Most high school upperclassmen have held a job at least once, including about two-thirds juniors and three-quarters seniors, according to a report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. What’s not common among students, however, is owning  their own businesses–something Senior Jett Mckinney did since his freshman year.

Mckinney works solo on his thrifting business, Sonas_Thrifted through Instagram, consisting mostly of vintage style clothing with a focus on tops. Most items range from $10-25 an item. Sold new, some of these brands such as Ralph Lauren can be originally priced up to $100 a shirt. Although some thrifting shops sell used clothing for cheaper prices, Jett said he thinks it’s still not cheap enough.

“The ones downtown, they’re just not selling, in my opinion, good clothes for insane prices,” McKinney said. “For example, downtown they sell some clothes for $30-50.Even local ones, I think, are still too expensive. Other thrifting shops also just put out anything they can get, but I curate better clothing like name brands, vintage and graphic teas.”

He gets most clothes from stores like Goodwill, Saver’s, other thrifting stores, and friends and family. Jett said what started it all was clothes from his dad, which were offered to Jett before being donated away.

“I like the concept of making money, and I was either 14 or 15 when I didn’t want to wait to get a job, so I thought I might as well do it now,” Mckinney said. “So when my dad gave the clothes, it was a good opportunity and just started selling them”

Mckinney’s Instagram has helped a lot with publicity. Not only does he use it to update customers on what’s available, but he also offers giveaways as a way to promote his business by getting others to spread the word. The entrance requirement is to follow and make a story post about his account. Customers like senior Liam Snow have bought almost 20 items from Mckinney.

“It’s cheap and good quality with good brands,” Snow said. “He’s easy to reach out to and [get] close to, so I can tell him what I’m looking for and he might buy it. He’s a lot easier to interact with than most vendors.”

Sessions of searching for clothing is time consuming with one visit reaching nine hours, according to Mckinney. On top of his business, he participates with the school band as a percussionist, has a side job at Tropical Smoothie, and is involved with his local church community.

“Band is very time consuming, and school also gets time consuming too, so sometimes when there’s a break [at the clothes dumps], I’ll squeeze in my homework so I can be on top of it, ” Mckinney says. “Still with it all, there’s not really an excuse. If you want to do it, you can put your mind to it and do it”.