Style is important to Jason Dansby. To keep up with the latest fashions, he spends an enormous amount of money to enhance his wardrobe.

In Dansby’s closet hangs a number of colorful shirts with the Nautica logo that cost $55. To compliment the shirts are Guess jeans for which he paid $65. He also has a $70 blue and green Nautica jacket. Across the closet floor lies a half dozen pair of shoes, including a pair of Nike Air Max gym shoes that set him back $120.

Maintaining a wardrobe of name-brand items costs Dansby, a senior in administration of justice from Chicago, nearly $200 a month. The prices of these clothes are worth the expense to him.

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My appearance is important to me, he said. I want to keep up with the times, and I want to look good. Just because it’s expensive doesn’t mean I’m not a smart shopper.

While some students spend big bucks keeping up with popular fashions, others choose to save a few.

For Ryan Skidmore, name brand clothing is not important. He avoids leaving a shopping mall with an empty wallet and accommodates his style with the low prices of local thrift stores.

Striped acrylic sweaters, white dress shirts, and even Levi jeans all for about $3 each, pack Skidmore’s closet. Hanging on his trailer walls are bright paintings, and beside his stereo is a collection of his favorite albums, including Herb Albert and Sade all from thrift stores.

From bath towels to spatulas, Skidmore, a recent SIUC graduate, saved cash for the last seven years by shopping at thrift stores.

It’s amazing, he said. They have so many different clothes. Sometimes I’ll go in to buy a shirt and I’ll find a painting, too. I don’t mind spending a dollar or two.

Longbranch Vintage Clothing, 100 E. Jackson St., Thrift Shop, 215 N. Illinois Ave., and Reruns Clothing Exchange, 212 W. Freeman St., are three local thrift stores.

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Betty Black, manager of Thrift Shop, said people like Skidmore are smart shoppers. Thrift Shop prices are as low as $1. The most expensive items are wedding gowns that range from $25 to $100.

Prices are low because clothes are donated by individuals in the community and local stores and malls, but these clothes have style potential.

We have the current fashion and vintage clothing, Black said. They can get what everyone else does, but at a lower price. People like to save money.

Selling various items such as antiques, furniture, sleds and bicycles has increased Thrift Shop’s business among college students over the years. The shop makes about $400 to $500 daily on average and about $900 on busier days.

Thrift stores are very popular now, Black said. I don’t know if more people are learning about us or if we are getting better donations.

Aaron Fouste, manager of Longbranch Vintage Clothing, said sales among college students have increased drastically over the last six months.

With the exception of stereos, refrigerators and couches, nothing in the store is more than $50.

Our sales have increased about 30 percent, he said. Students really don’t have the money, so a thrift store is the ideal place.

Even as thrift stores become popular among college students, expensive name brand clothing continues to cash in on the fashion-thriving students.

In 1997, the Tommy Hilfiger Corporation, which designs and sells men and women’s sportswear, made $661 million, while Nautica International’s men’s sports line made $373.8 million. These company clothing lines are targeted toward young adults.

Amy Cox, a Famous Barr sales associate, said wearing popular fashion such as Tommy Hilfiger and Nautica gives students a sense of status.

That’s the hip stuff right now, she said. Anything with a name is hip. The quality is better as well as the fact that when people see the logos they know how much you’ve spent.

Skidmore said racking up at the thrift stores beats shopping at a mall any day. He walks out of a thrift store with seven items totaling about $18 compared to the $175 Dansby usually spends on a single outfit in a mall.

It’s basically the price, Skidmore said. I don’t really care for name-brand clothes, but you can find some stuff from the Gap or somewhere at a thrift store. Just because it’s from a thrift store doesn’t mean that it’s less quality.

Dansby said there is no quality in thrift store clothing. Second-hand clothing does not fit his style.

I believe in buying a few cheap things too, he said. But I don’t like wearing people’s hand-me-downs.

Like Dansby, James Sanders, a junior in administration of justice from East St. Louis, sports expensive clothing like Hilfiger, Nautica and Ralph Lauren Polo. He knows some of his clothing may be found in a thrift store, but it is less in value as well as quality to him.

People can tell when you have on cheap clothes, he said. If you wear cheap clothes and look good that’s cool. But why settle for less when you can have the real thing?

Ryan Cummins, a junior in geography from Tinley Park, said his attraction to thrift stores is not a matter of price or quality. He likes the unusualness thrift stores offer.

It’s just the odd stuff you find here, Cummins said. It’s definitely unique. Sometimes it can be entertaining to find the cool stuff they sell like a True Value shirt stuff you just can’t get from the mall.

For Mario Miller, a first-year graduate in business administration from Chicago, the sizes are most important. He has considered shopping at thrift stores, but his body type leaves him at a disadvantage.

I wear all my stuff baggy, Miller said. Plus I have short arms and wide shoulders. Thrift stores don’t have much of a variety of things. If I’m looking for some jumpers for basketball, there will be a 99 percent chance I won’t find any.

Although Skidmore’s dark blue Reebok running shoes are worn out, they come in handy, and they only cost him $1. One of his most comfortable blue jean overall bibs has a hole at the knee, but they only cost about $5.

You know it’s hard to find shoes, he said. They’re not in great shape, but there’s no holes in them. I’ve worn these [bibs] lots of times, and they just got a hole in them.

Dansby refers to thrift store shoppers as tightwads. His expensive clothing remains practically new for a long time because clothing can remain in fair condition if a person takes care of it. Clothes will last as long as you maintain them, he said. I just don’t feel comfortable shopping in a thrift store. Maybe for a hat or something, but not for clothes.