Prada's earnings, Nike's NFT lawsuit and a conversation with Rent the Runway CEO Jennifer Hyman

Summary

The Glossy Podcast: Prada's Earnings, Nike's NFT Lawsuit, and a Conversation with Rent the Runway CEO Jennifer Hyman
Release Date: May 2, 2025

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1. Prada's Robust Earnings Amid Luxury Sector Challenges

Duration: [02:28] – [11:05]

Host Danny Parisi opens the episode by highlighting Prada's impressive financial performance, contrasting it with the broader struggles faced by the luxury industry. While brands like Kering and LVMH reported sales declines of 14% and 3% respectively, Prada showcased a remarkable 13% revenue increase for the quarter ending March 31.

Jill Manoff attributes Prada's success to its adept engagement with pop culture and strategic collaborations. She notes, "They tap into pop culture and really kind of read their audience that way in terms of what they're hungry for" ([03:27]). This approach includes partnerships with K-pop stars, influential influencers, and the release of highly sought-after items like the Miu Miu suede pouch and micro mini pleated skirts.

Danny adds that Prada's expansion into new markets and regions contributed to its uniform growth across Asia, Europe, and America, with no region underperforming. This diversified strategy ensures consistent performance even when other luxury brands falter.

2. Lanvin's Struggles and Strategic Leadership Changes

Duration: [06:26] – [10:20]

In contrast to Prada's upward trajectory, Lanvin reported a 23% decline in revenue, attributing it to a transitional year marked by changes in creative leadership. Jill Manoff discusses Lanvin's attempts to stabilize by appointing experienced leaders like Andy Liu, formerly of St. John, and Peter Copping as artistic director. She emphasizes the importance of sustained leadership, stating, "If a creative director leaves a brand after, like, one year... that's a recipe for no success." ([07:06])

Danny echoes this sentiment, highlighting the challenges of a rotating creative director model, which often hinders long-term brand identity establishment.

3. Prada Group's Acquisition of Versace

Duration: [09:57] – [11:05]

Prada Group's recent acquisition of Versace is discussed as a strategic move to diversify its brand portfolio. Although Versace had experienced a 15% sales drop under Capri, Prada's robust performance and resources position it well to rejuvenate the struggling brand. Jill Manoff suggests that this acquisition could safeguard Prada Group as fashion trends evolve, offering a balance between minimalist brands like Miu Miu and more expressive labels like Versace.

4. Nike's NFT Lawsuit and the Broader Implications for Digital Assets

Duration: [12:09] – [20:58]

The podcast delves into Nike's $5 million class-action lawsuit following the shutdown of its NFT platform, Artifact. Originating from Nike's 2021 acquisition during the NFT boom, Artifact's closure left consumers feeling defrauded, likening it to a "financial rug pull." Danny Parisi reflects on his accurate prediction of such a scenario, stating, "I felt like you can't trust any new technology... approach any sort of new craze with some skepticism." ([13:13])

Jill Manoff explores the legal complexities surrounding NFTs, particularly whether they constitute securities under federal law. She explains, "There's a debate of whether NFTs... are like art and they're not subject to these federal securities laws or whether they are securities." ([14:05])

The discussion extends to the broader crypto industry's regulatory challenges, highlighting how companies like Coinbase have influenced SEC investigations, making class-action lawsuits one of the few recourses for aggrieved consumers.

5. In-Depth Conversation with Rent the Runway CEO Jennifer Hyman

Duration: [28:25] – [68:58]

a. Major Inventory Investments and Strategic Growth

Jennifer Hyman shares Rent the Runway's unprecedented investment in inventory for 2025, aiming to double their stock to enhance customer engagement and meet the high demand for diverse fashion choices. "We've made for 2025 the biggest investment that we've ever made into our inventory and into our assortment." ([29:07])

This expansion allows the company to offer constant newness, catering to various occasions and deepening product categories like summer sportswear and winter apparel. By quadrupling the inventory of blockbuster brands, Rent the Runway ensures greater accessibility and loyalty among its customers.

b. Enhancing the Customer Experience through App Innovations

Hyman discusses significant updates to the Rent the Runway app, focusing on personalization and user engagement. Features like back-in-stock notifications, styling assistance, and an improved browsing experience aim to make the platform more intuitive and enjoyable. "We're trying to make it feel more risk-free, more fun, and teach you this new behavior." ([38:02])

c. Emphasizing Community and Authentic Content

Recognizing the shift towards personality-driven branding, Rent the Runway invests in authentic, community-oriented content. Hyman states, "Every brand at this point needs to be personality driven... we're really leaning into authentic, personality driven content." ([57:56])

d. Company Culture and Founder Leadership

Hyman emphasizes the critical role of founder-driven leadership in fostering a customer-obsessed and agile company culture. Reflecting on personal challenges, including the loss of her father, she highlights how community support and team resilience have propelled Rent the Runway forward. "Being a founder is about understanding what are the problems that are big enough to matter... it's about how one person is modeling the behavior for the rest of the organization." ([62:18])

e. Future Outlook and Strategic Focus

Looking ahead, Hyman affirms Rent the Runway's commitment to growth and enhancing customer experiences. By maintaining a curated brand assortment tailored to a sophisticated, busy clientele, the company aims to solidify its position in the evolving fashion rental market. "Rental is here to stay, and it's going to be a part of how people get dressed forever." ([51:25])

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Conclusion

This episode of The Glossy Podcast offers an insightful analysis of current trends and challenges in the fashion and luxury sectors. From Prada's exceptional performance and strategic acquisitions to the pitfalls of digital ventures like Nike's NFT platform, the discussion provides a comprehensive overview of the industry's dynamics. The in-depth conversation with Jennifer Hyman of Rent the Runway offers valuable perspectives on innovation, customer-centric strategies, and leadership in a rapidly evolving market.

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Note: Advertisements, promotional segments, and non-content sections from the transcript have been deliberately omitted to focus solely on the substantive discussions.

Transcript

[Jill Manoff]

Hello Glossy Podcast listeners. As you kick off 2025 and work toward your aggressive revenue goals, one digital marketing platform partner is all you need and that's listrack. Listrack is your beauty and fashion revenue insider. List track understands the beauty and fashion space and is the proven go to partner for revenue creation Powering personalized consumer connections for leading retailers and brands list. Like Peter Thomas Roth Anastasia, Beverly Hills, John Varvatos and Oscar de la Renta, Listrack's powerful AI integration with Shopify allows you to access and unify your customer data to deliver personalized cross channel messages that resonate, engage and inspire your customers. Partnering with ListTrack gives you access to beauty and fashion experts who act as an extension of marketing teams, sharing proprietary industry benchmarks, data and real time behaviors and trends. Learn [e-mail] that's L I S T R A K.com.

