu Kujanpää (’16) says of Preloved, her Nordic-inspired, consignment-based thrift store.
When you step into Preloved (pictured above)—located just down the road from LaVell Edwards Stadium—you’ll find rows of wooden booths stocked with trendy clothing finds, baby goods, and home items. The booths rotate weekly, rented by sellers who price their items and pocket 65 percent of the profits.
The model was inspired by Kujanpää’s heritage. She and her husband, Josef K. Kujanpää (BA ’13), met in a BYU Finnish class. Both have family ties to Finland, and on a trip there, Satu fell in love with the booth-style thrift shops she found. “I started craving thrifting so much,” she says. “I was like, I want to go to Finland just so I can thrift.”
Instead she opened a thrift store herself. Since November 2021 Preloved has grown to four locations in Utah, with a few out-of-state stores coming soon. “Part of my mission is to make [thrifting] a way of life,” Satu says.
Sad Boi, Happy Shoppers
Comms student Lex K. Maynez (’23) isn’t shy about sharing how he got into the thrifting business: “I needed some extra cash,” Maynez says. “I decided to sell some of my own clothing on my Instagram story.” When every item sold, Maynez decided to thrift and resell more.
That hustle evolved into Sad Boi, a brick-and-mortar thrift shop that joined the downtown Provo scene in 2019. The apparel Maynez sells—he calls it “the drip”—consists of universal, quality items with vintage ’90s flair. (Funky graphic tees and oversized sweatshirts, anyone?) He also screen prints his own designs onto thrifted finds.
Maynez hopes Sad Boi will continue to appeal to the college crowd. “I want [Sad Boi] to be a place that people go to and say, ‘Oh, you have to go here if you’re at BYU.’”
