Goodwill's upscale thrift shop Blue gets a brand reboot with new Eastown store

A few months after outgrowing its 800-square-foot MoDiv incubator retail space, the Goodwill upscale boutique formerly called Blue has reopened its doors in Eastown, with new inventory and a new name to match its brand reboot.

Located at 1423 Lake Dr., Re-Blue is essentially an evolution of the former Blue, which joined the Grand Rapids marketplace in 2012 as only the second location nationwide of the Goodwill Industries brainchild. 

Jill Wallace is chief of marketing and communications at Goodwill and says Re-Blue’s new 1,700-square-foot Eastown space allows them to carry a much larger selection of designer apparel, accessories and home goods — including a new dedicated men’s section — than it could with its limited start-up floor space.

Created as a revenue stream by the nonprofit to help fund job training, placement and employment retention programs in the area, Re-Blue exists in the same spirit of second chances as its parent organization. 

However, unlike Goodwill, Re-Blue is armed with an inventory that is a much more deliberate curation of eclectic, vintage-inspired finds. And though Wallace says a good chunk of the jewelry and some of the home decor for sale there are brand new items, the bulk of Re-Blue’s sales are for clothing and accessories salvaged from one of Goodwill’s 17 West Michigan stores. 

“We’re coining it as ‘His, hers, and home,’ but we have an entire section of men's items here, which we didn’t have at the MoDiv,” Wallace says. “We have a much larger section of home goods and the items are more eclectic. It’s got a vintage appeal.”

She said the eclectic Re-Blue brand sort of inherently aligns with the Eastown lifestyle and aesthetic, whose younger population champions individualism and has an appreciation for the nostalgia of vintage-inspired garb.   

“What we hope for is that we see this in other markets. Maybe it’s a little different in each market, but obviously every demographic has a life of its own and this will have a life of its own,” Wallace says. “It might look a little different if it were in Cascade or Rockford, but here in Eastown this model works really well.” 

Visit Re-Blue Boutique on Facebook for more information. 

Written by Anya Zentmeyer, Development News Editor 
Images courtesy of Re-Blue/Goodwill