[Danny Parisi]

Hello and welcome back to the Glossy Podcast. I'm your host, senior fashion reporter Danny Parisi and I'm here with our editor in Chief, Joe Manoff. Hello, Jill.

[Jennifer Hyman]

Hello. Hello.

[Jill Manoff]

Happy to be back. Thanks, Danny.

[Danny Parisi]

It's been a little while since we've had you on the Week in Review section of the show, but we have a good conversation today. We're going to be talking about two big stories. Prada had their they reported some earnings this week which were extremely good and definitely in contrast to a lot of the luxury industry. So we'll talk about why Prada is doing so well and compare it to some other luxury companies. And then second, we're going to talk about Nike being sued for shutting down its NFT business artifact last year. They bought it in 2021 and winded it down I think in 2024. And now they're being hit with a $5 million class action lawsuit about it. So we will dig into that. And then after the break, Jill, you have a deep conversation with Rent the Runway founder Jennifer Hyman about where the company is headed next. I haven't heard the conversation yet, but I heard it went well.

[Jill Manoff]

Yeah, she was very open and honest about the state of the company and what she plans to do next. She's kind of taking a, a new approach, a fresh approach to the company, thinking of it like a startup and going back to her early days as a CEO. So excited for you guys to listen. I loved our conversation. She's amazing.

[Danny Parisi]

Yeah. So stick around after the break for that. But first, let's talk about these two big stories. First, I want to talk about Prado, which has just Continued to have a pretty incredible streak as far as luxury brands go. This week they announced that their revenue had jumped up 13% for the quarter ending March 31. It's impressive on its own, I think, but especially notable given how slow luxury has been in general in the last few quarters. We were just talking, I think last week, me and Zofia about how Kering sales were down like 14% at Kering drop. LVMH was down 3% or something like that. But Prada just continues to crush it especially, which we can dig into this. But Miu Miu, which is one of their brands, is meteoric. Their growth this quarter was 60% this quarter, which I think the last few quarters have seen similarly very huge jumps for Miu Miu. Yeah, I don't know. What do you think is behind? And Prada's just like immense kind of success the last couple quarters, especially compared to the rest of the sector.

[Jill Manoff]

I mean, they alluded to it in the earnings. They talked about it. The fact that they tap into pop culture and really kind of read their audience that way in terms of what they're hungry for. They do a lot of collaborations with K pop stars and they definitely are working with influential influencers and they've had some hot IT items. The list index also came out this week and you know, Mew Mew was number two on the formerly number one. Prada was number five. So to have two of the top, top five brands, huge. The number five hottest item according to list, which is based on, you know, their search engine and social discussion and all of that, was this Miu Miu suede pouch. It's just like this kind of. They call it an east west shaped bag. This brown, hot brown color that everyone's loving right now. Chocolate. And so they've got a hot item as well. And they've had consecutive hot items. You know, if you think about Mew Mew, I can't help but of like those micro mini pleated khaki skirts. Yes. With the little logo. It's like a little brief logo peeking out and the little logo popping out on cardigans and the, the sneakers that have been so hot, like hot, hot, hot. So they have just hot items. It's. They're putting them on the right people that are influential, who are influential and keeping it fresh. I don't, I don't know.

[Danny Parisi]

Yeah, yeah, they definitely. I think they do a lot of interesting things. One thing they talked about in their earnings was just like expanding a lot and to like new phys they just opened a menswear store in New York. They opened, I think, a new restaurant in Shanghai, which, speaking of working with influential people, this was perfect for me because it's like K pop stars doesn't do anything for me. But they worked with Wong Kar Wai for the restaurant, who's a Hong Kong film director who I'm a huge fan of. And I was like, oh, I want to go now, because I like Wong Kar Wai. They work with a lot of interesting people. The other thing is looking at where they're successful, I think a lot of luxury companies, when they're reporting their earnings, they might be down in Europe, but up in Asia. And so they kind of shift their strategy or whatever. But Prada is like, every region that they sell in was up this quarter. It's like, Asia up 10%, Europe up 13%, America's up 11%. Like, there was no region that was weak. Some were, like, better than others actually think the Middle east was their best performing region, but all were strong, you know, and it's kind of like evenly spread, which I guess maybe comes back to, like you were saying, having just, like, hot products or, you know, I don't know, a kind of diversified approach.

[Jill Manoff]

Yeah. And they also talk about, which is a very good point, like, there's this musical chairs of creative directors, and they've. What they've had going for it is a lot of stability. They haven't had a lot of movement amongst their CEOs or their. Their creative directors. So Mujaprada. Yeah. Still co creative director with Raf on the Prada line and then also overseeing Miu Miu. So that's huge right now, obviously, as everyone is in disarray.

[Danny Parisi]

Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that, because I wanted to bring up another company that had earnings this week, which was Lanvong. Their earnings were not great. Their revenue was down 23%, and they said it was due to it being a transitional year, if you think about it. And it was a transitional year. They had a new artistic director at Lanvin. They have a new creative director at Sergio Rossi. A lot of change happening. I think a transition is sometimes necessary, obviously, but also if you're having transitional years every year, you know, it's like you'll never get to, like, the Prada moment of, like, we've just been running solidly with this team with this strategy, and it's. And sticking to it, and it's paying off, you know.

[Jill Manoff]

Yeah. It was kind of opposite day. I think all of their brands were down they are in a transitional year, but, wow, it's about time they kind of kicked it into high gear because, you know, they dabbled with that idea of a rotating creative creative director or a guest creative director. And. And I just felt like they were kind of in limbo and decisions had to be made. So, I mean, no surprise that they brought in andy Liu, formerly CEO of St. John, who I've talked to in the past. He's. He's brilliant. But St John was one of the, I guess you could say, brightest spots across the brands, seeing some growth or outperforming in North America and Japan, along with their Sergio Rossi shoe brand. So, I mean, okay. And they've got some strength in terms of leadership across other brands. But, Andy, it makes no. It's no surprise they picked him. And then Peter Copping as the artistic director of Lanvin. That will be interesting. He's got amazing. An amazing resume with years at Louis Vuitton and with Marc Jacobs and then at Nina Ricci and Oscar de la Renta and all of these killer brands. Balenciaga. He just has much credibility. We'll see. Hopefully he brings some edge. High fashion. I don't know, a look. I feel like they are desperate. Since Albert Elbaz. I looked when he was at the. At the brand 2001-2015, that was definitely the brand's heyday. So I think they're. Maybe Peter can do the same.

