They skipped student life for store life — and now they’re on the hook for nearly $10,000 a month in downtown rent.
Three childhood friends just turned a shared dream into reality with the launch of Key Vintage on May 31 at 614 Johnson St.
The trio – Brady Oneill, 21, Gideon Aspler, 20, and Daniel Whelon, 19 – are the newest and youngest faces on a street that’s become known for its thriving vintage scene.
“I’ve always dreamed of opening a business, ever since I was a kid, and now, here we are,” Whelon said.
Their opening comes at a time when Johnson Street is experiencing a retail shake-up.
In recent years, the block has lost longtime staples including Baggins Shoes, which moved online; Lululemon, which relocated to Government and Humboldt; and Bubby Rose's Bakery, which shut its doors.
But where some see decline, others see opportunity.
“Brady and I had been talking about this for less than a year, maybe about nine months,” Aspler said. “It was either school or this – so I actually dropped out of school to go full-time into it.”
The trio says their monthly rent is “closer to five digits than four,” suggesting a figure closer to $10,000, than $5,000 – a significant leap for three entrepreneurs who just left their teens.
Even so, they believe Johnson Street is the right place to take that leap.
“Gideon and I both worked at Victoria Vintage and Second Degree Vintage,” Oneill said. “We credit a lot of our knowledge and willingness to jump into those places. It’s been cool to see the other shops opening and how artistic it’s getting down here.”
Key Vintage joins a growing cluster of secondhand style destinations – Victoria Vintage, Upstairs Vintage, Cherry Pick Vintage, Second Degree Vintage, Cheers Vintage, and Vintage After Death among them – turning downtown into a vintage hub.
“I think Johnson’s kind of becoming known as the vintage street,” Whelon said. “There’s just a lot of cool local stuff – plant shops, skate shops, comic shops, the pawn shop. It’s different than the big-box vibe.”
Inside, the racks are filled with carefully curated pieces, many sourced from far beyond Vancouver Island.
“I travel worldwide for specific curation,” Whelon said. “I go to Seattle at least once a month and buy stuff from my friends who go into rural America and abandoned homes from the ’60s. I’ve even gone as far as Thailand.”
With vintage clothing continuing to trend, even thrift stores have started catching on.
“Thrift stores are aware of the value now,” Oneill added. “Something you used to get for $8 is now $24. But at a curated vintage store, maybe it’s $30 – and you know it’s clean, steamed and reliable.”
Opening the shop wasn’t without hurdles.
“A lot of the government paperwork was super complicated,” Whelon said. “Our first name actually got rejected.”
The name Key Vintage came from a spontaneous moment following the rejection of their first name.
“Pretty stupidly, I held up the key and said, ‘Why don’t we do Key Vintage?’” Whelon said. “Brady and Gideon were like, ‘OK, that’s actually not too bad.’”
Now that the doors are open, the space already feels like more than just a shop.
“It felt like a pop-up at first,” Oneill said. “But now it’s starting to kick in that this is sort of a home – not just for clothes, but for us too.”
They share a unified vision but bring their own styles to the table.
“Usually, a store might just carry what one person thinks is presentable,” Aspler said. “But we’re three different minds with three different ideas of what’s good. That’s what makes it work.”
And while their styles may vary, their mindset is the same: take risks, stay authentic, and build something that lasts.
Because for these three, vintage isn’t just a trend – it’s the foundation of a future they’re shaping together.
