Rent The Runway

SUMMARY

“Rent the Runway” is a pioneering American fashion-rental service founded in 2009, offering customers access to luxury apparel and accessories without the commitment of purchase. Operating a hybrid digital and logistics-driven business, the company allows users to rent individual pieces, sign up for a rotating ‘closet’ subscription, or purchase items second-hand. It has disrupted traditional ownership models in fashion, leveraging logistics, data analytics and strategic designer collaborations to create a fashion-as-a-service model that aims to democratise access to designer wardrobes, reduce consumption, and offer flexibility to style-conscious consumers.

Per the official website: ‘In 2009, we disrupted the trillion-dollar fashion industry and changed the way women get dressed forever by pioneering the ‘Closet in the Cloud’: a dream closet filled with an infinite selection of designer styles to rent, wear and return (or keep!). Every trend, every color, every print, everything you’ve ever wanted to wear — for a fraction of the cost. We’ve continued to expand our closet over the past decade, powering our community to save time, money and have more fun getting dressed. All while contributing to a more sustainable future of fashion.’

HISTORY

Rent the Runway was co-founded by Jennifer Hyman and Jennifer Fleiss, two MBA students at Harvard Business School, and formally launched in November 2009. The founding idea emerged when Hyman observed her sister spending a great deal of money on a dress she would likely wear only once, sparking the concept of renting designer clothing for special events rather than buying it outright.

Early on, the founders approached Diane von Fürstenberg with the idea of a rental portal for her brand’s website. When she was initially sceptical, she advised that they create their own multi-brand rental platform instead — advice the founders took, and von Fürstenberg later became one of their first designer partners. In the years after launch, Rent the Runway secured substantial venture capital funding, scaling rapidly both its inventory of designer labels and its logistical operations. By the mid-2010s, the company had expanded beyond special-occasion dresses into everyday clothing and accessories, and had launched a subscription “unlimited” rental model.

Around 2016–2017, the firm opened physical retail locations in major U.S. cities, offering a hybrid “digital + bricks and mortar” model. However, it also encountered operational challenges: rapid scaling put pressure on its fulfilment systems, and executive turnover (notably the departure of CTO Camille Fournier in 2015) raised questions internally. In March 2019 Rent the Runway reached “unicorn” status, raising fresh equity to bring its valuation to approximately US$1 billion, acknowledging its status as a disruptive presence in retail fashion.

More recently, the company has leaned ever more heavily on its logistics and data-driven strengths. It operates enormous fulfilment and dry-cleaning warehouses—reportedly processing thousands of items per hour—and has refined its subscription business to reflect shifting consumer demand for “everyday rentals” as opposed to only event wear.

VISION

The vision behind Rent the Runway — primarily articulated by co-founder and CEO Jennifer Hyman — centre on transforming how people access and think about their wardrobes. Instead of buying clothes to own and storing them indefinitely, Hyman’s idea is to create a service-based wardrobe, where fashion becomes a fluid resource, accessible on demand. This “wardrobe as a service” model emphasises flexibility, sustainability, and democratic access to designer fashion, reducing the need for ownership and encouraging consumers to experiment freely. Another key element of the vision is to leverage data and logistics at scale. By partnering with multiple designers and analysing customer preferences — including fit, frequency of rental, and style popularity — Rent the Runway aims to optimise its inventory in real time, anticipate demand, and even feed insights back to designers for capsule collections or exclusive lines tailored to customer taste. Finally, Rent the Runway sees itself as part of a broader movement towards more sustainable consumption in fashion. By encouraging people to rent rather than buy, and by maximising the utilisation of each garment, the company hopes to reduce waste, challenge fast-fashion consumption patterns, and shift consumer behaviour toward access over ownership.

MISSION STATEMENT

Rent the Runway’s mission is to give people the freedom to wear more of what they love — by renting rather than owning — and to make high-style fashion accessible, affordable, and sustainable. The company aims to transform fashion from a commodity to be possessed, into a service to be experienced. Through innovative logistics, technology and designer partnerships, Rent the Runway seeks to deliver seamless access to a rotating wardrobe, enabling customers to experiment with their style, reduce consumption, and redefine what it means to “own” fashion.

EXECUTIVE BOARD

• Jennifer Y. Hyman: Co-founder, Chair, Chief Executive Officer & President
• Siddharth (Sid) Thacker: Chief Financial Officer
• Cara Schembri: Chief Legal Officer
• Becky Case: Chief Technology, Science, Research & Development Officer
• Bradford Shellhammer: Chief Product Officer

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

Rent the Runway offers a portfolio of designer apparel and accessories available through several service models. Customers can select individual items for short-term rental (for example, 4- or 8-day periods under the “Reserve” programme), or subscribe to a membership (“Unlimited” or tiered monthly plans) allowing multiple items per month with swap flexibility. Inventory spans hundreds of designer labels — from evening gowns and event wear to everyday dresses, workwear, denim, jewellery, handbags and other accessories — in diverse sizes.

Rent the Runway also operates its own exclusive “Design Collective” capsule lines, developed in collaboration with emerging and established designers to meet rental-friendly criteria and customer demand. Operationally, Rent the Runway controls much of its logistics chain: inventory procurement, provenance, dry-cleaning, storage, damage repair and fulfilment are managed in-house, making it a logistics-intensive service model rather than a simple peer-to-peer platform.

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

Rent the Runway and its leadership have received considerable recognition over the years. The company has appeared multiple times on CNBC’s Disruptor 50 list and has been named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies. CEO Jennifer Hyman has been recognised in Time’s 100 Most Influential People, Fortune’s 40 Under 40, and numerous industry “most influential women” and entrepreneurship awards.