When Rent the Runway started out a decade ago, an early proponent of the sharing economy, what it was doing wasn’t particularly radical. Renting out men’s tuxedos for weddings and parties was hardly new, but its ambitions went beyond the “event rental” business. “That was just a way to dip our toe in the water with the consumer,” said CTO & Head of Product Josh Builder. “Our mission was the eradication of ownership, and, really, the eradication of the closet.”
Speaking at the Tech. conference (London, October 2019), he argued that “there is a future in which ownership of clothing...