The Racks – the newest vintage shop in Eugene’s 5th Street Market – is a passion project born
from humble beginnings.
Just three years ago, high school sweethearts Allyssa Corpuz and Dylan Harloff started selling
clothes on depop – an online marketplace for vintage streetwear. The couple made this decision
after being let go from their jobs due to Covid-19 as a way to earn money from clothes they had
sitting in their rooms.
Dissatisfied with their online results, Corpuz and Harloff started selling at pop-up shops in
Portland before setting up at UO’s campus. They then sold clothes at UO once a week, every
week with constant support.
“Once we started building that connection with all the college students everyone was like, ‘can
we find you more often?’ Because we only sold on campus once a week,” says Harloff. “So then
we were like, ‘yeah, we’ll see what we can do.’ So this year we got to it and started opening our
store.”
Their plan went into action after UO’s 2023 spring term when Corpuz returned from studying
abroad in Italy. Anxious to get started, she started searching for openings immediately.
“It took literal months to find the location we have now,” Corpuz says. “Actually, the story was
me and my sister were driving around Eugene, just trying to see if there were any open spaces.
She’s really bad at giving me directions, so she gave me a bad direction and I took the wrong
turn, but it actually ended up working in our favor because we ended up driving across our
storefront with a big ‘FOR LEASE’ sign on it.”
The aforementioned storefront was in Eugene’s 5th Street Market, a heavy traffic area with one
problem: 5th Street is picky with their vendors. This wasn’t a worry for long though, as after a
conversation with the market’s manager, the couple got their chance. The Racks officially
opened its doors June 22 of this year, nearly exactly one year after the plan was put to action.
Since opening, the shop has attracted the same college students the couple sold to years ago,
while also bringing in new members of the community.
“Our main demographic is definitely Gen-Z and the college students of course, but we also get a lot of high school students and they're really nice,” says Corpuz. “I never was connected with the
outside of Eugene like outside of the university before this store, but now we’re super connected
with all the high school students and all the local families and all that.”
In the store, you can expect to find clothing ranging from Y2K to true vintage. The shop also
offers local hand-made jewelry, crochet and screen printed shirts all selected to be in the store by
Corpuz and Harloff themselves.
If you’re worried about finding something for you, no need to fear. A core aspect of The Racks’
identity is being as style inclusive as possible.
“A lot of vintage stores usually stick to (either) masculine clothing or feminine clothing, but we
didn’t want to do that,” Corpuz says. “We wanted to carry everything and we wanted to carry
wide ranges of styles, aesthetics and sizes... Lots of the fashion nowadays is really expensive. If
you're buying fast-fashion then it's really cheap but you get what you pay for – it won’t last at all.
So we’re really trying to keep affordable and sustainable fashion going. ”
Going forward, according to Corpuz, the couple is focused on building their brand here for a year
before expanding further in a big city, “like New York or LA.” The couple also threw around the
idea of having a different mascot for each store to give each location its own identity.
As of now though, the couple’s main goal is to serve their community – something they’ve
grown very familiar with over the last three years.
“It’s a good feeling when I find something that I’m not gonna wear, but someone’s gonna cherish
and probably keep it for 15, 20 or however many years they want,” says Harloff. “It’s just a good
feeling seeing someone wear something I found, like, ‘hey, you wouldn’t have that unless I
found it.’”
THE RACKS IS OPEN FROM 11 AM TO 7 PM EVERY DAY AT 560 OAK STREET STE
120, EUGENE, OR 97401