This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Scottlynn Krause, the co-owner of CS80 Vintage. It has been edited for length and clarity.
Loading audio narration…
My best friend is Hannah, and her grandpa, Franz, owned a sporting goods store in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s. When he went out of business, he boxed up his stock, and the unused items sat in a storage unit from 1990 until 2021.
In the summer of 2021, Hannah’s mom called my mom, who is an organizer for hoarders, asking for help with the storage unit. She didn’t know what to do with the stuff, and knew my mom had experience in that realm.
We did not expect to inherit his pristine ’80s sportswear inventory
Hannah and her family said to do what we needed to do to get rid of it and take it off the property. We had 16 days to figure out what to do, because they wanted to list the house. We did not buy the inventory. It was a trade for removing it.
Originally, my mom wanted to turn everything in three months and be done with it. We were not a vintage-loving family back then, but we decided to try to sell it online. At first, it was my mom doing it all, but it was overwhelming. So I jumped in. I had (and still have) a full-time job in retail, so I feel like I see what happens with trends. Vintage had picked up, so it felt right.
The storage unit had thousands of items from well-known brands
It’s really hard to put a number on how many items were in the storage unit. It was 10,000 pairs of shoes, 25,000 hats, 2,500 pairs of baseball pants, all in 1,000 square feet, all from a single store.
The brands Franz had were Nike, Adidas, Puma, Converse, Playboy, Pony, Champion, Wilson, and more. Teams were covered in the NFL, NBA, NHL, and collegiate sports.
It was such a large inventory; we weren’t sure how to tackle it. It’s all been very word-of-mouth. We had our first sale at a flea market in early 2022. We currently sell privately on social media and on our website, which went live in December 2025.
On the website, we do 25 items per drop, and do two drops a week, on Wednesdays and Sundays. It’s first-come, first-served. Not all merchandise is on the website; it’s about a tenth of what we have. So we’re really selective with the drops because everything is so rare and special.
We store our inventory in an off-site warehouse. My mom and I go regularly to pull pieces, and it feels like a discovery every time. We never know what we are going to find. We then bring it to our studio, and I measure, photograph, and upload it to our website. My mom and I print the shipping labels, carefully pack each order, and ship everything ourselves, mostly early in the morning or late at night, squeezed in around our day jobs.
We’ve seen some really amazing items
Most of our items are one-of-a-kind, making them special. We might have one item in multiple sizes, but we don’t have four large sizes of that item, for example. Starter jackets are our most sought-after item. And our sports fans are die-hard, so people are freaking out about certain items. I didn’t grow up during this time period. It’s been so special to see the DMs we get, like “I had this shirt when I was a kid, do you have it?”
We’ve sold unique pieces, like a Run-DMC collection still in its original packaging and a rare pair of 1980s Adidas boxing shoes reminiscent of the Rocky Balboa/Freddie Mercury era. A van load of clothing from our collection was used on set for a “Stranger Things” x Target commercial.
We’ve been having a blast doing it
My mom and dad met in a sporting goods store. He’s a professional volleyball referee. My mom works as an organizer and is a photographer. I work in retail. All the pieces came together for us, giving us this gift. It was like winning the lotto.
Hannah’s family loves watching it happen. I will send her pictures of stuff all the time. They are excited to see that his stuff is moving, going places, and getting a second life.
Our goal is to continue Franz’s legacy by slowly placing these pieces with people who genuinely appreciate the memories, craftsmanship, and spirit of the 1980s. We’re exploring ways to carry that energy forward, too. We eventually want to create our own products using our deadstock blanks to keep the 80s aesthetic and story alive for the new generation.
