Inside the web of special interest groups pushing for expanded Tennessee school vouchers

East Nashville shop features upcycled outdoor-centric clothing

Mary Hance
The Tennessean

A new used clothing store? 

It may be an oxymoron but a particularly welcome one since it refers to a new East Nashville shop, called Orbital Outdoors, that specializes in recycled outdoor clothing. 

The official description is "upcycled outdoor-centric clothing and gear, ranging from national parks memorabilia to vintage Patagonia, The North Face and other outdoor brands."

I couldn't wait to check it out.

I envisioned gently used Orvis fishing shirts for $10, or maybe a comfy North Face vest for $15, or some Patagonia pieces for a pittance. 

When I visited, there was no Orvis and the Patagonia was kind of pricey with its mostly vintage pieces priced upward of $55, with some Aztec patterned fleece pieces as much as $180. 

But much of the merchandise in the store is priced at under $30, and the store does have a "bargain bin" with brands including Columbia and North Face for as little as $7 to $15 apiece. "They might be missing a tag or have a fleck of paint or something, but they are still fine," owner Kelsey Silverstein told me about the bargain bin stash.    

Orbital Outdoors owner Kelsey Silverstein shows off a vintage Banana Republic jacket that she has priced at $90.

The store is tiny (just 190 square feet), but it is well merchandised and fun to browse through.

Conservation, recycling and the great outdoors are the overarching themes.  

Owned by Silverstein along with her husband, Mark Donoher, the store has national park memorabilia like pennants and postcards from the 1970s, vintage T-shirts and sweatshirts, national park hats (Shenandoah, Grand Canyon, Smoky Mountains), boots and a few gift items. 

"We love Patagonia and what it stands for," Silverstein said, explaining that Patagonia products are "protected for life," meaning that any problem with stitching or snaps or zippers will be fixed by Patagonia at no cost.

Other tried-and-true brands include The North Face, Columbia, L.L. Bean, REI, Carhartt, Woolrich and Kuhl. 

One of Silverstein's prize finds for the store is a Banana Republic Adventure Outfitters Original Travel Clothing jacket from the early 1990s that she has priced at $90.

She freely admitted that she chooses the Orbital Outdoors merchandise based on her own tastes. "It is everything I love and I want," she said, adding that she and her husband want to "inspire Nashvillians to get outside and look good doing it."

"We would like to put a stop to all of the fast fashion and encourage recycling the old," she said.   

How they started

The couple, both avid outdoors people, met in Savannah, Georgia, in 2013 and decided to embark on a yearlong cross-country trip to climb and mountain bike.

They started in a Subaru with a homemade teardrop trailer attached, and stopped along the way to scour thrift stores in search of outdoor-centric clothing they could sell on eBay to make money to keep them on the road.

Silverstein said some of her best early picks came from Goodwill outlets in the Denver area. "They were really wonderful," she said.

The couple, with their dogs Maddie, Ollie and Rocky, moved to Nashville 4½ years ago and continued to buy and sell outdoor apparel online. They also owned and operated Music City Rickshaw, a bike taxi company, before opening Orbital Outdoors this fall.  

Silverstein continues to shop thrift stores, yard sales and on eBay to replenish her shop's merchandise, but she also buys direct from locals. If you have items that you want to sell, send a picture to Silverstein via Instagram or Facebook to see if she is interested. Sellers have a choice between store credit and cash.

The shop also sells Boulder Balm, a skin care remedy for climbers that Donoher makes.     

Details: Orbital Outdoors, at 1006 Fatherland St. # 203, in the Shoppes on Fatherland in Five Points, is open noon-6 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. See www.orbitalclimbing.com/orbitaloutdoors or follow on Instagram and Facebook.

Reach Ms. Cheap at 615-259-8282 or mscheap@tennessean.com. Follow her on Facebook at facebook.com/mscheap, and at Tennessean.com/mscheap, and on Twitter @Ms_Cheap, and catch her every Thursday at 11 a.m. on WTVF-Channel 5’s “Talk of the Town.”