Racks filled to the brim with sweatshirts, t-shirts, shoes and hats and a designated section full of maroon and white, Bygone Vintage offers a unique shopping experience for Aggie enthusiasts and vintage collectors alike. The student-run business offers hundreds of unique clothing designs, quickly becoming a Bryan/College Station favorite.
For the past two years, Bygone Vintage Owner Tristan Nigos has managed to run his successful fashion business while simultaneously working towards a bachelor’s degree in computer science at Texas A&M University. Now in his senior year,Tristan says he spends his weekends attending local markets or pop- up shops, but as his college career comes to a close, it’s unclear what the future holds for his business.
Houston is a major hub for vintage clothing and thrift shops, and as a H-Town local, Tristan says he had been growing his personal collection for most of his teen years. In high school, he decided to make a business out of it. With the help of a few friends, he says he was able to find enough unique pieces close to home to sell to his peers, but going away to college meant splitting up from his business partners.
“All of the summer before my sophomore year [of college], I kind of built up the courage and brought back my effort to restart my business again,” Tristan says. “So, this is my second iteration of the business. The spark was definitely there and it was just something I knew I wanted to keep doing.”
During his sophomore year of college, Tristan brought Bygone Vintage back to life. Part of balancing busy college life with being a young business owner was recruiting some friends to help him with certain aspects of the business. He says during this time he learned he loved taking care of all of the different tasks required of a business owner, but it wasn’t realistic for the growth he was experiencing.
"I took on a lot of that effort on my ownasIwasbuilding,bothcreatively and logistically,” Tristan says. “For some reason, there were parts in the year where there was such rapid growth, that it got to a point where I couldn't handle the work on my own.”
With this rapid growth came the need for more hands on deck, so Tristan recruited three friends, one of which was with him in his high school days. He says this was important to staying efficient, and he was glad to have them be part of something he loves so much.
"With all the growth that we've had, you definitely need a team of people to support the growing business and support each other as a team,” Tristan says. “There's sometimes managerial or inventory work that I need someone else to help me with so that I can focus all my efforts on the more creative side of things.”
Having the extra help has allowed Tristan to delve into the world of social media, where he pays a lot of attention to what other businesses are doing online, leading him to try different platforms like TikTok and Instagram. With upwards of 8,000 followers on Instagram, Tristan posts sneak peeks of items for sale and advertises events that Bygone Vintage is attending, like the Backyard Bash and First Friday Vintage & Makers Market.
“I like pouring more of my effort into the creative things,” Tristan says. “I noticed that to capture the hearts and minds of people, especially in the local area, you need a bigger social media presence.”
Social media has impacted business performance for the better, and Tristan says this has played a part in the growth of the shop. In high school, Tristan had more time and a smaller customer base so he sourced all his own clothes and hand-picked the pieces. With the expansion of the company and an increase in his customer base, Tristan says he now gets many pieces from vintagewholesalers.
“We're able to turn over more clothes than we can collect in person,” Tristan says. “I think from all the years you kind of gain thisintuitive sense of what an average college student may or may not like. And so I use my better judgment because we only want to show the highest quality that we can get.”
Vintage fashion is on the rise, and Tristan says that students consistently sell him out of inventory at each event. To no surprise, he says the thing people want the most in the B/CS is vintage Texas A&M clothes. He says that vintage clothing allows a possibility of connection to people with similar pieces, especially with vintage Texas A&M merchandise, where older items are so rare.
“People want to kind of flex that they're from College Station,” Tristan says. “[These items] are unique in the sense that they're hard to find, and almost no one else could have the same piece as you.”
Currently a senior, Tristan says he has thought about what the options are for the future of Bygone Vintage and his future career. Despite his passion for clothing, he says that between the two options, computer science will likely carry him further. With the skills he has learned through his degree, he says computer science is inevitably what he will end up doing post-graduation.
“The community of people buying and selling vintage clothes here has surfaced,” Tristan says. “Ultimately, seeing that happen puts a smile on my face, and knowing that I was a part of that [is] really gratifying.”
At the end of the day, Tristan says he has learned the value of risk- taking and that the best option is the one that you choose for yourself.
“It takes letting go of your pride to let go of something you've built up for years on end with the amount of growth we've seen,” Tristan says. “And I'm honestly willing to ride off into the sunset knowing that I made as much of an impact in the couple years I had and that the community here at A&M is better for it.”
For more information on Bygone Vintage, visit the business’ Instagram @bygonevtg to see clothing sneak peeks and where and when the next pop-up shop will be be.
