On Saturday, March 14, over 100 vendors and nearly 2,000 shoppers gathered in the Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea for VNTG CON. Created by the team behind the seventeen-year-running Sneaker Con, VNTG CON has now had its third NYC event since its debut in Sept. 2024. The convention brings together vendors and shoppers as diverse as the vintage market itself to buy, sell and trade one-of-a-kind pieces.
Since 2009, Sneaker Con has given sneaker fans a space to connect and trade with other collectors, spawning VNTG CON as the next level. William Debord, Managing Director of Sneaker Con, explained how the company branched into the vintage market.
“As Sneaker Con grew, we started getting a lot of different categories of sellers – streetwear brands, luxury bags, jewelry, vintage. And vintage is a huge culture right now. It’s really reached its next level. Sneakers got to a peak in 2018 and now it’s kind of stabilized out a little bit. Vintage is still growing, and it’s not just one category – it’s every category.”
For a location, New York City made sense for VNTG CON. “It’s the Mecca. It’s where you’re going to have the highest density of any niche market,” said Debord.
The vendors represented diverse categories within the vintage market. Several sellers brought Sneaker Con’s vibes to VNTG CON, selling streetwear, sneakers and 90s and 2000s tees. Booths also featured true vintage pieces dating back to the Regency era, Korean War and Vietnam War military apparel, Y2K women’s wear and handmade knitwear made as recently as days before.
The convention had several activations unique to in-person events like VNTG CON. At the Tattoo’d Cloth booth, shoppers could bring in items to get “tattoo’d” with chainstitch embroidery. The artist Jeff Rose King upcycled items with custom painting. Iowa vintage streetwear boutique Goldeneye not only sold from their collection but also bought pieces from attendees. Throughout the day, hip hop artists did live performances, and DJs kept the energy going between performances with a nostalgic hip hop mixtape.
The event sold around two thousand tickets according to Debord. At $17 per ticket, they brought in around $34,000 in ticket revenue. VNTG CON also proved successful for individual vendors.
“[Events] are primarily how I make most of my income,” said Sade Williams, who owns the Brooklyn-based handmade clothing line Edas Co. “In person, you get to interact with the people in your community, and the people who interact with you, they tend to come back and buy from you.”
Conventions particularly help newer brands. Alifair Skebe, who opened Project Attic in Providence, RI, in July 2025, said, “These kinds of events are really important for us to build capital as we’re building the business.”
Small businesses also benefit from the exposure conventions bring. Bella Bruno, who owns Staircase Vintage, a Y2K seller based in Reading, PA, said, “I usually do one or two [events] a month. It’s really good for brand exposure and seeing different parts of the East Coast.”
Logistically, getting an entire vintage clothing collection to a convention can be challenging. Most sellers find it works best to stuff a car with as much as they can, including Parks Vintage, who drove from Chicago to transport their collection.
The vintage market keeps growing especially among younger people. Parsh Mehta, who owns the North Carolina-based menswear brand Oak City Vintage, understands the appeal.
“These clothes have been around for twenty, thirty years, and they’re durable, and they look good, and I think all trends come around, so if it’s old, or not in fashion at the moment, it’ll come back around,” Mehta said.
Sustainability also makes vintage attractive to environmentally conscious shoppers who want to circumvent the short life cycle of fast fashion clothing.
“It’s good to keep clothes out of the landfill, give them a second chance and find your new favorite piece,” said Bella Bruno of Staircase Vintage.
Shoppers at VNTG CON echoed these reasons for attending, with the consensus that better quality durable clothing, increased sustainability, uniqueness and craftsmanship in pieces and the “treasure hunt” experience are the top reasons people chose VNTG CON.
VNTG CON allowed buyers and sellers to share their love for vintage with a community. Over one hundred vendors exposed their brands to the massive NYC market and nearly two thousand buyers foraged for pieces from their diverse aesthetics.
“We’re really just trying to bring the culture together and create a new community for ourselves,” said William Debord.
VNTG CON has not yet announced its next event, but Sneaker Con will come to Seattle, Philadelphia, Houston and Denver this spring.
