The Free Market Offers Free Clothes and Miscellaneous Items

By George McFarland | March 30, 2026

A poster board advertising the Free Market outside the Campus Center Bean. Photo Credit: George McFarland / The ASP

Twenty-five dollars for a plastic UAlbany-branded water bottle? Hundreds of dollars on lounging clothes? Nope, it’s free! Students can get items from the Free Market at the University at Albany, run by the Office of Sustainability, on Mondays and Fridays from noon to 4 p.m. 

Set up in the Campus Center Bean, right in the walkway of students grabbing food or walking to and from class, the Free Market stands as a place where students can get all the materials they may need free of charge. 

On one side were two long tables with folded items of clothing, such as sweatpants and branded T-shirts. A clothing rack held more shirts and pants, alongside dress and casual shoes. In the middle of the room was a table with miscellaneous items, ranging from water bottles to hats to plastic bowls, all free for the taking for those that decided to walk in.

Student shops for clothes at the Free Market.  Photo Credit: George McFarland / The ASP

“We have roughly 70 people each day we run it,” said Logan Lieman, the manager of the Free Market. Lieman has been working with the Free Market since the Fall 2025 semester as an intern in the Office of Sustainability. 

The Office of Sustainability has been running the Free Market for three years now after taking it over from the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) and Mutual Aid clubs on campus that first founded it. 

“With student turnover every year and the amount of space the Free Market takes up, YDSA and Mutual Aid needed help, and the Office of Sustainability was happy to step in and help give the market some consistency and structure for students in need,” an Office of Sustainability assistant wrote in an email to the ASP.

“It was such a resounding hit with the campus community,” said Lieman. 

Everything at the Free Market was donated by students, staff or community members. Lieman said the Free Market staff go through over fifty pounds of clothing donations per day. They then decide what goes to Purple Threads, a school-run closet offering free professional clothing to UAlbany students, and what should go to the women’s shelters.

Sophomore Samantha Olszewski said she has visited the Free Market a few times. 

“It’s a great place to go to get clothes, and other items, I guess, for my dorm or my classes,” said sophomore Samantha Olszewski. “I’ve been [to the Free Market] with my friends a few times, just looking around or picking up things we think will be useful for us, and it’s been very helpful as a student to have a place like this on campus dedicated to helping us with our needs.” 

Olszewski said she would like to see more events or markets like this on or around campus.

If any student, staff or community member wants to donate their old or unused clothes or supplies to the Free Market, they can bring the items right to the Free Market when they are open, Lieman said. The Office of Sustainability will also accept donations Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.