Crafty Bastard Brewery hosted the Emory Place Night Market on Friday, April 26, featuring around 20 vendors offering a variety of vintage clothing and jewelry. Also hosted in March, the vintage market is becoming one of many monthly traditions for the brewery, which hosts a vibrant variety of events every weekend.
During the event, attendees of the vintage market expressed an appreciation for supporting sustainable and locally owned businesses.
“I try to just shop sustainably and support local vendors, small businesses and things like that,” said Brock McPherson, an attendee sporting an off-white vintage UT shirt.
McPherson also attributed his attendance to his love of secondhand Dallas Cowboys and Volunteers items.
Also in attendance, brothers Luke and Eli Jenkins recently started the traveling store, Mad Dog Vintage.
“We just started this year,” Eli Jenkins said. “We came to our first one probably half a year ago, but we just really got into it. (Luke) had been collecting for a few years.”
The brothers decided to start a vintage store after Luke’s personal collection of vintage clothing had grown almost to the size of a small store.
“We’ve been thrifting for around like four or five years, and we’ve always been coming to these events when we were younger,” Luke said. “And then we had the idea — why not try to do it ourselves? And it ended up going pretty well.”
Luke also mentioned his frequent patronage of the other booths at markets like these. In exchanging with one another, vintage clothing sellers can bolster their own collections while making connections within their community.
“It’s just fun to come to,” Luke said. “Everybody’s really nice here. Like I said, the community is the biggest part of it. They’re awesome. And the connections that you can find here is better than anything you can find anywhere else because you can sell clothes and also make connections to find more afterward, so it’s pretty cool.”
Another up-and-coming business, Old World Wonders, started up in October of 2023. Specializing in vintage and pre-existing UT merchandise, their inventory consists largely of Pat Summitt and Lady Vols-themed items.
In addition to providing an accessible way for locals to work for themselves, vintage markets like these are part of the increasingly prevalent sustainable fashion movement. Many of the vendors at the market have started selling in recent years, with more people than ever selling vintage items as their full-time jobs.
Located on the northern edge of downtown Knoxville near the Old City, Emory Place is a historic district registered on the National Register of Historic Places. Previously home to sites like Knoxville High School from 1910 to 1951, the area has recently been revamped with a renaissance of arts and food.
In addition to Crafty Bastard Brewery, Emory Place contains the Lilienthal Gallery and Pivot Point Fine Art Galleries. It also includes a location for French Fried Vintage, with restaurants like A Dopo Pizza right around the corner. Free parking for the district is available at 298 E. Jackson Ave under the interstate overpass.
Crafty Bastard also hosts First Friday at Emory Place in collaboration with French Fried Vintage and several other vendors. For more information on any of these events, check out the Crafty Brewery Facebook page.
