Humans of St. Norbert:

“Simply Reloved is an online thrift store we started through Instagram. My siblings and I wanted to find a simple way to get people items to be re-loved. That’s where the name ‘Simply Reloved’ came from. It started over Thanksgiving break last fall. It’s been a good way to spend time with my brother and sister since we’ve always been a family of thrifters. There are so many benefits to thrifting. The local promotion and charity part of it is huge. We knew that thrift stores have a huge impact in our local communities. Being from Plymouth, a small town, that's important.

“I learned my freshman year of college, that every year people consume over 80 billion pieces of clothing. The average North American citizen threw away 81 pounds of clothing per year. That’s insane to me. It blew my mind and I just remember thinking, I can’t buy clothes ever again, I have to just thrift. So, I’ve made a very clear point in my life to try and transition over to that. Again, there’s just so many benefits to thrifting. You’re not letting things just go to landfills and supporting your local community. You’re saving water because hundreds of gallons of water are used to make clothes. Buying things second-hand, you’re supporting that aspect, too.

“Through Simply Reloved, I’ve met so many people at St. Norbert that I never knew, and it’s a small campus. The best part about running it, especially through a small campus, is that I can do dorm delivery, or they can meet me at Ed’s. It’s been great to meet people that way. People would even come to my dorm in VMC and try on the clothes. St. Norbert has such a tight-knit community, there's that instant trust. Then, I see the person wearing a jacket they bought from me that I thrifted and I think that’s the coolest thing. I’ve had a lot of support from the students at St. Norbert.

“I’ve shipped to over 20 states now. I’ve sold 289 items. And, I just started in December. It’s been crazy. For me, it's not about the number of sales, but it definitely has been far more successful than I ever thought it would be. I’ve even shipped as far as to New Zealand. I think the Mail Center kind of hates me sometimes because I send everything through them.”
– Klairice Schwartz ’22