Innovation

The shared wardrobe, Robes Rental, is a clothing rental platform that encourages its users to share their style, reduce waste, and get more value from their own wardrobe with the clothes and accessories they already own. Additionally, renters can also recover part of their clothing costs through rental earnings.

When users rent out items from their own wardrobes, their lightly worn or unused clothes are given a new life. Robes Rental is currently Finland’s largest closet with hundreds of wardrobes anyone can rent from (Sillanpää, 2024). By encouraging users to rent out their unused clothes and motivating others to rent clothing and accessories instead of purchasing new items, Robes actively promotes the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goals 12 and 13. More specifically, the concept makes fashion more sustainable by reducing overconsumption, which in turn decreases the industry’s environmental impact. By enabling people to rent out high-quality clothes, Robes supports the circular economy of fashion and extends product lifespan by encouraging users to invest in quality over fast fashion.

Inspiration

The inspiration behind Robes came from the co-founder Anna Sillanpää’s personal interest in fashion, combined with her expertise in the IT industry. From an early age, she demonstrated a strong interest in fashion, as she noted at the beginning of the interview: “Ever since I was a kid, I would constantly borrow my sister's clothes and the funny thing is that this was the number one reason we would argue as well, whether I had permission to wear her clothes or not. Now she finds it hilarious that I ended up launching a service where I can borrow clothes from anyone who has a great style.”

While working in the IT sector, Sillanpää and her friends began to delve deeper into the fashion and textile industries, quickly recognizing a significant need to make better use of the clothing already owned by individuals. In the interview, Sillanpää descriptively summed up the problem of overconsumption in the world as follows: “The fun fact is that there are enough clothes on this planet to dress the next six generations which is an incredible amount of clothes that we have already, so I would say that we don’t need any new clothes here anymore” (Sillanpää, 2024). Concern about the state of the environment and unsustainable consumption gave Sillanpää the idea of a shared wardrobe platform, which later led to the birth of the innovation.

Overall impact

The innovation behind Robes Rental has had both immediate and long-term impacts on the fashion industry and consumer behavior. In the short term, Robes Rental has created a new business model that encourages sustainable fashion consumption by offering high-end clothing rentals at affordable prices. This model helps reduce the demand for fast fashion by allowing consumers to access premium items without committing to ownership. Evidence of this shift is seen in the growing user base of the platform, with some customers earning hundreds of euros per month by renting out their wardrobes. This provides a new income stream for individuals while addressing fashion waste.

In the long term, Robes Rental aims to have a broader environmental and societal impact by scaling its platform to major cities across Europe. As the platform expands, it can further reduce the production of new clothing and extend the lifecycle of existing items. This aligns with the rising trend of the circular economy and the growing acceptance of secondhand and rental fashion, which is expected to surpass traditional retail in terms of growth. By promoting a shift in consumer mindset from ownership to access, Robes Rental contributes to responsible consumption and production, as outlined in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 12), and supports the transition to a more sustainable fashion industry.

Business benefit

The startup launched its platform in December 2023 around the innovation of renting clothes and accessories. The core strategy of the firm was this innovation from the beginning and the objective of Robes Rental is to develop this idea further. Therefore, the impact of the innovation on revenue or employee numbers cannot be measured per se. However, Robes Rental penetrated the market fast and gained users quickly over the first weeks from launch.

It could be argued that the unique business model of Robes Rental affected the whole second-hand market. According to Sillanpää, the current market does not have a similar offering on premium brands which can be rented instead of purchased. (Sillanpää, 2024) This opened a whole new market segment with a new type of service. In addition to increasing public awareness of second-hand products, Robes Rental attracted new investments.

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Social and environmental benefit

As discussed before, the fashion industry is becoming an ever-increasing contributor to climate change, and it is therefore necessary to reduce the production of clothing all together. According to Anna Sillanpää, Robes Rental can directly benefit the environment by limiting over-production and consumption. (Sillanpää, 2024) Robes Rental offers a unique model where the value of clothes is prolonged and the overall need for new clothes is reduced.

The objective is to maximize the usage of clothes by offering a platform where customers can rent their clothing and accessories for other users. This in turn reduces the consumers’ need to purchase brand new clothing and it offers them a way of getting items by renting. Robes Rental only serves as a platform, meaning that they do not have their own products in stock. Sillanpää explains that customers are usually looking for something to wear only for a short period of time and purchasing it would be unreasonable. (Sillanpää, 2024)

Robes Rental can even benefit society by aiding local communities within the reach of the company. During the interview, Sillanpää elaborated on the potential of Robes Rental in addition to its environmental benefits. Users of their services can earn income by renting items from their own wardrobe. The focus is not only on luxury brands, but also in providing sustainable clothing options for people. (Sillanpää, 2024) This model provides income for local communities and prevents the money from ending-up at the biggest international players in the fashion industry. Furthermore, Robes Rental encourages the shift towards investing in more sustainable high-quality fashion, Sillanpää explains. (2024)

Interview

Anna Sillanpää, Co-Founder & CEO