In the Future, We All Might Rent, Not Own, Our Clothing

Look at your closet, or where you keep your shoes — if you’re a collector, it might even be its own room. Clothes are cool, right? Sure, but it’s easy to end up owning in excess. When it feels like there’s nothing we want to wear inside my closet, I can’t help but admit there are plenty of options — too many options.

So, what’s the solution? Owning fewer, nicer things? That’s not the way the market is trending. People shop. And often! Even men. The global menswear market is projected to grow by 6.93 percent annually (to $222,720,000,000 total) over the next five years. Yes, that would leave it smaller than the women’s market ($243,000,000,000) but by less than ever.

According to SalesForce, of shoppers that shop online once a month (which is 62 percent of people), 75 percent of them seek out something new each time they visit a retailer’s site. This fiendish audience won’t settle for something “old,” per se, unless it’s vintage. But there’s an opportunity here, and many have taken notice.

Eventually, some might argue — while pointing to Uber and the auto industry — the best way forward is to simply rent our clothes, not own them. When we buy a lot of clothing, because we were convinced to by an influencer or swayed by a sale, it increases the chances we take things home that don’t fit, we don’t really like or we phase out in a month.

Rental services, of which there are a number of now, can sidestep all three issues. Pre-purchase fitting processes prevent you from ordering items you’re unsure will fit. These services also let you test-run an item before committing to its retail price. That window also lets you come down on the item you’re currently infatuated with, letting you wait until spending $400 above retail no longer sounds like the right financial move.

For companies, betting big on renting seems like a surefire way to make money. After all, the clothing rental industry will grow nearly 17 percent annually over the next five years. By then it’ll still make up only around 1 percent of the total menswear industry, but that’s not nothing — it’s $3 billion, to be exact.

There are still plenty of questions surrounding the rental landscape, though. What happens to the clothes after you return them? Are the clothes you’re being sent really new? Who really owns them then? For KYX, a company that rents out covetable sneakers, they clean each pair upon return using a proprietary 10-step process, which includes UV light exposure and the application of a cleansing solution. Clothes are trickier, because they can lose their shape, but they’re also easier to swap out. And at the rate which we buy clothes now, renting might be the sustainable way to satiate appetite for new apparel.

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