Hi, we are Papa Vintage – your online shop for authentic vintage t-shirts
We are offering you a wide range of authentic vintage t-shirts and sweatshirts from the 80s, 90s and early 2000s – from band shirts of rock legends and Harley Davidson biker shirts, to batik, comic and movie shirts.
The Story behind Papa Vintage
Vintage shirts with their cool prints, soft washed cotton and their individual stories, have been some of our personal favorites for years. We discovered our love for vintage fashion in 2013 when we spent some time in Los Angeles. The diversity and the unique character of American vintage fashion, which is so very different from what you would find in German thrift stores, immediately got us hooked.
In Germany we kept looking for cool vintage stores again and again, but eventually always ended up ordering vintage from the US. And then in 2019 one chance led to another. We got our hands on an old Guns N Roses t-shirt from Nico’s dad, which he had been keeping in his closet since the 1980s, and we were planning a trip to Los Angeles. Inspired by the find and the trip, the idea for Papa Vintage was born. Right from the beginning on it was our idea to help make vintage shopping easier and more convenient. And we also wanted to find a way to bring the special American vintage culture to Germany.
Finding the perfect vintage t-shirt isn’t easy at all! Spending hours digging through a pile of secondhand clothing and then not even finding that one special piece, just isn’t for everyone. With Papa Vintage, we take most of that work off of your hands: We use your notes and feedback to search for a diverse selection of vintage shirts. Afterwards we clean, photograph and measure everything. All YOU have to do, is click through our shop (sitting comfortably on your sofa) and buy your perfect vintage shirt.
The team
The Papa Vintage team currently consists of 3 members: Kathi and Nico in Germany and Megan in Los Angeles. Although we still do a lot of things together as a small team, each one of us also has their own areas of responsibility.
Megan
Los Angeles
Sourcing, Content Creation
Kathi
Berlin
Social Media, Customer Service, Shipping
Nico
Berlin
Sourcing, Website, SEO, Photoshootings
The most beautiful way to dress sustainably
Besides the incomparable look of vintage t-shirts, buying vintage fashion also represents the most beautiful and easiest way to dress sustainably. At the current time, there is nothing more environmentally friendly than wearing the clothes that already exist for as long as possible.
For us at Papa Vintage, sustainability therefore is at the core of our company values. For our packaging we focused on being mindful of natural resources and the environment. We are very proud to ship 100% plastic-free and exclusively with paper made from grass fibers. Grass paper can be obtained as a local raw material from native German meadows, which protects wood as a raw material and avoids long transport routes. In the production process, the processing of the grass pellets can also be solely achieved mechanically and without the addition of water and chemicals.
Outlook
After 1.5 years, we are only at the very beginning of our journey. Our vision is to offer you the best selection of vintage t-shirts in Germany. In the future this will also include offline events, a showroom, that you can visit, and a growing selection with regular drops.
Los Angeles will remain our primary sourcing location, which is why you’ll always find pictures and travel impressions of our personal vintage paradise.
For all of our developments, we focus on you, because we build Papa Vintage with and for you. On that note: We are very happy to receive your questions, requests, criticisms and suggestions via Instagram or mail! We have received so many great suggestions already, from requests asking for more XL-XXL sizes to specific motif requests. All of this feedback has helped us make Papa Vintage better.
We are very excited about this journey and really look forward to what we will build with you in the future!