Toby Eisenreich gives designer duds a new lease on life — and greater purpose

Toby Eisenreich opened Give Get Give, a "consignment shop with heart." Give an item to be sold to an eager buyer, get half the profits, and give the other half to tzedakah. Win, win, win.

I live in Brooklyn, and have a penchant for style and fashion, in addition to a degree in marketing. I married young, had my oldest at 19, and today I’m a proud mom and grandma. Give, Get, Give is a new initiative of mine, a “consignment shop with heart” that opened two months ago. I’m enjoying devoting my time and styling skills to a project that means so much to me.

Remembering My Hero

My father passed away from a stroke during the height of Covid, and I didn’t get to see him those last few weeks. They weren’t allowing visitors into the hospitals, and I feel the loss of that last goodbye so strongly.

My father was a special man, and an amazing father and grandfather. He never missed a minyan, went to a shiur every day, and truly personified the mitzvah of hevei mekabel es kol ha’adam b’sever panim yafos. He had a great smile and made everyone he met feel like a million dollars.

He also enjoyed snagging a good deal and got a kick out of getting quality for almost nothing. I don’t take after him in that respect — I don’t mind paying top dollar for high quality — but we were very close.

I’ve done a lot l’illui nishmaso. We published a book, The Traveling Smile (Achai Publishers), a whimsical children’s book about a smile that travels, passed on from person to person, depicting the simple power of a smile. The illustrator dispersed smiley faces throughout the book that kids love to find.

We also donated ten pairs of tefillin a month for those in need, and last year, I went through my closet and sold a large quantity of clothing I was no longer wearing via a consignment service and donated the proceeds — 50,000 dollars — to an orphanage in Israel, Boneinu uBenoseinu, run by Yankel Lazer Shisha.

I wasn’t happy with the consignment service. They didn’t value the items properly — they sold a skirt worth a few hundred dollars for thirty-five! — and they took 50 percent as payment. So when I had another batch of clothing I wanted to sell, I decided to take it to the masses. I posted on social media to see if anyone would be interested in buying some of my clothes, and people started messaging me saying they’d join me in a yard sale.

I realized I could do things differently. Why pay a service to sell my things and pay them 50 percent when I could do it myself and give 50 percent to tzedakah? And that’s when the idea of Give Get Give was born.