Footwear retailer Schuh is the latest high street brand to partner with rental platform Hirestreet to launch its first shoe collection.
The platform – which has recently partnered with M&S, Warehouse and ASOS – has been experiencing a record summer for clothes rental, with traffic up 300% year on year. Last month it received 250 requests for a “shoe offering” to complement the outfits it already offered.
Hirestreet chief executive Isabella West said the rental platform, which launched in 2018, is “always looking for ways” to expand its offering to meet customers’ needs.
“As our audience becomes more comfortable with rental, they are looking at how they utilise its power beyond just their dress or core item and create a complete rental look,” she added.
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Is sustainable fashion on the rise?
The popularity of rental platforms such as Hirestreet coincides with the reported growth in rented fashion, with a report from RXUK Fashion Sector highlighting that rental schemes for clothing are slowly gaining interest from customers looking for sustainable fashion.
Schuh joins a growing list of fashion brands implementing sustainable shopping schemes such as Hirestreet for their customers.
Fashion brands have also been implementing repair schemes to encourage sustainable shopping. Oliver Bonas recently teamed up with repair and resale specialist Reskinned for a new take-back scheme which will give “pre-loved items a chance to shine once again”.
Shoppers will be able to shop the pre-loved Oliver Bonas products once Reskinned has taken the items and reconditioned them ready to be resold, where they will be available for around 40-50% of the original price.
Pieces that cannot be reconditioned for resale will be repurposed or upcycled into something new. If they have reached the end of their life and can no longer be resold, Reskinned will responsibly recycle them.