[Danny Parisi]

Yeah. And hopefully they stick with him for enough time for that to happen. You know, like we always say, like, brands switch their creative directors all the time. But a lot of times a creative director's best work happens after they've been at a place for a couple of years. Like, you know, being at a brand from 2001 to 2015 means that you have lots of time to, like, really establish, like, an identity over time and also to work with the team of designers and craftspeople and everything. Like, I don't know. I always think it's a shame when a creative director leaves a brand after, like, one year because they don't have the chance to do that. And then it also makes that Lanvin strategy of, like, let's just have a new creative director every year in this rotating thing. I'm like, that seems like recipe for no success. And maybe it was.

[Jill Manoff]

So, yeah, I think they had nothing or they maybe weren't sold on an artistic director for a long time. But, yeah, their other brands are beyond lanvin, Sergio Rossi, St. John. They also have Caruso and Wolford, which I consistently Constantly say that they're. I don't know. I think they're being overtaken by Skims. Like, skims is doing all the Wolf Wolford things in a cooler, more affordable way. So we'll see how that brand does. And let's circle back really quick to Prada, because obviously Prada Group recently purchased Versace, and.

[Danny Parisi]

Yes, I was just gonna say that.

[Jill Manoff]

Yeah, I mean, that's something that people are flagging, like, obviously, yay, Prada Group. You're doing great. But they purchased this brand that was struggling in Q4. 15% drop in sales. It's being seen as risky. However, they did get it for kind of a steal, less than $1.4 billion. Something to watch.

[Danny Parisi]

Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up because I wanted to make sure we mentioned it at least for a minute. But you're right that it's like Prada has been doing so well, and then now they're bringing in this brand that's kind of still like a name, like a household name, I would say. I think like many, many people know Versace, but it has kind of not. Hasn't been doing so well under Capri. I don't know. Do you think that they can just seamlessly fold it in and have it kind of be swept up alongside and everything in a positive upward direction? Will it be that easy? I don't know. I imagine Prada will have tons of resources. They're a huge company to invest into it. But I really wonder what changes they will make and what they've identified as the things that need to be changed to make Versace work.

[Jill Manoff]

Totally. I don't think it'll be a quick. They took it over and it'll see growth, growth, growth. I do like what our friend Bradley Carbone, deputy CEO at Luisa Villaroma, had to saw it as kind of a means for safeguarding the group as trends evolve. Because, you know, Prada, Miu Miu, they're both relatively minimalist and quiet luxury and khaki and gray. So to bring in a new brand that's more statement, more expressive. As trends will evolve, everything recycles. So maybe this is just. Yeah. A way to kind of COVID the bases here.

[Danny Parisi]

Yeah, for sure. Well, once we see more, we should definitely talk more about Versace on the podcast because that will be an interesting story to watch. Let's talk a little bit about Nike. So, as I mentioned at the top of the episode, in 2021, during the height of the NFT craze, remember NFTs, Nike bought this company, Artifact, that minted that word is very funny, created NFTs and they used them to make digital versions of their sneakers. And this was going to be the next big thing and everything. We all know what happened next, which is that the NFT market kind of collapsed over the next year or two. Nike eventually shut down Artifact. Last year, this week, Nike's being sued in a class action lawsuit for only $5 million, which to Nike is just nothing. But obviously to the consumers, a chunk of that could be nice by people who bought from Artifact alleging that it was basically a financial rug pull. People bought these NFTs because they were told that they were valuable and they'd hold their value and that they could be traded. Then the business shut down and value kind of just completely vanished. I want to boast about something real quick, which is a couple years ago we do this thing. At the end of the year we do our predictions for the year and then at the end of next year we look back at last year's predictions. I forget what year it was, but one year I was like. One of my predictions was a company that's going hard on NFTs is going to get hit with a class action lawsuit when it falls apart. And it didn't happen in the year that I predicted it, but now it did. So I was right.

[Jill Manoff]

You're ahead of your time. I thought you were going to say I don't want to boast, glowed, but I did not. I didn't buy an NFT from Artifact.

[Danny Parisi]

Well, that's also true. I didn't and I'm glad I didn't. But it's, it's really interesting. I mean, I definitely like felt there was risk there from the beginning for fashion brands getting into it because Nike's not the only NFT producing company that's been sued for the people who bought it losing a ton of money, like literally. Also this week, DraftKings settled a class action lawsuit that was $10 million for the exact same thing. People buying NFTs from their market and then losing a bunch of money and feeling like it was a rug pull. I feel like that's a term I hear quite a lot in financial news these days, especially when it comes to crypto and NFTs. I will pause there, but what's your take on this whole situation, Jill?

[Jill Manoff]

I thought it was interesting that one of the lines of one of these stories about this lawsuit is that.

[Jennifer Hyman]

Those.

[Jill Manoff]

Behind it are blaming Nike for the sudden closure which forced demand for their NFTs to dry up. But it's like, isn't demand for all NFTs dried up? I think we're there. But also I dug in a little bit because I didn't really understand a lot of it. A lot of it has to do with whether or not NFTs are considered securities under federal law. And it has to do like one of the points that makes something a security, there are four points, but one is that the investor expects a profit and that profit has to do with the efforts of, for instance, Nike. In this situation, they expected Nike to put more effort behind it. So that makes it a security. So there's a debate of whether NFTs like we've talked about in the past, are like art and they're not subject to these federal securities laws or whether they are securities. There's. There have been cases where they dropped this. It was not an nft, was not seen as a security because, quote, buyers did not have a reasonable expectation of profits tied to another company's efforts. So I don't know what I mean. I'm sure Nike was like building this up and hyping it up and this is a new thing, as everyone did, but yeah, it's complicated.

[Danny Parisi]

Yeah, you're right. I think the security thing is a big part of it where I think the companies that were making and selling NFTs kind of wanted it both ways. Like. Like they wanted you to think that it was a valuable investment that could make you money so that you'd buy it. But they didn't want the regulations that come with selling securities because like you said, you'll then have obligations like trying to make it more valuable. And if you sell it as an unregistered security, which you can't call it that, but it's like that's what it's alleged to be. You don't have to do that. And I kind of think that's just like a general trend in tech over the last, I don't know, decade or so is like, how do we reinvent something that already exists but in a way that doesn't have any rules or regulations around it, so we can do it in the most scammiest way possible. And one interesting thing with class action lawsuits. So I just wrote this story the other day about influencer kind of paid partnership disclosures. Revolve is getting hit with a class action lawsuit over not disclosing certain paid partnerships with their influencers. And I talked to a bunch of experts and lawyers about this and one of the things they said was the FTC under the Trump administration has basically kind of washed their hands of a lot of these things are like just not going to enforce a lot of rules. And so that leaves class action lawsuits as like the other alternative for like getting any recompense for things like that. And with crypto and NFTs, it's the same way where like the SEC is supposed to be investigating this stuff. But like Coinbase, a big crypto company, like paid a bunch of money to the Trump campaign. As soon as Trump was elected, he, like, the SEC dropped their law and investigation against Coinbase. So very direct. Like the crypto industry has basically bought the right to not be investigated by the federal government, which relieves class action lawsuits. So that's why I think you see like the Nike class action lawsuit, the DraftKings class action lawsuit. Those do not have the same power that like an SEC investigation has, which has much more weight to like actually make companies, you know, follow the rules. But at least it's something and people can maybe get some of that money back.

