King Street in uptown Saint John is home to Exit ’98 Vintage, a clothing shop built around the idea that secondhand fashion deserves the same attention as any curated boutique. Rather than stocking racks with anything and everything, Exit ’98 works in drops, releasing edited batches of vintage clothing and accessories at intervals and letting the shop’s Instagram following know the moment a new one lands. That model has built a genuinely engaged local following of nearly seven thousand followers who check in for each release, and it gives the shop a different rhythm than a typical thrift store where inventory just sits and waits to be found.
The shop’s focus is vintage clothing spanning decades and styles, sourced and resold to customers who want pieces with history rather than fast fashion pulled off a mall rack. Beyond the sales floor, Exit ’98 also buys directly from the public, actively seeking vintage pieces from anyone looking to sell, which keeps the pipeline of stock fresh and rooted in the local community rather than relying solely on outside wholesalers. That buy-sell relationship is part of what gives a small vintage shop staying power: regulars bring in pieces from closets and attics, and the shop turns them around for the next customer who is hunting for something one of a kind.
Exit ’98 is located at 56 King Street in Saint John’s downtown core, an area dense with independent shops, cafes, and the kind of foot traffic that suits a boutique built on discovery. The shop is open Tuesday through Sunday, giving shoppers a full week of access aside from Mondays, and it also ships worldwide for customers who find pieces through its online storefront or social channels rather than walking in off the street. That combination of a physical King Street presence and a shipping-ready online shop lets Exit ’98 serve both the Saint John community and a wider audience of vintage collectors well beyond New Brunswick.
The name itself carries a road-trip, journey feel that suits a shop built around discovery and departure from mass-produced fashion, a small branding choice that sets Exit ’98 apart from more generic vintage-shop names. For shoppers who care about provenance and rotation, checking in regularly matters, since items move quickly once a drop goes live and pieces are rarely restocked once they sell. The shop’s storefront also doubles as a hub for local vintage culture in Saint John, a city with a small but dedicated community of secondhand shoppers, sellers, and collectors who treat a new drop announcement as an event worth clearing time for.
Whether someone is after a specific decade, building out a wardrobe entirely from secondhand pieces, or just enjoys the hunt for something no one else will be wearing, Exit ’98 Vintage gives Saint John a dedicated vintage clothing destination with a loyal social media following and a buy-sell model that keeps its King Street racks constantly refreshed. In short, Exit ’98 Vintage is a Saint John, New Brunswick vintage clothing shop at 56 King Street that releases curated drops of secondhand fashion, buys vintage pieces from the public, and ships its finds worldwide.
