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The shop\u2019s logo is inspired by the Grateful Dead style. The creator of the logo\u2019s grandparents met at Lehigh. (Ellie Sileo\/B&W Staff)<\/p>\nAaron Stutz was 6 years old when he first fell in love with Grateful Dead T-shirts at Pinemere Camp in the summers of the 1990s.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His counselors wore bright tie-dye shirts with dancing bears. He said he didn\u2019t know the Grateful Dead\u2019s music yet, but he loved the style. Years later, when Stutz began listening to the band, the songs brought him back to summer sing-alongs and the feeling of belonging.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That same childhood fascination now hangs inside Yung Esau\u2019s Vintage Shop on 97 E. Broad St., named after the Grateful Dead song \u201cMy Brother Esau,\u201d \u2014 a track the band performed live for only a few years. What started in his living room, with an ironing board as a desk, has become a storefront filled with racks of vintage clothing, collectibles and more.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The shop\u2019s logo is inspired by the Grateful Dead style. The creator of the logo\u2019s grandparents met at Lehigh. (Ellie Sileo\/B&W Staff)<\/p>\n
He began selling Grateful Dead T-shirts as a hobby in 2003 and eventually turned it into an online vintage resale business in 2018. After years of selling vintage clothing online and at markets, Stutz opened his first brick-and-mortar storefront in December, transforming a longtime side hustle into a physical space centered on nostalgia.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stutz grew up in Allentown before moving to Philadelphia for college, where he studied to become a teacher. After graduating in 2011, he spent 14 years working in education and for Playworks, a nonprofit organization in Philadelphia. When he met his wife, Dylan Star, in 2014, the pair moved to Denver, where Stutz worked for another nonprofit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He left his job in Denver just before the COVID shutdown and decided to fully commit to selling vintage clothing after years of doing it on the side.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce we came out of COVID, I realized that we had a pretty solid business already going,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In 2022, Stutz and Star moved to Bethlehem and secured a booth at Belleville Market in Easton, marking their first physical location after years of online sales. Stutz also began setting up a pop-up at the Bethlehem Vintage Market at the Rose Garden in 2023, which runs annually from spring through fall and welcomes Yung Esau\u2019s and around 60 other vendors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When the East Broad Street space became available in September, the couple took the leap and opened their first storefront in December. Stutz credits Star with making the transition possible by giving him confidence, helping with the business plan and envisioning the store\u2019s design.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c(Star) was really instrumental in a number of ways,\u201d he said. \u201cShe was very supportive. She told me it\u2019s not a new venture, it\u2019s just a new era for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Star said Stutz\u2019s ability to connect with people comes naturally. Stutz said his background in education shapes the way he interacts with customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s such a people person,\u201d Star said. \u201cSeeing him relate to people is amazing to watch. It\u2019s fun to watch someone you love do something they love and are good at.\u201d<\/p>\n
Customers from Lehigh, Moravian University and beyond visit the shop searching for vintage school memorabilia and pieces that spark storytelling and nostalgia. The shop carries a wide variety of vintage items for collectors, but its roots trace back to a love for the Grateful Dead.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The shop\u2019s walls are decorated with colorful art inspired by the Grateful Dead and similar styles. (Ellie Sileo\/B&W Staff)<\/p>\n
One of Stutz\u2019s favorite memories came during the shop\u2019s first week, when a man brought in about a dozen Grateful Dead T-shirts he\u2019d worn in the \u201870s.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe even had pictures of himself wearing (the T-shirts),\u201d Stutz said. \u201cI feel like we have been friends forever. Age doesn\u2019t matter when you have a connection like that. That\u2019s just one example of the relationships I\u2019ll make over the years here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moments like this reinforce what Stutz believes the shop is really about: not just clothing, but connection.<\/p>\n
Lehigh Valley native Natalie Milsztajn said she loves shopping at Yung Esau\u2019s at the Belleville Market. A couple years ago, the shop\u2019s selection of brightly colored vintage windbreakers caught her eye, and she bought a \u201cfunky colored\u201d jacket that became one of her favorites.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While shopping at the Bethlehem Vintage Market \u2014 sporting her windbreaker \u2014 a shopper approached her to ask where she got it. Before she could remember the name of the shop, Stutz stepped in and joked that he knew exactly where the jacket had come from.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c(Stutz and Star) make you feel so welcome when you are in their presence,\u201d Milsztajn said. \u201cThey have a passion for vintage treasures and they have a very good eye for it. They genuinely love this line of work and that\u2019s very refreshing to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
From then on, Milsztajn followed Yung Esau\u2019s to local vintage markets. She said it was exciting to see the shop open a permanent location so she didn\u2019t have to wait for the next pop-up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yung Esau\u2019s move into a permanent space has also brought online followers into the shop. Mel Orlando and their friend discovered Yung Esau\u2019s on TikTok in early February and visited the shop together.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Orlando said they enjoyed the vibe and selection of clothing, stuffed animals, CDs and cassette tapes. An avid thrifter, Orlando said they\u2019re excited there\u2019s now an affordable vintage shop in the area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no judgment in the community and people are not afraid to be themselves,\u201d Orlando said. \u201cI think that\u2019s really nice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Milsztajn said the thrifting community in Bethlehem is larger than people may think and filled with pride. She said she feels a sense of pride when wearing items from a vintage shop.<\/p>\n
For Star, the appeal of the vintage community goes beyond style.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nice to be with people who value the same things like recycling, upcycling and finding treasures,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s been really fun to connect with the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Through upcycling and recycling clothing, Stutz aims to keep the story behind each item alive.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Whether he\u2019s selling Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figurines to a father and son or rescuing clothing that might otherwise be thrown away, he believes each item has a story worth continuing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Yung Esau\u2019s Vintage Shop also sells collectables from many different eras and styles. The shop has many stuffed animals, cassettes, and figures to offer. (Ellie Sileo\/B&W Staff)<\/p>\n
To further support Bethlehem\u2019s community, Stutz also hosts fundraisers to benefit William Penn\u2019s Elementary School\u2019s science programs and local organizations such as the Coalition for Appropriate Transportation. He said he uses the store to support local causes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m truly trying to figure out what connects (the shopper) to the item, why they\u2019re here and where they\u2019re from,\u201d he said. \u201cI love asking people questions. The community aspect is something that has been necessary in any job I\u2019ve done and something that I\u2019m focused on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aaron Stutz was 6 years old when he first fell in love with Grateful Dead T-shirts at Pinemere…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49122,119,121,120,1197,4602],"class_list":["post-125281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-6-min-read","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-feature","tag-south-side"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}