[Jill Manoff]

Yeah, it's interesting and a lot of these, the comments or the stories have to do with like the value of this quote, like art or this piece, this nft. But you know, we wrote about it all the time and a lot was wrapped up into this purchase of this nft, which I'm sure ties to the efforts of the company that's selling it. But like that they get access to great events, they get first access to different drops and all these promises, which I mean, would be more compelling to me than the NFT itself. But I was talking to Netta Whitney this week, president of MAT Projects formerly, we know her of being at Christie's head of marketing, but we were talking about Cannes Lions and the fact that we glossy isn't going this year. She's like, you're crazy. But anyway, the fact of the matter is she was like, I think that this year it's going to be about like applicable AI and how people are actually using it. And that's going to be a hot topic. She's like, last year it was AI. The year before it was NFTs. And we just like rolled our eyes. Yeah.

[Danny Parisi]

So it was Metaverse. Metaverse was one also.

[Jill Manoff]

Yes. So like these things are coming and going fast as the trend cycles going crazy. And yet a lot of people put a lot of faith in all of these digital products, digital E commerce, shopping. Like, it almost reads as naive looking back at the pandemic because obviously we were, this is different than just E commerce, but we Were at home. All we had was digital. We weren't gonna be home forever anyway. Yeah, kind of aligns with that.

[Danny Parisi]

I really think people should not to like, sound like you can't trust any, like new technology or anything. Cause there's plenty of like really amazing innovative stuff coming out all the time. But I do think you should approach any sort of like new craze with some skepticism. Especially when it's like a company that has invested a lot of money into making that thing happen is telling you that it's the next big thing. I sort of feel the same way about AI as we now are thinking about NFTs and Metaverse, where I think it's a little bit more practical, but I still find a lot of it to seem very bubble like to me. And like with NFTs, I remember people saying like, well, yeah, some of it is kind of like fluff, but eventually the fluff will burn away and the actual practical applications will remain. And I'm like, I don't know. Feel like that really happened. I don't think there's any. I mean, I could be wrong, but I feel like I just don't even hear the term at all anymore. Nft. I haven't gotten an NFT pitch from anyone in years.

[Jill Manoff]

Probably totally. Maybe it will have a resurgence. It's like zines are back. Who knows?

[Danny Parisi]

Yeah, you never know. That would be the real retro throwback. Like lose all your money on a financial rug. Pull NFT again, you missed out nostalgia, the fomo. I want to get a class action lawsuit against Nike. I should buy an NFT now so I can sue them in three years. Okay, let's wrap it up there. It's always great talking with you, Jill. I want to hear a little bit before we take a break and hear your conversation with Jen from Rent the Runway. Can you tell us a little bit more about what you guys talked about? I mean, you just spoke with her on stage not too long ago. Was that at Shop Talk?

[Jill Manoff]

I believe it was at Shop Talk. I think it was Shop Talk Chicago. It was not long ago. But yes, they get a lot of flack actually, because Nuuly has come up as a competitor. I think it's an instance of kind of all boats rise with the tide or whatever because there are so many people who haven't even considered renting and still kind of snubbed their nose at it. However it's catching on. It's catching on. It's like it's proven itself as a business model or as of as worthy. But anyway, Newly's come up as a competitor and they have more members and they are doing more revenue and all the things. So you know, Rent the Runway has been getting flack lately, but it was great to talk to Jen and hear it from her how they're evolving. They've revamped their membership a couple of times, kind of. They landed in a great place and they're coming out with all of these new tech driven updates which are fun to see. I was very upfront that I am a member so it's nice of me to see. Nice for me to see that they've recently like this week they've released like they'll notify you when something's back in stock because inventory. She was very upfront that inventory is an issue and I've experienced that for sure and they have just invested a ton in inventory and are coming out with great tech enabled features that members are gonna like is her take and I, I'm hopeful for it. So we had a great conversation.

[Danny Parisi]

Yeah, that sounds great. Well, like I said, we'll take a short break and then we'll hear your conversation with Jennifer Hyman from Rent the Runway. Thanks for being here Jill, and thank you for listening.

[Jill Manoff]

Thank you. We're going to take a quick break to hear from our sponsor. Hey Glossy Podcast listeners. Listrack consistently delivers results for their beauty and fashion clients, providing critical data, insights, opportunities and innovation to help them succeed over the holiday season. List Track launched the first rich communication services marketing campaign in the United States for its partner and client, the American heritage handbag and fine leather goods brand Dooney and Bourke. The campaign proved the power of this revolutionizing mobile messaging format, more than doubling the revenue per cent compared to SMS campaigns. Bridge Communication Services. RCS for short, has already made a splash globally and now it's available in the US this track's industry experts expect RCS to be the beauty and fashion marketers power tool in 2025, driving ROA by delivering rich interactive experiences that bring brands to life. Think enhanced media and photography, product carousels, multiple choice questions, polls. All interactions that go beyond the traditional copy with an SMS message. Now is the time to start creating your RCS Strategy and ListTrack is here to help and guide you in reaching your customers via interactive messaging. That's listtrack.com l I s t r a k dot com.

[Christina Ko]

I'm Christina Ko, senior editor at Customer Digiday Media's and Glossy's in House Agency in this podcast inter social story sponsored by Listrac. We speak with Jamie Eldon Listrack's chief revenue officer about how beauty brands are standing out, leveraging personalization and what creative formats are on the horizon.

[Jamie Eldon]

I think we've all seen these brands that emerge on Instagram reels and they're on TikTok. They just appear and then suddenly they're everywhere and everybody's either wearing it, using it or talking about it. You know, like the direct to consumer brands that may have started in somebody's bedroom, basement, kitchen and within a year everybody's bought it. And that is a lot of these smaller brands are able to get that kind of success quickly by leveraging social media channels. Influencers, specifically micro influencers, you know, that they can lean into to use the product, talk about the product and really know how to connect with a consumer and specifically a younger consumer today. And that's where a lot of the larger, more, you know, global brands and national brands, I think struggle is finding that unique voice to connect there.

[Christina Ko]

While some beauty brands are finding success channeling their passion into social media posts, another way to stand out is, is through effective personalization.

