army/navy stores

Greetings, and Happy (belated) New Year!

While I haven't been posting daily photos, I have been doing some serious brainstorming on how to remix my wardrobe come January 16th when I'm off vacation and have a reason to wear something other than sweatpants. So, look forward to that.

In the mean time, I thought I'd help you all find some super savings, in a pretty unexpected place - Army/Navy surplus stores. For those of you who have never heard of these, they sell items that were intended for the military, but are unable to be used, or were originally purchased in excess by the military. Usually, they sell jackets, boots, hats (basically a lot of outerwear), bags, and sometimes camping equipment. Oftentimes, the stuff they sell is incredibly reduced in price, compared to what it would be sold for at a sporting good store. Essentially, it's like a thrift store with a military/outdoors-y theme.

To be frank, usually the stuff there isn't going to be the most fashionable. However, if you're in need of cheap but quality gloves, hats, boots, and even jackets and jeans, there's really no better place to go. Sometimes you'll get unisex stuff, sometimes you'll buy guy's sizes, and sometimes they even offer selections for women.

So, where do you start? My first suggestion would be to start online, and hit Google up and search for "army/navy surplus store". These would be your online vendors. My new favourite is Silberman's Army & Navy. I've found news boy hats, fingerless gloves, bathing suits, jeans, and more. I just purchased these today:

Sorel Women's Caribou Boot (in buff), $90.00






On Zappos, these run for $130.00 - that's a $40.00 savings! Additionally, they are offering free shipping on orders over $100.00, and they have plenty of accessories (I got a white news boy hat for $4.00, and got my boyfriend a new belt and wallet for $7.00 total) that you can use to bump up your total if needed. (The boots alone would have been $10.00 shipping, so it was completely worth it to spend an extra $10.00 in this case.)

There are a lot of other great stores online - you just have to take the time to wade through the stock to see if there's anything you can use. I've also found cute messenger bags. Remember when military inspired stuff was all the rage? Well, this stuff is REALLY military crafted.

I loved this hat from Army Navy Shop:

 Plaid and Faux Fur Military Flyer Hat, $15.00





I bought a hat like this once at JC Penneys several years ago, and paid twice this - if only I'd known about Army/Navy stores then!

You can also do Google searches for storefront locations of stores near you - search for "army/navy surplus store near (zipcode)". This gives you the opportunity to try things on, and sometimes sign up for rewards programs to give you store credit after a spending a certain amount.