Unicorn Alert - Rent The Runway

Last year some time in the fall I got tired of constantly buying new clothing for work - unfortutnalty women’s workwear isn’t just suits and dress shirts. I signed up for Rent the Runway, at first I was hesitant sharing clothing… but then I was blown away at the connivence of this service.

1. They dry clean the clothing so I don’t have to do laundry

2. It is so easy to return clothing and pick out new pieces, either through their flagship store, Wework Drop Offs, or UPS

3. It is affordable, for 175 you have access to all of their pieces, personally I know I can spend that at Jcrew and get a pair of pants and one button down

4. Its good for the environment, since the rise of fast fashion we have created so much textile waste which is very toxic and harmful to countries where we ship our old clothes

What Jennifer did was address the most common complaint women have “I have nothing to wear” “I hate spending so much on a dress I’ll only wear once”.

Now to the fun stuff… the funding!

Jennifer launched RTR in 2009 with 1.8 in seed money. In one year she raised 15M for her Series A round, by Series C she was raising 44.4M. Which is a lot, so the next question is how much equity did she give away. While the world may never know, her Series C and Series D rounds both had 6 investors (e.g., either the OG investors got more equity or new investors got some).

Lets assess why investors are willing to give her so much funding

Source: https://stocksnewsfeed.com

1) Subscription Growth: as the article mentions RTR rapidly scaled in a market worth 2.4 trillion

2) Other markets to tap into: RTR recently announced they will start offering children’s clothes as well as a partnership with West Elm for furniture, I wouldn’t be shocked if they moved into the mens space

3) infrastructure: RTR has fulfillment centers which they use for sorting and dry cleaning. They also have partnerships with WeWork to act as return centers

Overall, RTR is changing how we view fashion it is taking the taboo out of sharing clothing. Personally I am super excited to see a female founder join the Unicorn Club… I’ll save my views on VC funding and female founders for another post!

You can see some of my looks from Rent the Runway on Insta linked below!

Sephora Play! Is Giving Brichbox a Reason to be Scared

PROS:

• Affordable 
• Luxury Brands from Sephora
• Great Packaging 

CONS:

• Less Indie Brands 
• Waitlist 
• Less Deals

PROS:

• Recyclable Box 
• Affordable 
• Indie Products

CONS:

• Less Luxury Products
• Smaller Samples 
• Lacks Variety... Same Brands

Overall I believe the Sephora Play! Box is a much better box. Both boxes are 10 dollars but you get way better products from Sephora. Just because Sephora has so many connections to on-trend luxury brands that are really relevant now. Overall for me Sephora Wins. 

As a side note, I will mention that all of the Chief officers at Sephora are male, the only female mentioned on Bloomberg is the VP of Retail&Education. I am slightly disappointed just due to the fact that you would think that a company that is targeted towards women would be run by women. Women are very underrepresented in management and this is just another example of this. 

The End of Lululemon

The rise of athleisure has led to companies such as Lululemon to be very profitable. The problem is that athleisure is a bubble. Lululemon is in an industry that is a fad. How much longer will people want to keep wearing leggings outside of the gym. Furthermore, people are now focused on how their clothing enhances their workout rather than the looks. The CEO of Lululemon , Potdevin, is optimistic. He believes that as long as they keep adding new varieties they will survive the pop.

If I can be blatantly honest I don’t believe Lululemon has changed at all. I used to hoard Lululemon during my figure skating days. Now when I walk in I see the same styles of sports bras and leggings.

Furthermore, the market is saturated with Nike, Under Armour, and Addidas. Potdevin believes that the solution is through cultivating the “emotionally charged” image they have. I am skeptical since shoppers these days have the attention span of a goldfish. I don’t see Kylie Jenner rocking Lululemon in the near future. In fact, this is clearly seen with how well Addidas is doing this quarter, a 21 percent revenue increase. This is in part to Kanye working with Addidas.  Now I know I am pessimistic, but the company has grown. With the launch of their male wear, their sales have increased by 6 percent. So maybe this isn't the end, but brands like Lululemon are feeling the heat and I am not talking about hot yoga.