[Jamie Eldon]

What we're doing is we're becoming a shopping partner with that customer. We're making recommendations based upon what their likes are and their behaviors. And that's something that we've been able to do at scale, cross channel across whatever device somebody's preferred method is. We then may pull in two to three blog articles or written content that Peter Thomas Russell done about, you know, best practices for skin care and health care and we might put that in the email as well because we might find that valuable to support the product. So again, you know, what we're able to do is really build this personalized recommendation journey for a customer not only by putting the right product in front of them that they're interested in, but hey, here's some interesting articles and content around this area that you're looking, looking at and we're finding that that has become extremely valuable. It's kind of taking everything that they're interested in and putting it in one destination. And when they open it up they feel that, wow, this is exactly what I've been looking at and what I'm interested in.

[Christina Ko]

As delivering unique personalized experiences becomes what consumers expect, beauty brands now have access to new technology to develop highly impactful mobile experiences that showcase their exceptional creatives.

[Jamie Eldon]

In beauty and fashion. Brands really focus their creative prowess around print, digital, outdoor. They spend a lot of money on those creatives to make them look beautiful and to really appeal to consumers. That creative discipline around those is now being transformed into email creative, SMS creative, MMS creative. Listrack is the first company in the United States to send an RCS message, which is rich, creative. And that is going to be a game changer for the beauty industry and the fashion industry in 2025. Moving forward, RCS messaging through mobile phones allows a brand to pull in their TikTok shop content, content, their reels, their influencer content all into a video environment on somebody's cell phone. So what that means is it allows to create this unique, rich creative experience with functionalities of they can shop, they can browse through catalogs, they can request something through this. It's a whole new way of a brand to communicate with a consumer consumer through a cell phone. And it's going to be incredibly fascinating to see how that evolves over the next one to three years.

[Christina Ko]

You've been listening to Jamie Eldon, chief revenue officer at Listrac, our sponsor, on this episode. And now back to the Glossy Podcast.

[Jill Manoff]

Thanks for tuning in to the Glossy Podcast. I'm your host, Jill Manoff, and today I'm sitting down with Jennifer Hyman, Rent the Runway's CEO, co founder and chairman of the board. Rent the Runway launched in 2009 pioneering the concept of rental fashion. It has since expanded its assortment, fine tuned its memberships and experienced competition as new players have entered the market. So I wanted to ask Jen about what's working now in rental and how Rent the Runway's recent updates speak to consumer behavior. I also want to inquire about the expected tariff impact on the market. Resale is reportedly reaping the benefits already. Will rental do the same? Hi, Jen. Welcome.

[Jennifer Hyman]

Hi, Jill. So great to see you.

[Jill Manoff]

I'm so happy to have you here at last. I think we've talked about it for a long time. Rent the Runway was part of my identity as an office dweller and it's.

[Jennifer Hyman]

And it's part of your identity again.

[Jill Manoff]

I know. I'm back, baby. And I'm loving it.

[Jennifer Hyman]

I love it.

[Jill Manoff]

Yes. Full disclosure. Well, let's talk about it because I think I was swayed by some of your recent promotions. There have been a lot of changes made. Let's talk about some of the recent updates and kind of what drove these inventory changes, designer updates and what else is going on.

[Jennifer Hyman]

Yeah. So we have made for 2025 the biggest investment that we've ever made into our inventory and into our assortment. So we know for our business that inventory is the key to growth. We had really spent the Last few years bringing our business to a place where we were essentially nearly break even 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 kind of this next phase, which is scaling and tremendous growth. And so we decided to go for it this year and double the inventory.

[Jill Manoff]

Double? Oh, I didn't know. Double.

[Jennifer Hyman]

It's incredible. Our customers are going to experience, you know, hundreds of new arrivals every single week. And what doubling the inventory really does for us is a few things. Number one, it enables us to have constant newness, even during times of the year that traditionally we didn't have a lot of new arrivals coming in. And that is really important in a model like subscription, because it's an always on engagement model. So as opposed to traditional E commerce, where there are times during the year where the consumer is primed to shop and there are others where she doesn't think as much about shopping, those retailers could have inventory come in four times a year. And it's fine.

[Jill Manoff]

Yes.

[Jennifer Hyman]

For us, in an ideal world, we want our subscribers to be always on and using rent the Runway 12 months of the year. And for that to be exciting for them, they have to see, you know, new inventory even in the height of July, when in the fashion industry there's not a lot of newness that traditionally rolls out. So. So that's kind of one thing. The second thing is that 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. So because the inventory in the past was more concentrated to, you know, the March through May timeframe or September through November timeframe, we now are able to focus on those occasions in deep summer and in deep winter that folks may be using Rent the Runway for, like having a tennis match with your friends or going to the beach or going skiing in the winter. And so offering categories that are new, that keep people excited and engaged on the platform, and really upping the assortment in those categories is incredible. And then what we've also done is 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 against those brands is we've quadrupled the inventory assortment and dad put and breath in those brands so that more of our customers can access Ula Johnson and Veronica Beard and Staad and the brands that she really loves.

[Jill Manoff]

Awesome. I tell you what, and not Only are people excited when they get the this designer name. Maybe they've never been able to purchase. But when it arrives new with tags, as this happened to me, it's very exciting. It's very exciting. Are you seeing, is there some sexy data in terms of, like, how your customer is shopping? I know personally I go would go to the new arrivals and I'll shop that way. And that's the first place I go. And I go there probably multiple times a week. But did something like that inform also the need for constant newness?

[Jennifer Hyman]

I think that what informed the need for constant newness is our data over the last few years, which really showed us that the vast majority of the reasons why folks leave Rent the Runway is just inventory. It's just not having enough availability of the inventory that they've come to the platform and fallen in love with. And so that's really interesting for a subscription business like ours, especially a subscription business at a price point like ours, traditionally, you would see that more people would leave you because of price or more people would leave you because of convenience, or maybe they didn't have a good experience. That's not the case at Rent the Runway. They're basically saying, we love this election. We want to do this. This behavior of renting completely makes sense, but we want to actually be able to access all the inventory that we've harded. So what's unique about a rental model is just the engagement level as opposed to a customer shopping on your site two to four times a year. We have a customer who comes to our app four times a week, and most of our customers are in a subscription plan where they get two shipments a month. So if you think about that, that's interesting. It means that two out of the 16 visits a month, she's in pick mode, where she's picking her inventory. But 14 out of those 16 visits, she's in entertainment mode or heart mode. She wants to be inspired. She wants to see what the assortment is. So we've been investing a lot into merchandising, into new ways to browse the app, into the journey that she's going to have to get her to part even more to create lists so that it's way more convenient for her. We're investing super heavily into personalization this year so that her pathways have no dead ends when she's on the platform. But it gives us an opportunity to think about true games and entertainment like things that not every visit is going to be about a transaction. And therefore, like our app, can really expand in A lot of really interesting ways, and you'll see that over the next few quarters.

[Jill Manoff]

Exciting. So would you say the expansion, the inventory increase, was it deeper or wider or a little bit of both? Like, we're going deeper. We're offering more of this product that you want because we don't want to run out. It should be available if they want it. Yeah.

