Thrill of the hunt
Velvet Coyote wants to make getting dressed thrifty and fun again

If you’re a thrifter, you know the feeling: After hours of fruitless flipping through every thrift store rack within hundreds of miles, the stars align, the universe stands still and … There. It. Is. The proverbial Neiman Marcus in the Old Navy haystack. Or maybe it’s the perfect pearl snap Western shirt for your next river adventure or a divine gold lamé ski onesie straight out of 1985. Score.

What’s that you say? You don’t have time for hours, maybe days, of laborious scrutinizing? Well, you’re in luck, because Velvet Coyote is bringing that winning thrift feeling to you.

Velvet Coyote is actually made up of three vixens (technically a female fox, but let’s go with it), longtime friends Joy Martin, Sloan Gingg and Sarah McCloskey.

“We’ve been friends for over a decade and all of us have been shopping for ourselves forever, and we always find stuff that’s super cool that either doesn’t fit us or we don’t need it,” Martin, the group’s self-proclaimed disco queen, said. 

Martin said growing up in the ’90s in Colorado Springs, thrifting was her "happy place.” She still remembers her first thrift store magic: a pair of faded, high-waisted, ’70s bell bottoms. “I pulled them off the mannequin, and the lady in the store said, ‘These have just been here forever waiting for the perfect person,’” she recalled. “And that is kind of the theme of what we do.”

Martin said the goal of Velvet Coyote is to bring a carefully hand-picked, secondhand (or third or fourth) experience to local shoppers, sourced from thrift and consignment stores from throughout the area. “It’s what we deem as a curated collection of cool. Verified cool, according to us,” Martin said. 

The three came up with the idea for Velvet Coyote last spring after comparing notes (a spreadsheet actually) on their various thrift store scores over the years. That’s when they realized they were maybe onto something with this whole thrifting thing. 

“Not everyone wants to do the treasure hunting,” Martin said. “We just really love sharing that stoke for these fun finds. We don’t want to keep these to ourselves. We don’t want to leave them on the rack, what if nobody ever finds them?”

A sourcing trip along the San Juan Skyway was planned – using a divide-and-conquer strategy using three sets of eyes – to hit up 12 thrift and consignment stores in just a few days.

“We ended up getting more than 300 items,” said Martin. “On that drive, we brainstormed a name. We were dancing around the idea of disco desert vibes –gritty, glamorous, nature … that classic Southwestern style we’ve all gravitated toward. We came up with the Velvet Coyote – our logo is a coyote howling at a disco ball in the desert.” 

From that first trip, the women – who all have “real” jobs and kids, mind you – planned their first pop-up thrift sale, which was held in June in the 81301 Coffee parking lot. “It was such a good turn out. We sold over half our inventory and got a really great reception from everybody,” said Martin.

She thinks the secret to their success was that they each brought something different to the, uh, sale table. “The cool thing is, we’re three people with three different styles,” said Martin. For example, McCloskey, who is from New Mexico, brings the river tripping, rockstar, Southwestern spice while Ginng is the fashionista, style guru and fashion scholar.

“She could tell you the shade of chocolate brown that is in season this year,” Martin said, adding that she, herself, gravitates toward the sparkly, weird and one of a kind – usually without any labels at all. “The three of us bring together something that’s functional and also funky,” Martin said.

But even more so than helping the town that will never live down its “worst-dressed” moniker look cool, Velvet Coyote also has a more altruistic goal: keeping clothes out of the landfill.

“We want to help shed some light on the fact that there are so many clothes out in the world already. You don’t need to go out and buy new stuff or get online and order,” Martin said. “We try to stay away from fast fashion – we’re really picky.”

She also said Velvet Coyote, which is hosting its second pop-up event this Fri., Oct. 3, on the corner of E. 2nd Avenue and College Drive – is not meant to compete with local thrift and consignment stores so much as complement them.

“We’re all big supporters of any of the consignment stores or thrift shops in town, and our tag line is ‘slow fashion, sourced locally,’” said Martin. 

Velvet Coyote just wants to spark joy and #makegettingdressedfunagain.

“We want to show people the fun side of this mundane task that we all have to do every single day, which is, wake up and put clothes on our body,” Martin said. “All of these things are expressions of who you are. Some people can’t figure out why they feel grumpy. Sometimes a good outfit is all you need. It’s like, drink water and wear something you’re excited about, and you’ll be happier.”

Ahead of their upcoming pop-up, the three recently returned from another sourcing trip, this time to Taos and the San Luis Valley (where Monte Vista is rumored to have the most kick-ass consignment shop of all.) Martin said the fall installment will offer items for the season, including sweaters, coats, jackets, boots, pants, hats and all things cozy for all people. There will also be art, jewelry, some costumes (it is almost Halloween, after all) and maybe a stray disco ball or two. And in a nod to its diversity of styles, the event takes place in the walkway between the 2nd Deli,  Wild Horse Saloon and Bookcase & Barber (11 a.m. - 6 p.m., cash or Venmo only.)

“It just started as this little passion project. We thought, ‘Let’s just sell these clothes and try to make enough to pay ourselves back and do it again.’ But it’s turned into a platform for community, creativity and joy, really,” Martin said. 

Because, at its most basic, clothing is one of the simplest things that we all have in common – even if we don’t always agree on what it should look like.

Martin recounts a story about a coat they found on a recent trip that had a matchbook in the pocket with an address to a restaurant on the Isle of Capri written on it. “It had been in there since people wrote addresses down,” Martin marvelled. “Clothing has stories. We’re building connections in a world that needs more connection.”