Some secondhand retailers treat menswear as an afterthought bolted onto a womenswear-first sales floor. Community Thrift and Vintage runs its Unisex storefront in Vancouver the opposite way, building a shop specifically around gender-neutral and menswear-forward secondhand fashion rather than folding it into a general rack at the back. It sits inside a small family of sister stores under the same Community Thrift and Vintage name, which also operates a Frock-branded shop leaning toward dresses and womenswear, but the Unisex location is where the buying and curation is built around jeans, jackets, knitwear, and accessories that work across genders, plus a notable line in military-style pieces and plus-size options that a lot of secondhand shops still underserve.
The clothing itself is secondhand and vintage, sourced through consignment and donation and resold at a low price point that the company itself describes as a tightly edited collection of recycled fashion rather than a bulk thrift dump. That editing matters: rather than wading through racks of everything donated, shoppers browsing the Unisex location find a curated mix that has already been sorted for quality and style, with designer pieces turning up alongside everyday basics. The business also accepts consignment directly from the public, meaning a portion of what is on the floor at any given time came from Vancouver residents clearing out their own closets rather than an anonymous donation stream.
What makes this operation different from a typical secondhand boutique is what happens to the money after a sale. Community Thrift and Vintage is a social enterprise whose profits flow to PHS Community Services Society, and the business itself runs as a work training program for at-risk individuals, meaning staff working the floor and processing incoming stock are often gaining employment experience through the shop rather than working a conventional retail job. Founded in 2011, the company has kept that dual purpose, retail business and job training program, running for well over a decade, funding PHS’s broader community services work in Vancouver with every sale rung through the till.
Vancouver’s secondhand and vintage shopping scene is dense and competitive, but the Unisex location carves out a specific niche within it by focusing on menswear-inclusive and gender-neutral fashion at a price point built for accessibility rather than resale-market markup. Shoppers looking for a break from picked-over standard thrift racks, or specifically hunting military surplus-style jackets, plus-size secondhand options, or unisex basics, get a shop curated with exactly that audience in mind. The company also offers free shipping within Canada for online orders and issues gift cards redeemable across its Frock and Unisex storefronts, so a gift bought at one sister location works at the other.
Anyone planning an in-person visit should confirm current hours before heading out, since small independent and nonprofit-linked retailers can adjust schedules seasonally. The core facts stay constant regardless of timing: Community Thrift and Vintage’s Unisex shop is a Vancouver secondhand and vintage clothing store built around gender-neutral and menswear fashion, whose sales fund both a job training program for at-risk individuals and the broader work of PHS Community Services Society.
