Haight Ashbury Vintage Has Closed For Good

Haight Ashbury Vintage Has Closed For GoodPhoto: Camden Avery/Hoodline
Camden Avery
Published on July 30, 2015

According to signs posted in the storefront this week, Haight Ashbury Vintage (1711 Haight St.) is closed for good, less than a year after moving into its new Upper Haight space.

The closure follows a number of vintage shop shuffles in the Haight for owner Werner Werwie, who also owned nearby La Rosa Vintage and Held Over. Last August, La Rosa closed, and its stock was transferred into Held Over. Haight Ashbury Vintage, facing a major rent hike, then moved out of its original location at 1501 Haight and into La Rosa's former space. In January, Aviator Nation moved into the space that had been occupied by Haight Ashbury Vintage. And now, Haight Ashbury Vintage has closed for good. Held Over remains open. 

Werwie told Hoodline that for this particular closure, rising rents aren't to blame. Instead, he framed it as an overall effort to streamline his umbrella company, Retro City Vintage, which also owns Mission Thrift, Mars (in Berkeley), and the Mission's recently shuttered Clothes Contact. He considers Held Over, which opened in 1976, to be his flagship store. 

At the time of La Rosa's closure, Werwie told Hoodline that the Haight was not an ideal location for selling high-end vintage clothes. "People who buy high-end vintage don't want to have to step in dog shit. The tourists don't want expensive, high-end stuff. They want cheap vintage."

In an email yesterday afternoon, he once again bemoaned the state of the neighborhood. "That end of Haight Street is called the 'dead end.' Even having Amoeba and Whole Foods there is not helping. My employees do not feel safe there, and when my manager quit," that was the last straw, he said. He plans to continue running Held Over, Mars, and Mission Thrift for the foreseeable future.