We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kaylan Mitchell a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Kaylan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Talk to us about building your team? What was it like? What were some of the key challenges and what was your process like?
Our business did not have employees from day one! In the early days, my co-owner Lindsey and I would rotate 3-4 days in the store and 2 days working in the background per week. However, retail clothing store demands being what they are, we made the leap to hire our first employee about 2 years in.
Our very first employee we selected because she was a frequent shopper of The Getup: we had known her since the young and tender age of 13 when this young girl would come in and buy 1930s and 1940s dresses. She had an eye for vintage even then! It just so happened that when we were ready to hire, she had just turned 18. We truly believe our best customers are also our best employees! One has to know vintage, wear vintage, and LOVE vintage to be able to really be able to sell vintage.
If we were starting over today, I don’t believe we would have done anything differently. True vintage lovers are always at the top of our list.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
The Getup Vintage began in 2005 and is continuing strong into 2026 and beyond. We are a brick and mortar vintage clothing shop in Ann Arbor, Michigan that believes in vintage for everyone and everybody, and we try to source goods with that in mind. We also are sticklers for quality and attention to detail: every piece that comes onto our shop floor has been washed, mended, researched, and measured. Our clothes are not just straight from grandma’s attic: they have been hand-selected for quality and construction and to blend well into a modern wardrobe.
We’re most proud that we recently celebrated our 21st anniversary! In addition to our brick and mortar, we have been growing our online presence into something we’re truly proud of; check it at http://www.getupvintage.com/
How’d you meet your business partner?
It was real serendipitous timing – both Lindsey and I worked at The Getup as a second job just because of being vintage lovers. When the original owner decided to sell it was so natural that she would ask the both of us to keep The Getup living on due to our complimentary skillsets. We both are obsessed with vintage clothing and fashion sustainability and it was truly the perfect match.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
We are a business built on word of mouth and our reputation with customer and sellers is truly the most important. We really understand how hard it is to part with the clothing that you have either purchased, handmade over the years, or it has been generationally passed down to you.
Buying vintage is a very delicate process and we think it is very important to show respect and and patience when buying people’s items. I believe our kindness and dedication to preserving these items for future generations to wear is what sets us apart in vintage retail. It truly is a labor of love: from the picking process, to the cleaning, repairing, and researching each item. We pour our hearts into our little Ann Arbor shop!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://getupvintage.com
- Instagram: thegetupvintage
- Facebook: The Getup Vintage
