Isla Vista Trading Post Ivtp

Isla Vista Trading Post (IVTP) is a student-run organization founded in March of 2018 on UC Santa Barbara’s campus that works to combat fast fashion by promoting slow, equitable, and sustainable means of acquiring “new” clothes. IVTP won the UCSB Student Engagement & Leadership (SEAL) Sustainability Champion award in 2023 and 2025, the SEAL Overall Best Organization award in 2022, and Campus Organization of The Year in 2025! IVTP aims to establish a more environmentally conscious and connected community through one of the most central parts of self-expression: clothing. How we dress and how we shop reflects who we are. We want to provide a platform where community members can challenge fast fashion and overconsumption. We accomplish this by educating community members, offering upcycling workshops, and donating less-desired clothes towards other community engagement projects, such as the Isla Vista People’s Pantry. IVTP is based on the philosophy that doing good for people will inspire them to do good in the world, which is why our clothing is always free. We have a “three-for-free” policy at every event, where everyone is encouraged to take up to three items, regardless of if they donated clothes. We have replaced the monetary transaction of purchasing clothing with a deeper, more permanent impact on community members. When people come to an IVTP event, they begin to understand that the value is not so much in the clothing that they are giving away, but in what they can learn, and consequently DO. We want to educate consumers on the power they have to change the way the fashion industry works by altering how they spend their money. Through our work we’ve discovered that we can change the world… one shirt at a time.