[Jennifer Hyman]

I mean, it's everything from 75% more new styles year over year. It's more depth. It's four times the amount of units in our top brands. It's 90 new brand launches this year. It's literally across every single category. The inventory experience will feel night and day different than it has in the past. And I think that, if I'm being honest, that is the place where we were not delivering as much to the consumer as we should have been. Especially in an environment where you do have a lot of competitors who are offering that constant newness. And so you have to play the game that you've now created.

[Jill Manoff]

Yes, for sure. Talk to me about your app updates, because I have noticed, like you talked about personalization, this is a large investment, a big move. Some of the changes that I've noticed, for example, like complete the look like you see the model wearing it, you can match the pants, you can get the, the, the, the little handbag. That's helpful. And I think you, you pulled in some similar items if maybe you want to try something, something else. But that's great. I. Maybe just in more inspiration. How would you describe it or what are some of the other updates?

[Jennifer Hyman]

Well, I, I think there are some incredible updates that we've already made. Over the first, you know, few months of the year, we've been focused on what does your first 90 days look like as a new subscriber or a rejoin subscriber. And we're trying to reinitiate you into a new way of getting dressed. And that's not easy to do. And let's kind of think about this for a second. We've all been taught over time how to shop. Shopping is a binary behavior. I go to a store or I go to a e commerce site and I either buy something or I don't buy it. And then once I have it at home, I either keep it or I return it. And so therefore, when I am on Shopbop, when I'm on Nordstrom, my behavior is more of a scarcity mindset. For those of us that don't have unlimited money, I'm not going to be buying 100 items from Nordstrom. Dot com. I might be buying two. So I'm, I'm doing a specific search. I need some new denim for the spring. I need a new winter coat. Let me look through all of the winter coats. Let me decide on the one winter coat that I want rent. The Runway is the exact opposite. We're effectively saying you have an unlimited closet, you can wear whatever you want. And because of that, we want you to discover constant newness, new trends, new colors, go out of your comfort zone, try new brands you've never tried before. And therefore, we want you to actually be open to a lot more than you would have been open to if you were in this kind of scarcity mindset purchase flow. So when you come to the site, we actually want you to look at our inventory in heart thousands of things as opposed to being very particular about, like which five or 10 things do you like out of this side of millions of items? And so we're trying to teach you like, there's no risk and you can try it all. So one of the things that we have implemented is a 60 day customer promise, where we're saying to the customer, in your first 60 days, anytime that you get items at home and you don't like them for any reason, just tell us and we will add more spots into your next shipment. So you never feel like you're taking a risk on a new brand or a new silhouette or a new trend. We actually want you to kind of put on your rent the Runway training wheels and, and have fun with this. That's the whole point. The point is discovery. So that customer promise is now in the product and we're kind of interrupting you when you have a shipment at home. We're sending you a push notification on your app and we're, hey, how are you liking the shipment? You're thumbs upping or thumbs downing. And if you don't like certain items in your shipment, like, we're just adding in more spots so you can try even more things. Second thing that we've implemented, we've implemented in product stylist help so that if you come onto the platform and let's say you're busy at work and you need to pick some new items because you have an event this weekend or you actually just are not sure about how things might fit you or you want some styling guidance, you can now in the product be connected to a real human, be texting with them, be chatting with them, or in whatever format you want. We'll even get on a zoom call with you if you Want and we'll help you build hearts list. We'll help you build short lists for all of your upcoming events. Next week, we're launching the most anticipated feature in kind of the past few years, our customers have been craving back in stock notifications. So our availability, of course, changes on a daily basis as customers are taking things out of our assortment and returning them to our assortment. So now you're going to be able to identify to us just like resi, hey, this might be out of stock today, but just notify me when it comes back in stock and we'll immediately message you the second that it's back in our warehouse so you could put it into your shipment. So we're trying to make it feel more risk free, more fun, and teach you this new behavior. And my analogy that I often speak about internally at Rent the Runway is actually Peloton, which is when you join peloton, you as a consumer don't expect that on day one of your journey of being a better athlete or getting stronger that you're suddenly going to be able to run 10 miles at a six minute clip. You understand that you actually have to to train and that you're going to take all their classes and you're going to get stronger and you're going to have days that don't feel great on that journey. Rent the Runway is a journey to kind of a new way of getting dressed. We're opening you up to 800 plus new brands, many of which you've never worn or tried before. And we want you to feel like this is actually fun and risk free and that the first few months, if you're not making mistakes, you're actually not doing it right. If every single item that you get from Rent the Runway is safe and it fits you and it looks perfect, it means that you haven't taken any risk. What's the fun of that? The whole point is to, to come and actually enable this amazing unlimited closet to let you be whoever you want to be.

[Jill Manoff]

So fun. Let's talk about that stylist that you can work with. I mean, did this necessitate a whole new pool of hires of, of these styling experts or their customer service experts or where did they come from? And was this a large investment?

[Jennifer Hyman]

So we actually started testing styling a few quarters ago and we did it in a more manual way. And we found that when we gave customers access to human stylists, we dramatically improved their loyalty rates. So then what we did is we embarked on a customer service transformation within the organization. Customer Service has always been one of the things that we're known for. We're really great at it. Basically, if you ask Rent the Runway customers, what do you love the most about Rent the Runway? Often the first answer is customer service. So what we've done is 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 joined and have a welcome call and teach you all about Rent the Runway or spend time styling you or help you create hearts lists or do those high value actions that make us a more premium service.

[Jill Manoff]

Nice. Well, tell me about this road you've been on over the how many, many years? Many years since 2009, where I'm sure there have been like peaks and troughs and people were not going to work. And now people are back at work and kind of like, where we've been and where we are now, like, is the demand high as ever? And what do you owe that to? Like, what is, what is the state of demand? It's a lot of questions.

[Jennifer Hyman]

No, I think that what's really exciting is that this is a real market now. Rent the Runway and the idea of having a fashion subscription was just an idea in my head 15 years ago. And it was an idea that many people or most people thought was crazy. And at this point in time, even the idea of wearing clothing that other people had worn before was considered extremely out there. Remember that Rent the Runway launched before the RealReal launched before Poshmark launched before essentially the entire market of secondhand. And we had to first convince the customer that secondhand could be aspirational and that there could be a designer value proposition as well as a consumer value proposition here. Our designer partners over the past 15 years have come to view us as a critical marketing partner for them, which is another piece of this market creation that has been really amazing and has been an essential piece of our growth story. So where we sit today is that millions of women every single year actually rent clothes. It's no longer something where I have to state my vision and kind of cross my fingers behind my back and pray that it works. Rental is here to stay, and it's going to be a part of how people get dressed forever. And now it's about offering the best inventory, the best assortment, the best customer experience. This is not a winner takes all market. This is a fundamental change in the fashion industry. And so I think that the growth and the opportunity is bigger than ever before. I believe in Rent the Runway more than I ever have before. And that's why I felt excited about making this biggest investment we've ever made into our inventory, because this is the exact right time to grow the market. Now, the fact that we may be entering into a recessionary period of time is potentially another incredible tailwind for our business. Because Rent the Runway has always been about value. It's been about being able to access the wardrobe of your dreams for a fraction of the price. And that was always appealing both to women who couldn't afford to buy the 10 new items of clothing every month that they're getting through their subscription, but also for the woman who just thought it was smarter to have a portion of her closet that she knew she was only going to wear a few times, have that be on rotation, and invest her dollars in a smarter way towards investment pieces that she could actually hold on to and keep for forever.

