THE DISPATCH

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Meet the former Big Issue vendor who now owns a company fighting fast fashion

A former Big Issue vendor who now runs his own sustainable fashion firm has credited his spell selling the magazine with giving him the knowledge he needed to become a successful entrepreneur. Philip Waltham became a vendor in London in 1997 after running away from his Hull home as a teenager and says it gave him the necessary skills to build a future.

“The Big Issue helped me put money in my pocket and feed myself,” says Waltham, now 44. “They taught me how to respect myself, how to budget my money and how important a roof was.”

Waltham originally sold the magazine to keep up with his drug habit, but was offered help by Big Issue distributors at the time to battle his addiction. He then took his business skills from selling the magazine and put them into buying and selling second-hand clothes. After two years as a vendor he opened a market stall in Camden in 1999. He returned to Yorkshire in 2001 to open a clothing store before he turned his attention to wholesale clothes selling with the Vintage Wholesale Company in 2007.

Waltham now runs Bulk Vintage Wholesale, one of the country’s biggest sustainable fashion businesses, with his partner. He also operates two high-street stores in Newcastle and York, under the name The Vintage Store. Two more stores in Liverpool and Manchester are set to open later this year. Waltham was not only inspired by the skills he learned while selling The Big Issue, he also continues to use the bag he was given to carry