BETHLEHEM, Pa. — When Aaron Stutz was 7 years old, he sent a letter to his parents from sleepaway camp asking if they could send him a Grateful Dead T-shirt.
“All the counselors had Grateful Dead T-shirts,” Stutz said. “It was the early 90s and everybody who was of college age liked to wear that kind of stuff. So that’s when I got my first Grateful Dead shirt.”
As he grew older, Stutz’s love for the Grateful Dead’s music grew alongside his love of vintage clothing.
Stutz is now the owner of Yung Esau’s Vintage Shop, which sells vintage apparel from the ‘80s to the early 2000s. Stutz opened his second location on Nov. 21 at 97 E. Broad St. in Bethlehem.
Vintage apparel hangs on display inside Yung Esau’s Vintage Shop at 97 E. Broad St. in Bethlehem, Pa. The store specializes in clothing from the 1980s through early 2000s, with an emphasis on Lehigh Valley-themed merchandise from local colleges and businesses.
The name “Yung Esau,” which Stutz used as his first Instagram username, is a nod to the Grateful Dead song: “My Brother Esau.”
In addition to Grateful Dead T-shirts and tapes, which Stutz collected and sold even before Yung Esau’s first location opened at Easton’s Belleville Market, his Bethlehem store has a plethora of vintage Lehigh Valley shirts and sweaters.
Stutz said he adds 30-40 new items each week, a mix of tees, flannels, retro jackets, jeans and pants.
Lehigh University sweaters hang beside Moravian apparel and merchandise from various local establishments.
Even Stutz’s alma mater, Allentown’s Parkland High School, is featured prominently on shirts and jackets.
A rack of vintage clothing fills Yung Esau’s Vintage Shop at 97 E. Broad St. in Bethlehem, Pa. Owner Aaron Stutz adds dozens of new pieces weekly, including T-shirts, flannels, retro jackets and jeans, drawing on a lifelong passion for thrifting that began during his childhood in Allentown.
“It was a concerted effort to sort of bring things in that are local,” Stutz said. “That way, the people who go to college here or went to high school here could find some cool items that connect them to their past.”
Stutz said he never expected his long-time hobby would turn into a viable business venture.
As a kid, Stutz said he would frequent a Goodwill store in Allentown in search of vintage clothing. He noted not only the quality of these older items, but also the way they remind people of their childhood or the experiences their parents shared with them.
“Nostalgia is a pretty heavy drug,” Stutz said. “People could be like, ‘Oh, I had this shirt when I was a kid,’ or, ‘This reminded me of something when I was a kid.’ Whether it’s from the ‘70s, ‘80s or 2000s, each era has its own staying power. There’s always going to be people — if they’re not from that era, their parents were, and that reminds them of their parents.”
Yung Esau’s Bethlehem location is open from 12-6 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. on Saturdays and 12-5 p.m. on Sundays.
Stutz said his new location in Bethlehem affords him the opportunity to chat with customers about why they bought a particular item.
“They might just think it looks cool (or) they might have a deeper story or meaning for buying that,” Stutz said. “Having that face-to-face with customers has been really gratifying.”
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Constantine Lambridis is a recent graduate of Lehigh University with a double major in Journalism and History. At Lehigh, he served as the Sports Editor and Managing Editor of Multimedia at the school’s student-run newspaper. He is passionate about covering stories at the heart of the community and is an ardent believer in the impact of local journalism.