[Jill Manoff]

Yes, I wanted to say, good thing you made that investment in inventory when you did. But your costs will go up. Like, do you anticipate that your membership price pricing will not be impacted by tariffs or, you know, tbd? Everything's a little bit. We don't know what's going to happen with tariffs anyway actually until July 8th.

[Jennifer Hyman]

That's true. I mean, what's so interesting is being kind of deep now as a partner in this industry and a significant both sales and marketing partner of hundreds of different brands. 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 like, like 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. I mean, this all happened so suddenly. Over 90% of 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 US and so I think that all of our brand partners are trying to figure out, like, is this real? How are they going to manage? And it's affecting everyone. Because even if for the very, very few people that don't manufacture in China, there's an element or multiple elements of their supply chain that happen in China, Absolutely. I think that I am taking it day by day with our brand partners. I'm actually going next week to LA to sit down with 20 of our brand partners there and just gonna have open conversations with them on how should we handle this together.

[Jill Manoff]

Nice. I have heard brands tell me what a valuable partner you are time and time again. And I'm sure I would love to hear from your point of view. Obviously you meant you referenced the new competition in the market and your years. I'm sure you've got, like, data is a differentiator. Your the amount of data that you have in your customer. But I would love to hear, like, what do you consider your differentiators now? Maybe an elevated assortment, maybe your variety. I don't know. I feel like there are a couple you could. You could name. But from your point of view, I.

[Jennifer Hyman]

Think that the most important differentiator is the brand assortment that we have. We carry designer brands, we carry high quality fashion, and you have to fundamentally care about designer brands to want to come to Rent the Runway. So if you just want constant newness, there are cheaper options for you to achieve that. So I think that having a platform where we have Altazara and J.W. anderson and Proenza and Stod and Ula Johnson and Simon Miller and Gani and hundreds of new brands that we launch every single year, we're going after a customer who cares about fashion. Number two, we understand the aesthetic of who our customer is. So our customer is a working woman for the most part. She wants to dress in a more sophisticated way. She wants to dress in a elevated or feminine way. And so we stay very true to a specific aesthetic that feels more, I think, sophisticated than some of our competitors in the market. And again, this is why I believe that there's truly room for everyone. And what's interesting is that that aesthetic is not about an age. I think that casually, like people have said in the market that Rent the Runway is more for the woman in her 30s and 40s, and Nuuly is catering more to the woman in her teens and twenties. That is only as true as what the aesthetic choices are of that customer. Now, it is true that, like, from a price point standpoint, a younger woman is going to be more attracted to a lower price point. But if you go around the campus of an SMU or an Ole Miss, like I have before, like, you will see that there are Rent the Runway sororities and there are newly sororities, and that's just based on, like, the vibe of that specific sorority. So I would say it is true that the majority of our customers are those women who are really, you know, 25 to 50 and kind of doing all of the things in her life, like going through the phases of building her career, her family, her social life. And one of the fundamental characteristics of our customer base is how busy she is, is. And she's the customer that wants the luxury of convenience. So another distinguishing factor of our platform is the customer service is the fact that we offer flexibility, that we offer styling, that we offer something risk free, that it is an experience that feels more luxurious and premium because we know that that is critically important to our consumer. Our consumer does not want to spend hours and hours at night on the app figuring out what her next shipment is. So we've tried to create an experience for her that meets her where she is.

[Jill Manoff]

Nice. Well, I was going to ask something along those lines about kind of what's working to win the new customer. If it is messaging about maybe it's about convenience, I don't know. Do you, you play up the sustainability element? Do you play up what's working?

[Jennifer Hyman]

I think right now what's working is leading with inventory. The only reason why anyone wants to come to a rental platform and engage with it is that they like the fashion. And so the fact that we now do have hundreds of new arrivals every single week and all these incredible new brands and for every single use case, like we're putting that front and center in all of our messaging. And that seems to be what's working in getting a lot of our former customers like you to come back as well as drive new customers. And what I'm seeing, interestingly is that the inventory, so the inventory drives better loyalty, which was the thesis behind doubling it in the first place. But that better loyalty also drives this organic flywheel. So one of the things that I'm already starting to see is the organic engagement on Tick Tock since we doubled the inventory and those new arrivals have started to come in, has just started to climb exponentially because customers love the inventory more. They're posting hauls on TikTok more so than they did in the past. And that drives more organic acquisition for us.

[Jill Manoff]

So fun. I was going to ask a little bit about some of your video content strategy. You and I've noticed you have like a new face of your social media.

[Jennifer Hyman]

Yes, yes.

[Jill Manoff]

Who does seem younger and does seem very fun. She's showing off some looks, but yeah, tell me about that strategy.

[Jennifer Hyman]

I think that every brand at this point needs to be personality driven. So think of like who have been the most successful brands over the last few years. It's Alex Cooper, it's Alex Earle. It's Bethenny Frankel. It's individuals who you can actually have some sort of emotional connection to and have authenticity. So I think that the brand has moved, the notion of brand has moved away from like big corporate to, you know, content creator. And I don't think that that's going away. So we're really leaning into authentic, personality driven content. And to that end, we're investing heavily again into community because our own customers are the best representatives of Rent the Runway. That's how we drove growth, you know, traditionally. And we're reengaging our community both online and offline. You will see a lot happening this year in the way of community and we think that that's going to be a big driver for us as well.

[Jill Manoff]

Amazing stores. Are stores working or, or showroom locations, whatever you call them or you found that we don't want to be doing that.

[Jennifer Hyman]

We wanted to elevate the entire customer experience across the board. And I am a huge believer in offline retail and the experiences that come from actually interacting with real product and real sales people. But there was so much low hanging fruit in making the experience on our app better for everyone via these things like this 60 day customer promise back in stock Notifications, styling, personalization, all of the things that you'll see us continue to launch throughout the year that the first, second and third step for us is no matter where you live, the majority of our customers will always, even if we had a big retail footprint, would never live by a store. So we want everyone who experiences Rent the Runway to have an incredible experience, regardless of whether they can meet us in person.

