Hundreds of shoppers packed the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center for ThriftCon's first Dallas event, sorting through racks of vintage jackets, handbags and jewelry spread across 150 vendor booths. Prices ranged from as little as $10 to several hundred dollars, depending on the item and the vendor selling it.
The pop-up convention, which Dallas News reports got its start in Denver in 2019, now travels to cities across the country, giving independent resellers a single venue to set up shop alongside each other. Event manager Brian Frederick described the gathering as essentially an upscale flea market, where vendors set their own prices and shoppers hunt for one-of-a-kind finds rather than browsing racks at a traditional thrift store.
Shoppers Chase Specific Finds and Bargain Bins
Chassity Phillips came looking for one particular item and left with an '80s-style windbreaker in hand. She said she usually does her thrifting at local stores around Dallas-Fort Worth, but added that she'd like to see ThriftCon return on a monthly or quarterly basis rather than as a one-off.
Dominique Ivory, a 30-year-old music teacher, picked up a pink sweatshirt featuring two pastel dancers for $35. Ivory said fashion is a tool in the classroom, too, using clothing choices to encourage students to embrace their own individuality.
The Pound-By-Pound Deal That Drew a Crowd
One of the convention's bigger draws was a clothing-bin deal priced at $10 per pound. Riya Kannapareddy, 22, filled a bag that weighed in at 6 pounds and paid $60 for the haul. She said the bargain pricing can push shoppers toward items they might otherwise pass over, and, alongside 21-year-old Nahla Young, noted that thrifting's sustainability appeal can cut both ways, potentially fueling the very overconsumption it is meant to curb. Young also pointed out that some secondhand pieces at the event struck her as overpriced.
Behind the Booths: Bulk Buying and Price Haggling
For vendors like 28-year-old Adam Williams, ThriftCon is one stop on a packed circuit. Williams said he and two business partners have resold clothing together for about three years, sourcing inventory in bulk through suppliers and textile-recycling plants rather than picking through thrift-store racks, something he said he hasn't personally done in two years. His business hits more than 20 events annually, he said, and typically raises prices by about $5 at in-person conventions like this one. Still, Williams said his booth stays open to negotiating with shoppers on the spot.
A Growing Circuit Beyond Dallas
ThriftCon's Dallas debut fits into a wider expansion for the brand, which held events in 10 different cities in 2025, according to downtownmagazinenyc.com. A Brooklyn Storehouse stop drew more than 100 vendors with general admission priced at $39, while a two-day Denver convention at the National Western Center featured over 140 vendors, as reported by Axios Denver. In Houston, where NRG Park has hosted the event with more than 100 small-business vendors selling vintage clothing, streetwear and collectibles, PaperCity reported attendance topping 12,000 people over two days.
The secondhand surge showing up at these conventions mirrors broader shifts in the apparel market. ThredUp's newsroom reported the U.S. secondhand apparel market grew 14% in 2024, its strongest growth since 2021 and five times faster than the broader retail clothing market, with projections putting the market at $74 billion by 2029. Separately, Yale News cited a study projecting secondhand clothing resales could reach $350 billion annually by 2027, alongside a survey finding more than 69% of respondents had bought secondhand clothing at least once.
For now, Dallas shoppers and vendors alike seem to be hoping the convention sticks around. Whether ThriftCon returns to the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center on a regular schedule remains to be seen, but for one weekend, the city got its own taste of the upscale flea market circuit that's been building momentum nationwide.
