Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.

Paul Sausville’s room at home was completely full — a bulging closet, stacks of clothes in every corner, even boxes in the basement because his passion for vintage pieces couldn’t fit into just one room. When his parents begged him to downsize his overwhelming wardrobe, rather than just get rid of clothing, he decided to sell them — and thus The Pits Vintage was born.

“It’s funny, what’s old is new, and people love it,” Sausville said. “I love it.”

Sausville, a sophomore studying chemical engineering at SUNY-ESF, started The Pits Vintage in 2019, but the business really started to take off this past winter break. Run from an Instagram account, The Pits Vintage features a wide range of clothes, shoes and accessories, all with a classic vintage touch.

The Pits Vintage’s clothes come from all over — Sausville said he loves going to estate, garage, church and tag sales to find hidden gems. Many times, when consumers think of vintage clothes, thrift stores come to mind. But Sausville added that he tries not to rely on those for his merchandise, considering the ethical issues around shopping at secondhand stores just to resell what you bought.

Of course, as the business was born from Sausville’s personal tastes and style, hunting for pieces often goes the same way, he said.

“When I’m shopping, I’m really shopping for myself,” Sausville said. “And then I found that a lot of people like the same things I like.”

For all his merchandise, Sausville implements a meticulous cleaning and upkeep process to make sure each item is shiny and new when he sells it. For cotton items, a simple toss in the washer and dryer will suffice, but less common fabrics — “there’s been days where I’m washing silk jackets in my kitchen sink” — require a bit more attention, he said.

While Sausville puts out bags and shoes every once in a while, at least for now, The Pits Vintage mainly focuses on clothing items. But clothes can be especially versatile, which is helpful for the varying tastes of his customer base.

“I can put an XL or 2XL sweater up, and some 6-foot-5 guy with a 6-and-a-half-foot wingspan could buy it, or a 5-foot-2 girl could buy it who just wants the oversized look,” Sausville said. “But if I put a pair of size 12 shoes on, someone with size 12 feet has to buy it.”

Risa Fromowitz, a natural resources management sophomore at SUNY-ESF, said she really enjoys shopping with The Pits Vintage. She picked up an oversized teal and yellow London Fog jacket, a pink crewneck with snowflakes and ice skating bears and a button-down shirt with a leafy pattern on it, all of which she said she loves.

Founded by Paul Sausville, The Pits is a student-run vintage shop that offers an extremely wide variety of vintage clothing and other merchandise.
Paul himself is an ESF sophomore who started his store back in 2019 in an effort to get rid of his ridiculous stockpile of clothes. Every piece is carefully chosen by Paul himself.
The Pits is the newest member of our team and we were extremely lucky that he has decided to spend his time selling his merch at our shows. You can catch him this weekend (4/2) at the Charlie Burg show. As well as our other upcoming shows this month!
You can check out Paul’s page @the.pits.vintage

A photo posted by theharringtoncuse

“Naturally, because I go to ESF, I love clothes with cool nature patterns on it,” Fromowitz said.

Although his business mainly functions through Instagram, Sausville has started doing pop-up shows, including one at the recent Bandersnatch concert at Goldstein Auditorium.

Sam Stehle, a friend of Sausville and a forest resources management sophomore at SUNY-ESF, is a frequent customer of The Pits Vintage. He said his favorite pieces he has bought from Sausville include a green, red and blue plaid crewneck and a navy and green colorblocked, floral collared shirt with a quarter button.

Stehle also helps run The Harrington with his five other roommates. The venue leans on Syracuse’s vibrant underground music scene but is always open to hosting pop-up shops and food vendors. Stehle offered to host The Pits Vintage at a recent show and said he was happy to see Sausville’s business flourishing.

“Every time I come by, Paul is just completely swamped with people crowding his stuff,” Stehle said. “From what I’ve seen so far, he’s done really well.”

Toward the beginning of The Pits Vintage, Sausville added his own personal touches — patches, embroidery, painting — to the pieces he resold. He even transformed a jean jacket by painting on crayons.

But because of the amount of time personalization takes, he hasn’t made as many of these pieces recently. Over the summer, however, Sausville said he hopes to invest in a silk screen so that he can get back to sprucing up his items with a little creativity.

His favorite item of clothing from his The Pits Vintage collection was a silk, quilted, floral puffer jacket. Sarah Skalski, a Syracuse University freshman majoring in illustration, bought the jacket and then later posted a drawing of herself in the piece.

“I love puffer jackets,” Skalski said, “and this piece was so wild and unique. I was all for buying it.”

Sausville attributes his sense of fashion to his three older sisters, all whom he said had “phenomenal vintage style.” Sausville said that in high school, he disregarded gender norms around fashion and wore a few traditionally feminine pieces; he liked the look and decided that if anyone had a problem with this, it was their problem, not his. Right now, Sausville said he gravitates towards the workwear or American heritage look with pieces from Carhartt and L.L.Bean — “ESF brands,” he said.

Sausville also loves finding obscure vintage brands that went out of business, because the pieces are so original, he said. One of his favorite pieces is a pair of ‘80s jeans from a brand called NIXIT — they’re paneled and baggy and have tapered cuffs, zippers and a creative wash. But when he tried to search the brand online, other than one solitary sweater, he found no trace of NIXIT.

Although most of his customers come from SU and SUNY-ESF, every once in a while, someone across the country who is interested in his clothes contacts him. He’s happy to ship — so those who won’t be in central New York for the summer can still shop with The Pits Vintage — which has allowed him to meet some fun people along the way.

“Not only am I selling to my friends and my peers around me, but there’s some lady in California, there’s some dude in Utah, there’s a guy in Oregon who’s wearing something that I found and they liked,” Sausville said.

Sausville’s vision for the future of The Pits Vintage is a bit unclear for now, he said, but he would love to expand, even if it’s just setting aside a room to shoot photos and store pieces. For him, his business is an outlet outside from his STEM major as well as a great way to express his creativity.

“Something that started off as a total hobby has turned into something that people care about,” Sausville said. “They’re into what I’m doing, and I think that’s awesome.”

Published on April 17, 2022 at 11:30 pm