We were lucky to catch up with Lindsey Bergfalk recently and have shared our conversation below.
Lindsey, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.
I am dedicated to being completely transparent about what I am selling, I give a very descriptive description good or bad about each pair, several important measurements to insure the best fit. I have a guide/diagram and explanation of how I’m measuring my jeans and where those measurements hit on the body at the end of each listing. I also have a video tutorial of how to measure your body on the front page of my website. I also use the international sizing chart to size the jeans for modern sizing given the measurements.
I make my self available 24/7 through online chat store, Instagram and email.
I restore all my jeans with a commercial industrial washing machine and drier then inspect, do repairs and or scrub all stains out (with a toothbrush yes that’s correct in order not to ruin the fibers of the denim) sometimes I can’t get them all out without ruining the jeans so some stay but noted in the description. Some repairs I send out to a professional, like zipper replacements, that’s a huge job I want it done right!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
To start out I’ve been collecting Vintage Levi’s since junior high school, a lot of the boys would give me their worn out and grown out of Levi’s and thats when they became the obsession… There’s no other jeans that look and feel as good as vintage Levi’s! I’ve collected so many that I knew what the good styles were, years etc. so I don’t just sell ANY vintage Levi’s I only sell what I know will look good on each given size I also pay clear attention of what sells the most and why.
As I got older it was getting harder and harder to find these gems at like Goodwill and thrift stores so I started looking online like Etsy, where I found them but they were selling them for such high prices and they were dirty, stinky and in need of major repairs without disclosing that information so basically with no information about them, measurements that did not correlate to size and fit so I decided to open my own Etsy store where I would fill in all those missing pieces on the coveted mystery jeans. So I did for 3 years while still doing my full time job as a union makeup artist which is hard to help customers with no wifi service most of time and long hours.
During Covid like many others I realized what I really wanted to do with my life and where my passion is and that’s fashion!! I also allowed my self to accept how much I dreaded going to a job that I did not like for soooo many reasons but that’s for another time. Since everyone was shopping online at this point I was crazy busy, I could actually help customers right when they needed me and I was killing it! Etsy raised their fees and stopped making it about small businesses, they were allowing anyone to open a store and I didn’t want my brand associated with them anymore. So I decided to take a leap of faith and start my own website (which I did completely on my own I’m still so proud of myself) and stop forcing myself to go to job I wasn’t happy.
I’ve just been going for 1 year and 3 months now but it’s so rewarding talking to women everyday and I even call them friends even though we’ve actually never met. I finally feel happy everyday, I’m still very small so my only source of publicity is through Instagram and influencers but I have faith that my path will lead me to the next step whatever that maybe but for now it’s Vintage Levi’s
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
I feel the most important elements in life is; to be thankful, thoughtful and positive. I absolutely carry that over into my business, I want my customers to feel like their talking to a friend when visiting my store, that’s why I have so many ways to connect to me, I make that I priority! I really care about my customers getting what they wanted and expected.
Being a good person with good intentions organically makes people want to share about your store.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Growing up in MN I always knew somehow I would move to CA, I can’t explain why I always knew this but it was just in my core. At age 14 I got my first job which I loved and excelled from there I kept moving up to different job levels and types. One of my jobs was working at a department store makeup counter, one day this women from another counter came up and told me I should move to CA and do make up on famous people, I didn’t even know this was an actual job, that was it, my ticket to CA so at age 16 I did everything to prep myself for the big move! Age 18 came and I hit the road in my Pontiac Grand Am.
For a span of over 20 years I moved my way up the chain in the TV world and I finally came to the realization that I wasn’t going any further in my career and I certainly wasn’t happy. Getting as far as I did I could barely get by on the pay and if you actually get a job (no guarantees ever you’ll have a job once one ends). In my mind I was forced to do a job that the 16 year old girl decided who knew, nothing about what she was getting herself into or the real world.
Thankfully I finally met my soulmate, my husband and now there was financial help, I expressed my wanting more out of life then this job, he saw how unhappy I was, the hours I worked and the tears I cried. So I could finally slowly break away and go for my fashion passion because he had my back!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jeaniushop.com
- Instagram: @jeaniushop
- Facebook: Jeaniushop
- YouTube: @jeaniushop