Canadian peer-to-peer clothing rental company Rax is expanding into the US

Marley Alles started in accounting.

He felt that his goal was to work for a large company. “And as soon as I got there, I was like ‘oh, that’s it,'” he told TechCrunch.

Alles began to develop other passions and found himself curious about the startup world. He listens to every podcast and reads every book, writing articles on topics that interest him.

She didn’t think much of it until one summer when many of her friends were getting married, only to find themselves spending tons of money on wedding dresses and bachelorette parties. One day, a man came to her and asked her to borrow his dresses. “I was like ‘yeah, sure, welcome,'” he recalled. And then I thought, ‘How can this be done on a large scale?’

Alles had all these expensive dresses sitting in her room. He didn’t want to sell it, but he knew he might never wear those robes again. “That’s what led me, in a nutshell, to make Rax,” he said.

Everything started Rax earlier this year as a peer-to-peer clothing rental company. It currently works as a marketplace (it doesn’t have any clothes), where users go through a list and connect with people who have clothes they want to rent.

He has stopped the company so far, enough to write the software and launch it. The first few customers were his friends and family, and the rest came by word of mouth. Alles said he leaned on the idea of ​​”building in the community,” as he posted online about his efforts to create the project in hopes of gathering potential customers. They have about 5,000 users on the app right now.

Rex is one of the first of its kind to be established in Toronto. It’s like Rent-the-Runway, or New York’s Pickle, or European ByRotation. The idea of ​​renting clothes – similar to buying secondhand – has been picking up steam as it is seen as a more sustainable way to waste fashion than buying new things for each new season.

“This is driving the fashion cycle,” Alles said.

But what makes Rex different from many others is that they offer long-term rentals. “On our platform, you can rent for up to six months,” he said. “In competing platforms, they rent every day. So it’s more expensive if you want to rent for a few weeks’ vacation. Or you want a winter jacket for the season.”

At TechCrunch Disrupt in October, Rex announced its first launch in the US market. Alles said he fell in love with TechCrunch and signed up for the Battlefield contest, where he won the top consumer contest.

Alles said he was surprised he won. “There were many companies that had thousands or hundreds of thousands of users; they raised (like) $20 million in my group, and one (was) one of the leaders (shown in) Silicon Valley,” he said.

However, he found the experience “surprising.” Alles went to each startup to introduce himself to the founders, as well as attend other sessions and network. Actually, this was one of the biggest things he says he learned as a founder – the importance of connecting with people because it helps him better connect with the community.

Now that Disruption has passed, Alles said the company hopes to continue expanding in New York and begin building a rental platform to serve fashion designers and retailers who want to offer rental clothing to consumers.

“We have the technology, we have the audience,” he said, adding that brands are also looking for sustainable ways, and companies like Rex are letting them do it. “I think things are getting better and people are starting to realize the impact.”