[Jill Manoff]

Totally. Well, we talked about a couple of challenges. Obviously tariffs are a big one. Anything else kind of weighing on your mind in 2025? Something you you're looking to conquer? You've, you've made some great progress on personalization and such.

[Jennifer Hyman]

Yeah. I think that we did a lot of work over the last few years in proving that the business model of rental actually works. That last year we went from in 2023 burning $70 million in cash to last year burning 6. And if you looked 30 days later at the cash balance because there were some timing discrepancies like we burned around $2 million last year. It's effectively a break even model. And so now we have to prove to the market that we can take advantage of this growing market and that we can grow our subscriber base.

[Jill Manoff]

Yes.

[Jennifer Hyman]

So everything that I'm doing at the company is focused on growth and customer experience.

[Jill Manoff]

Right on. And any opportunities Like, I don't see you expanding to menswear anytime soon, but any, any other opportunities, opportunities that kind of, you're. You're targeting for the year ahead.

[Jennifer Hyman]

I think that we're staying really simplified in terms of what we're doing. One of the things that I did, and we talked about this in October at Shop Talk, that at the beginning of 2024, I re approached my job at Rent the Runway as if I was a new CEO. And I came in and I wanted to transform our business for a new chapter. And so in 2024, I focused a lot on talent. Both acquisition of new talent within the organization, but putting existing amazing talent into the right jobs that align with their strengths. I focused on being a business that was break even. I focused on changing the ways that we work to be more agile and to speed up our decision making. To go back to a culture of, of founder mode where everyone views themselves as being an owner, everyone views themselves as being obsessed with the customer. And so that's really the change that we embarked on in 2024 and in 2025. It's really all about growth. And part of this changing the ways of working was removing a lot of the superfluous processes that had crept up into the way that we work worked and a lot of the superfluous goals. I have found that as a business grows, you actually have to have fewer goals as opposed to more goals. And so we now as an organization have really only four goals and four cross functional pods that we built to deliver against these goals. And every single week, my expectation is that our pods are going to launch new experiments that are customer focused and that we can quickly test. Is this an experiment that is actually moving the needle for us that we should be investing even more resources into?

[Jill Manoff]

I mean, it does sound like a young, nimble brand and CEO. It's the new Rent the Runway.

[Jennifer Hyman]

It is the new Rent the Runway. And I think that it's been really special. Actually. I was sharing this with my team the other day because they said, like, what's top of mind for me? I had an all hands meeting and someone asked me, you know, what, what's top of mind? And about a month ago, you know, my father, who was the most important person in my life, died. And my father is the reason I started Rent the Runway. He's the inspiration for this company. One of our core values is dream big and go after it. That is really about him and the values that were kind of instilled in me as a kid and very interestingly many, many months ago when we decided to double our inventory on our platform, we decided that we would launch a campaign on March 8 that went out to all of our customers and gave my personal email address and said to our customers, hey, like, here's my email. Email me if you have any feedback on how we can improve. Rent the Runway. March 8 was also the day that my dad passed away. And so within an hour of my dad passing away, I started receiving thousands of emails from members of the Rent the Runway community. And actually those emails were primarily about how Rent the Runway had changed their life and how changed the way that they felt about themselves. Rent the Runway was there for them during difficult periods of time in their life, like postpartum. And of course those emails were also filled with, you know, constructive feedback on how we can improve. But at the most difficult period of time in my life, I received this miracles, these, this, these notes of love and support about this business that I've invested the last 15 years of my life into. And that was really beautiful. And then while I was out on bereavement leave, we had also pre planned for our whole team to stop working for three days and call former customers and try to win them back and to engage in conversations with those former customers on why they had left in the first place and what we could do to improve. And my team was engaged in those conversations and I started seeing while I was out kind of grieving my dad slack messages between my team with all of this energy and founder mentality and love and fun. And it was like our culture had come alive again in this unbelievable way. And so there's been this real feeling of rebirth and newness at the company over the last year or so and especially over the last few months as we've now kind of gotten on this growth path and invested in the inventory and it has been really beautiful. And the culture of the company today is the thing that I'm the proudest of and it's what makes me, it's what gives me the highest conviction that we are going to win, that we're going to grow and that we'll continue to build on this vision.

[Jill Manoff]

Right on. It feels very powerful and thank you for sharing that and I'm so sorry about your dad, but, but thank you. It feels like it was all at the, at the right time and yeah, your community pulled through and your, your team pulled through and it reminds me of just, I mean, how important and how again, powerful it is for the, the founder to be so hands on and Still a huge part of the, the company and to be the driver and the passion and the. I don't know, I just feel like companies that don't have this, like I would more so bet on, run a company with, with the CEO who, who cares who's active.

[Jennifer Hyman]

Well, I clearly agree with that, that there is something really special about the intensity of a founder. Because this is my first child. There's no one who's ever going to love and care about Rent the Runway more than me. I work 247 on this business because I love it. But what it does when you're in founder mode, founder mode really means to me that you're able to be at that one foot level. Like, like the thousands of customers who actually emailed me in March. I responded individually to every single one. I didn't have someone on my team do it. I didn't have my chief of staff do it. I wrote back to every single one. It was, that was critically important to me. But it also. Being a founder is about understanding what are the problems that are big enough to matter to dig into and where the area where you want to adjust your altitude. When do you want to be incredibly strategic and kind of sit at that 10,000 foot level? When do you want to dig in at that one foot level and write back the emails to all of the customers? And so being in founder mode actually gives permission to the rest of my team to be that way. And that's the power of having a founder driven business. It's not about one person. It's about how one person is kind of modeling the behavior for the rest of the organization. That at every level of the organization there's no task that's beneath you that you have to be as customer obsessed at every single stage of the business. And so bringing back that grounding in the customer to everything that we do has kind of enabled and empowered everyone on my team to actually like move a lot quicker and be faster and be more entrepreneurial. And being more entrepreneurial is just more fun.

[Jill Manoff]

Yes. You have set the tone. Yes, for sure. Oh my God. Jen, this is fantastic. I feel like I've kept you so long, but like, wow. Such a great conversation. Thank you for being here, for being so open and honest. It's such a joy to have you. Thank you.

[Jennifer Hyman]

Thank you so much, Jill. And send me all your feedback on Rent the Runway. You are a customer as well, so I want to hear it and I will do my best to improve.

[Jill Manoff]

I will take my outfit of the day photo.

[Jennifer Hyman]

Please do post those photo reviews.

[Jill Manoff]

You know it. Oh, my gosh. Thank you, Jen. That's all for this episode. Our theme music is by Otis McDonald. If you liked this episode, be sure to share it with someone else you think would. Thanks for listening to the Glossy podcast.