How to Buy Vintage Jeans Directly from the Source

Vintage jeans are big business. That’s why there are a half-dozen good vintage clothing stores in almost every city — and hundreds, if not thousands, in New York and LA. It’s also why there are multiple mega-famous denim hunters, Brit Eaton and Michael Allen Harris, who go searching for six-figure slacks in defunct mines and at estate sales, among other untouched treasure troves.

But there’s an entire industry beyond the auction-level denim these dudes dig up. According to ThredUp’s 2022 Fashion Resale Report, the global secondhand market will grow by 127 percent between now and 2026, to a global combined value of $218 billion. (In 2021, that number was a mere $98 billion.) And as for what shoppers are most likely to buy secondhand… it’s the same stuff Eaton and Harris are hellbent on selling: “casualwear,” a category that comprises jeans and T-shirts.

Why Jeans Are Better Bought Vintage

Everyone loves a good vintage T-shirt, but the best value proposition, I’d argue, is blue jeans. And brands know it, too. That being said, you’re unlikely to find $100,000 jeans at your local Buffalo Exchange, but you will bump into poorly-laundered, overpriced polyester-blend jeans offloaded by someone who bought them two seasons ago.

Is this a bad thing? No, it’s the nature of new-age thrifting: niche stores stock and sell all the good stuff and Goodwills and bigger thrift chains go to shit. Sure, the recirculation of products otherwise destined for a landfill is undoubtedly net positive, but brands want better for these would-be owners of their products. Doubly, they want a share of each sale.

How to Buy Vintage Jeans Directly from the Brands That Made Them

Cue a suite of brand-owned and -curated vintage shops, either hosted within their own websites or coordinated with third-party consultants. Some of these retail hubs also offer “pre-loved” denim too, which includes pieces made within the past 20 years, as anything older than that qualifies as vintage. Here’s where to shop.

Levi’s Secondhand

Levi’s Secondhand is a website-only shopping portal that offers jeans, shorts, and denim jackets at resale cost. The website offers an array of aged garments, ranging from pre-owned mint condition trucker jackets to beaten-to-hell and knee-ripped jeans. It’s a goldmine for finding 501s from decades past, whether from the 80s, 90s or early aughts. It carries the largest stock out of the big three.

Levi’s has been buying back its old products from customers in exchange for store-credited gift cards in order to sell them at Secondhand, dictating resale prices per each item’s style and age. Newer pre-owned 501s can sell as low as $30, while a re-released pair of biker-fit 1955 501s can sell for $151. For comparison, a new pair of 501s costs $79.50, while Levi’s 1955 501 retails for $295.

Secondhand does an excellent job listing the conditions of its resale denim, leaving notes like “thread pull found on item” and “faint fraying on pockets and hem” on items. That info isn’t available for every piece, though. Furthermore, Levi’s takes photographs of the front and back of each vintage jean it stocks, so you’ll have a good idea of what you’ll get. It also grades each pair as Mint, Lightly Worn and Aged & Distressed to differentiate the type of vintage you’re trying to find. Take note that a mint condition pair of jeans can sell for the same price as a plenty faded one, despite its age. Every piece is professionally cleaned before its listed.

Stock also depends on size, so the rarer the jean, the harder it may be to nab your perfect fit. You can sign up to be notified if a product stocks in your size, though. Levi’s has a handy guide on how to size its vintage garments, but if you aren’t happy with the old jeans you bought, Levi’s Secondhand accepts returns within 60 days of purchase. It doesn’t offer exchanges at the moment and all returns are handled online only.

Levi’s

Vintage 501 Original Fit

• $88.00 at Levi

Lee Archives

“There is a great desire for vintage right now and we know many younger consumers are discovering Lee through vintage and resale shops,” Brigid Stevens, Lee’s VP of Global Brand Marketing, says. “The Lee Archives gives us a way to provide that consumer with a curated shop of authentic verified vintage pieces as well as introduce them to some new iterations for the season.”

Lee Archives is less stocked than Levi’s Secondhand, offering older styles close to the brand’s typical retail price. At the time of this writing, a pre-owned pair of cut-off jean shorts is going for $50, while a new pair in the same style is on sale for half off. New, the selvedge version of Lee’s popular 101 Rider Jacket sells for $330. A previous listing in the Lee Archives lists it for only $185. But unlike Levi’s Secondhand, Lee Archives’ vintage items are harder to pin down––its most iconic products seem to rotate per season. That could change in the future, however.

“The Lee Archive is a new initiative, but one that is growing,” Stevens says. “We source each piece through a verified third-party vintage retailer. Each also goes through an internal check with our design and quality teams.”

Lee uses a third-party service to clean and refurbish the items before shipping while preserving the “original wear and tear and broken-in quality,” she says. Then they use another service to set their prices, which are more than fair when compared to some standalone vintage shops — or the new versions of the given product.

What you see is what you get at Lee Archives; if a pair of dark wash jean shorts in men’s size 30 is listed, it’s a 1 of 1 and you can’t sift through various sizes of the same style. Stock seems to rotate every month or so, and unlike Levi’s, Lee doesn’t have a buyback program, so it’s unclear where these pieces are coming from. Each item has been thoroughly inspected to guarantee it’s a real vintage Lee product, however.

Lee Archives has a 30-day free return policy.

Lee Archives

Men’s Jeans

• $1.00 at Lee Archives

What to Expect When You Buy a Pair of Vintage Jeans

For all three brands, these stores are still budding — in the grand scheme of things, they’re very new. Collectively, there’s over 400 years of history shared between these brands, and seismic shifts like switching from selling new jeans to offloading old ones take time.

“The Lee Archive is a new initiative, but one that is growing,” Stevens says. “We source each piece through a verified third-party vintage retailer. Each also goes through an internal check with our design and quality teams.”

Authenticity always the goal. Lee uses a third-party service to clean and refurbish the items before shipping them out, while preserving the “original wear and tear and broken-in quality,” she says. Then they use another service to set their prices, which are more than fair when compared to some standalone vintage shops — or the new versions of the given product.

New, the selvedge version of Lee’s popular 101 Rider Jacket sells for $330. In the Lee Archives, it’s only $185. Similar discounts can be found within Levi’s program, which routinely offers jeans for as little as $36. Better pairs, like the Made in USA options, cost more, but top out at $120. In some cases, that’s savings of over $100 — better for the planet and your pockets.

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