You can climb through the doors of Mr. Throwback to get to the gates of sports.
There is a lot of vintage sportswear in the East Village of New York City. Posters of Michael Jordan are everywhere. There is a Knicks watch on the wall. There's a phone that sings the theme song of the kids' show and a phone that's in a time capsule.
"This store is just like my childhood," says Tony Messina, an employee of Mr. Throwback.
Mr. Throwback has become an institution because of sports fans like Messina. There is a booming interest in retro sports apparel. The smash hit docuseries "The Last Dance" was the most watched documentary of all time, and it was also the most watched live sports show. Increased sales of sports cards, merchandise, and nostalgia gear are a result of that interest.
The hats that sold for $60 a half-dozen years ago are now selling for more than twice that. The market price of a retro USA Basketball hat went from $30 to $150 when the Phoenix Suns guard wore it. The cost of jerseys has gone up.
"The same way that sports cards boomed, so did sports retro gear," says Mr. Throwback owner Mike Spitz. My competition is not just eBay anymore.
Gucci, Versace, Prada and other luxury brands are using '90s sportswear in their spring and summer collections. National retailers like Urban Outfitter and eBay have begun to sell retro sports merchandise. Vogue was on board.
Mr. Throwback is one of the few stores in the United States that caters to the niche. And Still in Los Angeles is only online, but there are others. The store has become a go-to place for athletes, celebrities and sports fans looking for rare, original, vintage and not replicas.
People go to the NBA store and ask where the Mitchell & Ness jerseys are. Employees there tell them to go to Mr. Throwback.
Athletes look for retro merchandise for their alma maters or favorite players. P.J. Tucker's purchase of an old-school Texas Longhorns jacket led to an influx of inquiries for UT gear. During the peak of Knicks Linsanity, Jeremy Lin came by, as did other hoopsters like Chris Douglas-Roberts and Iman Shumpert. Los Angeles Angels infielder Andrew Velazquez stopped by to browse with his girlfriend.
HOOK 'EM. P.J. Tucker is wearing an Air Jordan 1 customs.
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January 14, 2021.
The type of guy you'd imagine calling into a New York sports talk radio show is 39-year-old Spitz. On a Friday afternoon, he wears an oversized Patrick Ewing jersey and a snapback hat with the store's logo while roaming up and down the aisles, looking at his inventory.
Spitz takes a multipronged approach when it comes to growing inventory. He browses through more than 100 Facebook groups for clothing, digs through Grailed, Mercari and eBay, buys sports stock from other non-sports-specific thrift stores and attends vintage clothing conventions. In Mr. Throwback's storage room there is more retro merchandise ready to be swapped out.
To keep the shop buzzing with athletes and fans alike, Spitz closely follows trends in the sports world and documents them on the store's growing account. The demand for Orange basketball gear goes up if the team performs well. Hurricanes threads got hot when a documentary aired on the University of Miami. Demand for retro Bulls merchandise increased after "The Last Dance" was released. When the Knicks play well, it's fun for Spitz because he can bring out his collection of Knicks gear.
Whenever he goes to Madison Square Garden, he searches through the pile and picks something special for himself, often wearing it with the tags still on. It's when he remembers why he opened the store.
"I feel like a kid again when I wear my gear," he1-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-6556
A customer namedNate Reznicek bought a retro Joe Montana Chiefs jersey and a Kansas Jayhawks starter jacket at Mr. Throwback.
When he was living with his parents on Long Island, Spitz came up with the idea for a store. While working part time at a children's gym, Spitz made his money at an accounting job he hated. His parents pushed him toward the stable path, but he still felt an itch for something more.
"I was going through a quarter-life crisis," says Spitz.
He quit his day job and opened his own stand at the Dekalb Market in Brooklyn. He paid $500 a week in rent for an 80 square-foot space, which he used for makeshift inventory. He started by buying old jackets and jerseys from friends, browsing the aisles of TJ Maxx and Marshalls to find good deals, and then browsing other sources like eBay and consign shops.
"I loved it so much," she says. He realized that this was it. This is the end of my life. This is what I want to do.
The market was shut down in November 2012 by new landlords who wanted to build a high-rise building. He went thrifting because he was Unclear on what his next step would be. He was shopping in the East Village when he stumbled upon a store with clothing racks.
The landlord told him the space was his for $5,700 a month. The shop would cost another $200 to paint.
He had $6,000 in his bank account.
"I put everything down," he says. I had nothing left. I said, 'I'm doing this.' F--- it.
Pete Davidson and Ariana Grande went shopping at Mr. Throwback in the summer of 2018.
The underground New York fashion scene was where Mr. Throwback started to catch on. Kid Cudi was featured on the cover of Fat Man Magazine, a New York publication, after Mr. Throwback received a mini profile in the publication. The door swung open a few days after the story was published.
Cudi was looking for Cleveland sports gear.
Cudi said he was Scott.
The man stood still, jaw agape.
"I couldn't even say hello to him," she says. I was starstruck.
New York Magazine named the shop the city's best nostalgia shop. Alexander Wang is in the store. DaBaby wore a Larry Johnson Charlotte Hornets jersey when he performed on SNL. Pete Davidson called Spitz to ask him to open up on a Sunday so he could shop with Ariana Grande, who sang her own music while flipping through Starter jackets and T-shirts. Susan Sarandon, and Fabulous are two celebrity shoppers.
On a recent Friday afternoon, a 29-year-old from Burlington, Kansas, who works as a data analyst in New York, purchased a retro Kansas City Chiefs Joe Montana jersey and a Kansas Jayhawks Starter jacket.
"If it's lasted this long, it's going to stay cool," he says. It's unique if someone thought it was worth keeping in good shape for 30 years.
The store's tour guides led him along like museum tour guides, giving a sense of each item's history. As a former regular customer, Messina knows what it's like to be on the other side. He stopped by the store a couple of times a week to buy clothes and chat with Spitz. Messina was asked if he wanted a job by Spitz, who was impressed by his knowledge of the merchandise.
"I'm in my childhood dream, walking around, I'm literally in my childhood dream," Messina says. That's the point of the store.
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