Care to rent some pants?
You can’t really become an Airbnb superhost unless you can afford a bunch of rental properties — but you can rent your jeans, apparently.
Several apps let people rent out everything from clothes to power tools, with some users making up to $36k a year, per Wired.
Interesting side hustle…
… but how does it work? Basically, find an app that deals with whatever stuff you have lying around and see if anyone will pay you to use it. A low-hanging fruit? Clothes.
Unlike platforms like Rent the Runway, which ship subscribers curated outfits they can try or buy, apps like Pickle, Celeb, and Tulerie allow users to rent their own clothes to each other.
Pickle claims it has 200k+ items — from casual outfits to designer pieces — available to rent for a fraction of what it’d cost to buy, and offers same-day delivery by local couriers.
In 2024, Pickle’s biggest users were earning $3k+ a month. Pickle takes a 20% cut.
But, wait, it’s not just clothes
Some platforms are for big-ticket items — Turo lets users rent their own cars — but many exist for smaller stuff. For example:
- BabyQuip is for baby gear, which is handy for traveling families — cribs and car seats don’t really fit in an overhead bin. In 2023, one user told Business Insider that she was making $5k per month on the platform.
- KitSplit is for high-end camera gear. Fees cover insurance of up to $20k in case of damage or theft.
- UK-based Fat Llama is for basically anything — solar generators, DJ tables, pressure washers, VR headsets, you name it.
This model…
… appeals to younger consumers who are budget- and environmentally conscious — and that makes sense.
The price of everything is rising, and many people can’t afford or don’t have space for single-use items.
Renting is cheaper, more sustainable, and less nerve-racking than trying to convince Amazon you didn’t just buy a karaoke machine for your birthday party with the intention of returning it.
One Pickle user did tell Wired it was occasionally inconvenient — like when a courier showed up at 1am — but that it made her feel “less guilty about the things I already own.”
So, at least you can feel better about consumerism while you’re making $40 to spend on more stuff.
