Student’s Mobile Upcycled Clothing Business Turns Trash Into Treasures
When junior Ava Lubkemann, an environmental engineering major in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, was growing up, her parents taught her the sensibility of re-using goods, thrifting what she needed and making the best use of everything she had. Around her Bentonville, Virginia, home, she picked up things at auctions, thrift stores and even out of the garbage. “Dumpster diving,” something she had wanted to try, became part of her routine once she arrived at Syracuse University.
One day, a Department of Public Safety officer stopped Lubkemann at a campus dumpster and asked for identification. After confirming her student status, the officer recounted how the night before, he’d ejected a man who wasn’t a student for doing the same thing Lubkemann was doing.
“That was one of the most impactful experiences I’ve had, not only at the University but in my life,” Lubkemann explains. “To me, it was so unjust that a piece of plastic set me apart from others who might need things.” She says she recognized that removing the person from the scene “might have been the difference between a man and his dinner.”
After that incident, Lubkemann began to reflect on her privileged student status and the injustice that she could access found objects on campus while others were barred from obtaining those throwaway goods. “I grew up very privileged, but I was instilled with the value of not taking more than you need. There are things in the garbage that aren’t actually garbage. A lot of stuff is thrown away before its expiration date,” Lubkemann says. “I found my calling in environmental engineering due to the critical shortage of professionals in the field and by a passion for sustainability, which I see as not just an environmental issue but also a social and economic imperative.”
A ‘Revamped’ Idea
After observing high levels of textile waste on campus and how those without a vehicle have limited access to donate clothing or buy affordable used things, Lubkemann devised the idea for her business, “Revamped.”
Her company is a research-based, pioneering, sustainability-driven mobile enterprise redefining textile waste management through a mobile thrift store and donation hub, currently operating from a repurposed minibus. It takes in discarded yet valuable textiles from their point of disposal and offers an accessible, community-centered solution that diverts waste from landfills while ensuring that high-quality secondhand goods remain in the local economy.
Lubkemann spoke about her idea with Linda Dickerson Hartsock, Syracuse University Libraries strategic initiatives advisor and a faculty member in the Whitman School of Management. She encouraged Lubkemann to submit her idea for a mobile donation center/thrift store/re-distribution hub in the Innovate Orange competition. Lubkemann then developed a 10-page business plan, entered the competition and won $5,000.
“I never thought anyone would find interest in this; I thought it was a pipe dream. Who would think a top U.S. university would invest in such a small idea? But Linda gave me the confidence to pursue it, and that was one of the things that totally launched me into this initiative. I like to say Revamped was born from a dumpster, which gives me hope any idea or dream can take shape if you work towards it. It’s really taken off from there,” she says.
Adding Funds, Growth
Lubkemann has continued to refine and grow her company and gain funding. She has won $25,000 from campus competitions since November 2024, including the Learn Fresh Award at the Panasci Business Plan Competition, a Hunter Brooks Watson Memorial Fund award, the Green Innovation Competition and SOURCE research monies. Her achievements include the following:
- Obtaining a DBA (“doing business as”) certificate and starting a limited liability corporation (Ava Lubkemann LLC).
- Acquiring a minibus and outfitting it to serve as mobile thrift shop/donation center.
A leather jacket found in a dumpster is among Revamped’s inventory. - Establishing a gofundme account for potential investors.
- Hosting pop-up sales, cross-campus co-branding events and creating a donation intake form to distribute on campus.
- Researching textile waste distribution to define more community re-distribution channels.
- Contacting local businesses seeking storage space for additional collected items.
- Ideating two podcasts about Revamped and sustainable living.
- Asking the Sustainability Management group to add sustainable entrepreneurship student ambassadors.
- Contacting George Washington University and Lewis and Clark College to gauge their interest in replicating the Revamped program.
That’s hardly Lubkemann’s limit. From finding goods, to reworking and repairing them, to setting up the mobile store and planning distribution points, she does most of Revamped’s work herself, helped by Isabella Carter, the company’s marketer, a student in the Newhouse School of Public Communications.
Ava is also a resident advisor, entrepreneur-in-residence at the Couri Hatchery student business incubator, a part-time Orange Innovation Scholar worker and a research fellow on the Dynamic Sustainability Lab’s Carbon Capture Team. She continues to enter competitions such as InventSU and present at the Syracuse CoE Innovation Showcase. She’s also taking 17 course credits.
The Long View
The busy student has no shortage of vision, either. Lubkemann envisions expanding the company and hopes its success lets her form a 501C3 nonprofit organization to funnel a mass accumulation of textile waste to people who really need it.
“That’s what matters to me, trying to make a positive impact in the community. I was raised on the principle, ‘Wherever you go leave it a better place than you found it,” Lubkemann says. “I think that’s the core of making Revamped what I want it to be—a community-oriented program that connects universities with their communities and advocates for the little guy and people who are in need.”
Goods can be purchased from Revamped’s Instagram page, Facebook listing, eBay site or soon-to-launch website, revampedthrift.com. Lubkemann also plans to announce future campus sales and events via those avenues.
