This is an episode of the Glossy Fashion Podcast, which features candid conversations about how today’s trends are shaping the future of the fashion industry. More from the series →
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On the Glossy Podcast, senior fashion reporter Danny Parisi and editor-in-chief Jill Manoff talk about some of the biggest fashion stories in the industry.
This week, we talk about Prada’s positive earnings, including the spectacular growth of Miu Miu and why so many other luxury brands are falling behind. We also talk about Nike being sued in a class action lawsuit over the shutdown of its NFT business, RTFKT — one of a number of lawsuits over the ill-fated technology.
Later in the episode, Manoff speaks with Rent the Runway co-founder and CEO Jennifer Hyman about her turnaround plan for the company. As the OG in the fashion rental space, Rent the Runway has had to contend with new competitors like Nuuly, which have swept into the rental space. Below are some highlights from Manoff’s conversation with Hyman, lightly edited for clarity.
On investing in inventory
“We have made in 2025 the biggest investment that we’ve ever made into our inventory and into our assortment. We know that, for our business, inventory is the key to growth. We spent the last few years bringing our business to a place where we were essentially nearly breakeven on a free cash flow basis, really changing our margin profile, our unit economics, the way we actually acquire inventory and setting up the business for this next phase. So we decided to go for it this year and double the inventory.
In doubling the inventory, we’ve been able to go much deeper into use cases that we might have lacked or not had as much inventory of in the past, because the inventory in the past was more concentrated from March through May or September through November. We are now able to focus on those occasions in deep summer and in deep winter, when folks may be using Rent the Runway for things like having a tennis match with your friends, or going to the beach or going skiing in the winter. So we’re offering categories that are new, that keep people excited and engaged on the platform.”
On driving loyalty
“We understand that there are some blockbuster brands on Rent the Runway, where, when a customer receives items from those brands, she actually is more loyal overall. And so what we’ve done is we’ve quadrupled the inventory assortment and depth and breadth in those brands so that more of our customers can access Ulla Johnson and Veronica Beard and the brands that she really loves.
We started testing styling a few quarters ago, and we did it manually. We found that when we gave customers access to human stylists, we dramatically improved their loyalty rates. So then we embarked on a customer service transformation within the organization. Customer service has always been one of the things we’re known for. We’re really great at it. We’ve taken all the manual tasks out of customer service and really outsourced a lot of those tasks and redeployed our own internal team into loyalty-driving behaviors. So, as opposed to our internal team writing you an email back about a shipping label, we’re instead having that internal team have the time to call you when you first join and have a welcome call, and teach you all about Rent the Runway, or spend time styling you, or help you create lists, or do those high-value actions that make us a more premium service.”
On tariffs
“I hear people talking about fashion and tariffs and the impact on the news all of the time. And then, when I sit down with brands, no one knows what’s going on right now. No one has a plan yet. People are kind of running around trying to figure it out. This all happened so suddenly. Over 90% of the production of fashion happens in China. It is not feasible, easy or possible for that production to just move overnight to other places. It’s certainly not going to move to the U.S. And so I think that all of our brand partners are trying to figure out, like, is this real? I am taking it day by day with our brand partners. I’m actually going next week to L.A. to sit down with 20 of our brand partners there and just going to have open conversations with them on how we should handle this together.”
