Kyle Harrison
concept

Second Hand Clothing

Second Hand Clothing

Resale, rental, and circular fashion — the consumer shift from clothing ownership toward access (resale marketplaces and subscription rental). Kyle tracked this as a deep-dive candidate on his Roam “Trends” idea-capture page, and it merges the linked Roam Second Hand Clothing and Alternative Fashion pages (both marked done on ingest). The recurring thesis: consumers moving from “ownership to access” across media and now apparel — attractive tailwinds, but rental/resale business models are operationally and capital-intensive.

Quick Capture — “Trends” idea log (Roam)

Deep-dive / entity-idea candidates Kyle logged on his Roam “Trends” page. Ingested 2026-07-31.

  • Poshmark
  • Etsy
  • eBay
  • The RealReal
  • ThredUp
  • Vinted
  • Thrilling
  • Choosy — the one Coatue invested in

Folded from the Roam “Alternative Fashion” page

Rent the Runway note

PH, SS and Kyle had a follow-up meeting with Rent the Runway (DS joined the first meeting, at Coatue’s offices). The company had transitioned from renting clothing on-demand to a monthly subscription (a “closet in the cloud”): for $159/month women choose an unlimited number of pieces on rotation, with free two-way shipping and dry cleaning. Interesting idea playing to consumer trends they liked (rise of subscription, shift toward “disposable” clothing), but a challenging business model — very operationally and capital intensive (they buy inventory and run massive dry-cleaning warehouses). At the time: 116K active subscribers (+60% Y/Y), $250M revenue (+56% Y/Y), 19% gross margin, ($150M) FCF burn. Planning to pass unless anyone objected.

  • What they do. Designer clothing rental subscription platform — access to designer clothing at a more affordable price via subscription (~$1.9K/yr).
  • TAM & trends. Riding the consumer tailwind from “ownership to access” (music, media, and — the CEO argued — clothing next); $264B US women’s apparel TAM.
  • Value proposition. Consumers get clothing worth ~20x their subscription price each year, engaging with RTR rental ~13 days a month on average.
  • CAC & retention. ~90% organic & referral acquisition, but a huge inventory expense to build enough supply liquidity to attract and retain users; 12-month retention in the mid-20s (mediocre).
  • Key metrics. Cumulative customers 2.3M to date; active (Sep-19) 116K (+60% YoY, 30% NYC-based); revenue $250M (+56% YoY); gross margin 19% (helped by a generous depreciation schedule); burn ~$150M/yr; capex ~60% of revenue (inventory ~45%, dry-cleaning warehouses ~15%).
  • Pass rationale. Slowing growth plus a challenged, low-margin model (burned ~$375M in cash to reach $250M in revenue); management graded a “B” — PR-focused, less savvy on core metrics.
  • Fundraising. $521M raised to date (Franklin Templeton, KPCB, TCV); latest round led by Franklin Templeton ($125M @ $1B post) in Mar-19.

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