We mentioned LOANHOOD when our interview with co-founder Jade McSorley was published back in May 2021. With her business partners, she was developing the LOANHOOD App which as we said then, “will enable those who own clothes, particularly higher value / cost items, or indeed entire outfits, to hire them out for a fee. “Think of it as Airbnb for clothing”, McSorley said. The owner decides on how much they want to charge for their items, LOANHOOD enables the transaction and takes a relatively small fee.
Getting more use out of clothing plays well into the sustainability and circular economy agendas, reducing waste and increasing the “output” or value we gain from each item manufactured. The apparel industry is a huge contributor to emissions, so more re-use and recycling can only be a good thing, as well as making money for the owner and saving money on potential purchase cost for the renter.
I’m pleased to say that the app is now fully operational and looks very good. The business has also just gone through a successful round of fundraising – I have invested a small amount and my collaborator in the Procurement with Purpose initiative, Mark Perera, is also now an investor. Clearly, we think the app has real promise, it supports ths sustainbiltiy movement, and we rate the team behind it highly too. So please forgive the plug here!
One of the interesting aspects is the ability to put a whole “look” onto the app. So you might rent an entire outfit – top, jacket, skirt and bag maybe. Or you can just find a simple single item, perhaps an enormous straw hat, available for a few pounds a week, and perfect to finish off your own festival outfit.
That capability is attracting young fashion designers to the site – you can already find many displaying their clothes. If a designer has made a handful of outfits for their degree show, they usually struggle to get them sold in boutiques or large stores or just get them in front of a wider audience. But now they can make a return and also give borrowers a chance to wear something from a designer who might just one day be world famous!
There are a couple of other sites which do something similar, but they are aimed more at the older and /or firmly upmarket sector of the market – wedding dresses, ballgowns, outfits for the opera maybe. LOANHOOD is aimed firmly at 16 – 35 year olds, with younger users and more varied and often quirky fashion available. My brief sample of younger folk got a pretty positve response to the concept and the app - I should say that I’m not exacly part of the core target market!
Anyway, we wish the team well, both for selfish personal reasons and because moving the fast fashion mentality to a rent and re-use fashion approach can only be a good thing for the planet. Do take a look – and maybe even download the app. Or given our reader demographic, and the LOANHOOD target market, maybe you might suggest your offspring could do that?!