Subscription clothing rental startup Rent the Runway just locked in $125m, officially becoming a $1B company. Now, Runway plans to grow its subscription business, expand its clothing and home offerings, and open additional fulfillment facilities.
![Rent the Runway becomes a fashion unicorn](https://20627419.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hub/20627419/hubfs/The%20Hustle/Assets/Images/357715550-brief_2019-03-22T053232.516Z-1.webp?width=595&height=400&name=357715550-brief_2019-03-22T053232.516Z-1.webp)
In other words, the company plans to use the money not for anything specific, but merely to continue to exist.
Wear the same thing twice, you say?
In a time when fashion trends change before you can get the dang things off, many consumers (sure, “millennials”) have taken a one-done-thank-you-hun approach to wearing clothes.
From 2003 to 2016, “garment utilization rates” — AKA the average number of days an item was rocked before it gets donated to Buffalo Exchange (we all know they NEVER actually buy anything) — decreased from 200 to about 120, one of the driving forces behind RtR’s success.
Unfortunately, it’s causing midrange retailers to wear the costs of overproduction and the uptick in returns — yep, it costs stores money when you wear sh*t and then return it a day later.
Oh, no, not another ‘Netflix for (X)’
Founded in 2009, Rent the Runway started out as a service that loaned designer dresses to women for special events at a sweet price.
Now, the company brings in well over $100m in revenue per year, and has become known as (barf) the “Netflix for dresses.”
During its time, RtR has expanded from its bread and butter of one-time rentals to now three different offerings — including two subscription services.