Gant will launch a rental service for its spring 20 collection, a 10-piece range that will be available to rent for three days for 20% of the retail price. The rental service will be available to customers from May at its Regent Street flagship in London as well as at least one store in each of its international territories. The collection spans both menswear and womenswear and includes jackets, pants, dresses, shirts and blouses.
The new service joins Gants other sustainability initiatives it launched under the brands programme ‘The 7 Rules by Gant - rent, re-use, refresh, remake, repair, regive and recycle. For ‘re-use’, Gant will reintroduce 14 archive pieces where the proceeds will be donated to WaterAid. While garment care advice on its website and in-store workshops have been launched to help ‘refresh’ items.
Future initiatives will enable customers to recycle any item in store and in October and November customers will be offered a reward for doing so. While in December, Gant will ‘regive’ to the ocean by making a donation for every holiday-season purchase to clean oceans charity Waterkeeper Alliance.
Mintel comment:
“Over the last year, we have seen more rental fashion options as brands and retailers aim to tackle the issue of sustainability in fashion shopping. Several services dedicated to rentals have entered the market, including Hurr Collective which now has a pop-up shop in Selfridges. Additionally, young fashion retailers such as H&M and Urban Outfitters both announced in 2019 that they will be trialling clothing rentals. Fashion rentals aim to stop people buying clothing they don't intend to wear more than a couple of times, yet when we last asked in the Fashion & Sustainability - UK, August 2019 Report just one in five (20%) fashion shoppers said they would be interested in renting fashion items while just over one in ten (13%) had already done so. As the service becomes more prevalent perhaps shopper attitudes will change, but thus far the services are relatively pricey and best suited to those who want to wear an outfit for a specific occasion. While it is the fashion rentals that has grabbed the headlines, Gant's other efforts, such as introducing initiatives to help customers recycle or mend their clothing may resonate more with customers. Data from the aforementioned Fashion & Sustainability Report shows high levels of customer interest in repairing damaged items or selling unwanted items.”
