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What's Behind the Exodus from Rent the Runway?

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Re: What's Behind the Exodus from Rent the Runway?

#31

Post by jasonwatkinspdx »

vijayr wrote: post #10
sageabilly wrote: post #2

Wow, the CEO sounds extremely out of touch with the company culture. If your company has a Facebook group for ex-employees to come together and process their terrible experience working for you, there's a problem regardless of if you're able to admit it to yourself. [Edit] Also, what happens if I rent a dress and hate it? Suddenly I'm two days out from an event with a dress that looks terrible and that I've spent $15…

I still can't wrap my head around renting dresses - some kind of specialized costume I can understand (like spiderman or predator), but dress? They seem to be doing some revenue so it does look like a workable idea. What happens to RTR if the big name brands with multiple physical stores start renting dresses too (I don't know if they already do it or not)?

Renting dresses for special events is a solid business.

When you hit a certain age there will be 4+ weddings every summer. Women can feel very pressured at these events, because people can be real status obsessed judgmental jerks, and even worse when it's directed at a woman's appearance. On the flip side, buying a new $500+ outfit for each event isn't workable for most people.

Renting name brand fashion items is a great solution. Look killer in a unique look at every event, feel confident, spend 15% of the money.

Now, going from that, to some sort of netflix scale business... I don't really see that.

Re: What's Behind the Exodus from Rent the Runway?

#32

Post by runako »

vijayr wrote: post #10
sageabilly wrote: post #2

Wow, the CEO sounds extremely out of touch with the company culture. If your company has a Facebook group for ex-employees to come together and process their terrible experience working for you, there's a problem regardless of if you're able to admit it to yourself. [Edit] Also, what happens if I rent a dress and hate it? Suddenly I'm two days out from an event with a dress that looks terrible and that I've spent $15…

I still can't wrap my head around renting dresses - some kind of specialized costume I can understand (like spiderman or predator), but dress? They seem to be doing some revenue so it does look like a workable idea. What happens to RTR if the big name brands with multiple physical stores start renting dresses too (I don't know if they already do it or not)?

Two reasons come to mind:

- You want a distinctive dress for an event. You don't want to be seen wearing the dress at another event. Or: you don't go to formal events often enough to justify buying a formal dress that might be out of style next time you need it. There are a lot of reasons you might not want to use a dress beyond one evening.

- Your $150 will get you the use of a dress that would cost you close to 10x that at retail.

Basically, RTR is a hack on how fashion works.

Re: What's Behind the Exodus from Rent the Runway?

#33

Post by pjc50 »

vijayr wrote: post #10
sageabilly wrote: post #2

Wow, the CEO sounds extremely out of touch with the company culture. If your company has a Facebook group for ex-employees to come together and process their terrible experience working for you, there's a problem regardless of if you're able to admit it to yourself. [Edit] Also, what happens if I rent a dress and hate it? Suddenly I'm two days out from an event with a dress that looks terrible and that I've spent $15…

I still can't wrap my head around renting dresses - some kind of specialized costume I can understand (like spiderman or predator), but dress? They seem to be doing some revenue so it does look like a workable idea. What happens to RTR if the big name brands with multiple physical stores start renting dresses too (I don't know if they already do it or not)?

Big-event dresses are specialized costume.

Re: What's Behind the Exodus from Rent the Runway?

#34

Post by HiLo »

natvod wrote: post #8

Maybe I'm missing something but I always thought renting designer clothes has a limited market. People who attend many special events a year where they need a new outfit for each one typically have the disposable income to outright buy their clothes or have companies borrow them clothes for the publicity. The average person who goes to a few special events a year? You can buy a nice outfit for just a little more than…

This isn't actually true. A new Vegas dress for a lot of my friends would cost as much as the rest of their whole trip to Vegas. Furthermore, women 18-30 have tons of weddings, bachelorette parties, work functions, holiday events, birthday parties, brunches, and weekend bars to visit, but almost all of those cost less per person than some of these new dresses.

Re: What's Behind the Exodus from Rent the Runway?

#35

Post by FussyZeus »

dragonwriter wrote: post #23
HillRat wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Revenue and no equity raise is a closely-held business. Equity raise and no revenue is a Ponzi scheme.

> Revenue and no equity raise is a closely-held business. Equity raise and no revenue is a Ponzi scheme. That doesn't stop both from being "making money".

If you've convinced a bunch of suits to give you money that's a very important step on the way to success, but it's not success, and frankly if your business folds after that and you walk away a millionaire, I'd say not only did you fail, but you're dishonest.

I don't understand these founders who work in offices they can't heat or light properly because they can't afford to pay the bills, yet show up for said work in Aston Martins and Mercs. If you get funded that's great, but put the money in the damn business you said you were starting if for no other reason than IT'S NOT YOUR MONEY, you didn't earn it, you didn't work for it, it was given to you to do something specific with.

Maybe I'm just old fashioned, if I gave somebody 5 million bucks to start a business and found them spending one friggin penny on pointless personal purchases, I would raise hell over it and I think I'd be right to do so.

Re: What's Behind the Exodus from Rent the Runway?

#36

Post by FussyZeus »

xacaxulu wrote: post #30

"Three of them likened the atmosphere at Rent the Runway to the 2004 film Mean Girls. Each one made that reference separately, without prodding." "The former employee adds that there were “frequent screaming matches” in the office between top executives." “You don’t feel it’s an environment where women support each other,” an ex-employee told the the magazine under condition of anonymity. “It felt like high school, i…

I can just see the genuine sexists using this just, forever, to justify their biases about female leadership. It's very saddening.

Doesn't help on that front that it's a fashion oriented company either...

Re: What's Behind the Exodus from Rent the Runway?

#37

Post by [deleted] »

xacaxulu wrote: post #30

"Three of them likened the atmosphere at Rent the Runway to the 2004 film Mean Girls. Each one made that reference separately, without prodding." "The former employee adds that there were “frequent screaming matches” in the office between top executives." “You don’t feel it’s an environment where women support each other,” an ex-employee told the the magazine under condition of anonymity. “It felt like high school, i…

[deleted]

Re: What's Behind the Exodus from Rent the Runway?

#38

Post by [deleted] »

xacaxulu wrote: post #30

"Three of them likened the atmosphere at Rent the Runway to the 2004 film Mean Girls. Each one made that reference separately, without prodding." "The former employee adds that there were “frequent screaming matches” in the office between top executives." “You don’t feel it’s an environment where women support each other,” an ex-employee told the the magazine under condition of anonymity. “It felt like high school, i…

[deleted]

Re: What's Behind the Exodus from Rent the Runway?

#40

Post by exelius »

vijayr wrote: post #10
sageabilly wrote: post #2

Wow, the CEO sounds extremely out of touch with the company culture. If your company has a Facebook group for ex-employees to come together and process their terrible experience working for you, there's a problem regardless of if you're able to admit it to yourself. [Edit] Also, what happens if I rent a dress and hate it? Suddenly I'm two days out from an event with a dress that looks terrible and that I've spent $15…

I still can't wrap my head around renting dresses - some kind of specialized costume I can understand (like spiderman or predator), but dress? They seem to be doing some revenue so it does look like a workable idea. What happens to RTR if the big name brands with multiple physical stores start renting dresses too (I don't know if they already do it or not)?

It makes sense -- a nice evening gown can run upwards of $1000 but if you only have occasion to wear one once a year, it makes more sense to rent it for $150. Even if you wear one more frequently, you probably don't want to be seen in the same one too many times.

And there are a lot of physical stores that do this already, but RTR can benefit from the scale of a national client base.

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