Clothing rental has emerged as a sustainable, yet viable business model ever since Rent the Runway established itself as a unicorn in the market.
A new clothing rental start-up Wardrobe is launching across the US after a New York City beta test has been running successfully since November 2019.
The peer-to-peer rental platform matches unused fashion with demand to gain more use per garment.
Through the use of Wardrobe, renters can browse unworn clothing from hundreds of enlisters on the platform. Once ordered, the garments are picked up from ‘Wardrobe Hubs’ or the dry cleaners.
The start-up partners with local dry cleaning facilities, thus supporting small businesses in NYC and ever since its inception has managed to get users to rent more than US $ 500,000 worth of clothing.
The platform helps both the dry cleaners and lenders earn extra income by bringing them business.
Wardrobe has 40 dry cleaning locations all over New York City but the plan to launch the website country-wide came after it noted four times as many users registered on the platform outside the city.
“We put the fashion authority into the hands of our users and offer them a platform for exchange that addresses all of the problems with borrowing clothes — convenience, cleanliness, and value,” Wardrobe CEO and founder Adarsh Alphons said in a statement.
