Bozeman has turned out to be a real hotbed for thrifting and vintage finds! Below are my rankings of the thrift and vintage stores I visited, from my favorite to least favorite.

Secondhand and Thrift Stores

Second Wind Sports Inc – Rating: Quality!

I’m probably biased because I found my favorite item of the trip here, but this was a really great spot!

Second Wind is explicitly a used gear shop, which is up my alley, but if that’s not what you’re looking for then it’s probably worth a pass.

If you are looking for some quality used gear or outdoors clothing, they have you covered with lots of options from brands like REI, Mountain Gear, LL Bean, and Patagonia.

I was highly tempted buy an XS vintage quilted anorak from LL Bean for $48 but apparently that’s still too wide for my tiny shoulders.

Instead, I switched to the kids’ section, as anyone with a tiny body like mine knows can be a real goldmine. I hit the holy grail here and picked up a vintage Patagonia fleece for $16. It’s a boys size 12, which is just a tad short in the sleeves, hitting me right at the wrist, but I roll up my sleeves so it’s not an issue. Other than that, it fits perfectly (because apparently I have the shoulders of a 12 year old boy) and I couldn’t be more pleased with the find!

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Nu2u! Used Furniture & Housewears Store – Rating: Excellent

This was one of my Day 3 thrift stores and it was glorious.

I think it’s actually a pawn shop (I’d never been in a pawn shop before) and it was very large with a lot of house wears with various levels of quality.

The real gem for me was the clothing section, which was quite large, fairly well organized, and included my favorite element in a thrift store – a “costume section” with a mix of weird cheap packaged costumes and vintage items. From my experience, stores that do this usually price vintage items very reasonably and often have “odder” pieces, since they think they could technically be costumes – often leading to fun finds!

I didn’t find any truly vintage items that I liked (and/or fit me, curse my tiny shoulders) but I did find a pair of Empyre Eileen Mom Jeans (with carpenter details) for $7.50, originally retailing at $35. They’re a size 0 but perplexingly do fit, assuming I give up my dreams of improving my booty with squats. They actually make what I do have back there look pretty good, so good job jeans!

Overall, the store is highly eclectic and has the fun kind of semi-organized chaos that usually characterize my favorite thrift stores.

SecondHand Rose – Rating: Very Good

This was my Day 2 thrift store and my more what I had in mind for my Montana thrifting experience!

To start, the thrift store is located in the basement of a senior center – which adorably seemed to also have a pre-school or child care portion and there was an extremely cute mix of cute senior citizens and 4 year olds running around.

The store itself had a great selection with a lot of vintage and quality clothes and a HUGE sewing section and I happened to go during a 50% off week, so the two items I picked up – a silk dress and a silk blouse – were marked down from a total of $4 to a total of $2.

This store has extremely limited open times with hours from 11AM-2PM Monday-Friday and closed on the weekend but I would highly recommend it for anyone looking to thrift in Bozeman!

Salvation Army Bozeman Store – Rating: Bewildering

I would say this thrift store is probably worth a visit as it had some gems, but it was by far the most poorly organized store I have ever been in.

To start, the organization scheme is by color and (roughly) by clothing type not by size. This makes it incredibly difficult to find items and even the clothing by type sorting is more of a general guideline than a rule.

This being said, I did manage to comb through the store in a quick 30 minute sweep and found three items to try on (in the one dressing room), including a Champion sweatshirt I was very close to purchasing.

In conclusion, it has some good stuff, but be ready to work for it!

Sacks of Bozeman – Rating: Worth Skipping

In spite of actually picking up two items from this store, I would still say this was a pass. Most of what I saw was more low quality modern items with a small “vintage” section in the back.

I did however, pick up two boys tees for $0.10 each, which you really can’t beat!

Bozeman Goodwill Store – Rating: Worth Skipping

As my first thrift store in town, it was pretty underwhelming (worth skipping) and I didn’t find much as far as vintage or hidden gems but hopefully my luck will be better at some other shops in town!

Vintage

Rare Bird – Rating: Certified Adorable

Located just off Main Street, this was really one of the cutest shops I’ve been in so far! I didn’t take pictures inside because I was the only person inside the small shop but the whole thing was so adorable and playing chill indie music like any respectably trendy vintage clothing store is wont to do.

It was a bit on the pricier side but not prohibitively so with most t-shirts running about $28, as a reference point.

It was so well curated however that it was completely worth it! I didn’t end up picking anything up but they had a lot of gorgeous pieces and a great selection of Montana tees, short and long sleeve button downs, and vintage jeans.

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East Main Trading Company – Rating: Worth it!

The store primarily carries antique “western” or “country” items so, if that’s something you’re looking for, this is definitely somewhere to check out! I was particularly taken with the selection of vintage cowboy boots and wool blankets.

Head West – Rating: Pricey but well curated

Head West is a country/western clothing store with two sections – an upper floor with new clothes and a basement level with vintage items.

I headed straight for the vintage section and it was beautifully curated with really lovely (but pricey) pieces. It was a bit out of my price range with most items clocking in upwards of $50 but if you’re looking to invest in a quality vintage pieces from brands like Levi’s, Pendleton, or Stetson, this is an amazing option!

Downtown Antiques – Rating: OK

While located very conveniently on the heart of Main Street, this antique store didn’t have pieces that were in as good condition as some of the other shops I’d been to. It did have a great jewelry collection (particularly silver) but almost no clothing items and the wool blankets I saw were all flawed.

Here are a few more stores that I didn’t get a chance to get to on this trip:

• Play It Again Sports, 9AM-8PM Mon-Fri, 9AM-7PM Sat, 10AM-5PM Sun
• Rethink Thrift Inc., 10AM-6PM Mon-Sat, Closed Sunday
• Re-Couture Boutique, 10AM-7PM Mon-Fri, 10AM-6PM Sat, 12-5PM Sun
• 4 Corners Thrift, 9AM-6PM Mon-Sat, 10AM-5PM Sun
• Twice Treasured Thrift, 10AM-5PM Mon-Sat, Closed Sunday