Meet Aspinline's Customers: Blue Rinse Vintage
Meet Kaitlyn Bullen from Blue Rinse Vintage. Blue Rinse is a vintage, used, recycled and reworked clothing company with an ethical and forward thinking approach to business. They offer handpicked vintage gems from around the globe.
Aspinline has been working with Blue Rinse for a few years now and we’ve made a number of eclectic patches for their collection. We recently had the chance to speak with Kaitlyn about Blue Rinse Vintage and one of their latest patch orders from Aspinline. Here’s what she had to say!
Can you tell us about Blue Rinse Vintage?
“Blue Rinse Vintage is a clothing company based in Leeds with a shop in Manchester as well. We work with Top Shop, Top Man, Urban Outfitters, Reading Festival and we’re one of the largest vintage wholesalers in the UK. We deal with vintage clothing and also have our own sewing room - that’s where we apply patches to repurposed vintage clothing.
We’re really keen on upcycling our vintage stock and making it more relevant for current trends. That’s where you guys come in. We’re about reducing waste and making ourselves sustainable.
Across Europe, there are massive warehouses where all vintage clothing goes. We have links with those factories. We’ve found more and more people through those links. There’s so much wasted clothing and our aim is to recycle and upcycle. We’ll sell to wholesale customers and we have different outlets for things we can’t sell, for example we donate to music studios that insulate their walls with them. We never throw clothes away. We will always try to find a use for everything.”
How did Blue Rinse get started?
“It’s quite interesting actually. It’s owned by two brothers. One was in the army and the other was in uni. They used to sell old army surplus things in the Leeds Kirkgate Market. They started out there and they started selling more and more. They got more stock and then moved to a shop around the corner, it got bigger and bigger and then it grew from there really. It was established in 1997 in the rain, in a market stall in Leeds and now we’ve got a shop in Leeds, and a warehouse and factory just outside of it and a shop in Manchester.”
What’s your role at Blue Rinse Vintage?
“I’m a Brands Manager. I oversee the shop managers, the designs and what the sewing room makes. Our designer will take a brief from me. I used to work in the shop on Saturdays when I was younger and I just started doing more and more. I’ve worked here for about 6 years now - it’s a really fun job.”
What are these patches being used for?
“We normally use them on sweatshirts and t-shirts, but these ones will be used for a student event in Manchester. They’ll go in gift bags for students at a student concert.”
What has been your overall experience working with Aspinline?
“It’s amazing! Never had any problems. Everyone is really helpful and the communication is great. I’ve never had to send an email and ask where anything is. It’s really helpful!”
How is it working with the Aspinline team?
“Everyone’s really good at answering my questions. I don’t know anything about the process, but everyone is really helpful and answers any questions we may have.”
Can you tell us about the quality of your patch and about other Aspinline products you have ordered?
“It’s really good! We’ve had vintage patches before that shrink when they get washed, but we’ve had no complaints about these. It’s really nice.”
Would you recommend Aspinline products to others?
“Yes, definitely. We had a wholesale customer that are our friends. They wanted to get some patches made and we directed them to you.”
Thank you to Kaitlyn for taking the time to speak with us. It was really great to learn more about Blue Rinse Vintage and their efforts to reduce waste through recycled and upcycled clothing. We’re very pleased to help them with patches for their range :)
Want to get a custom patch just like Blue Rinse Vintage? You can order online here or contact us today - 0117 956 6657 / [email protected].
