The Rent Economy – Plumgear

I am really interested in the emerging Rent Economy (not sure if this is a real term, but it sounds good).  What I mean by the Rent Economy is the host of new companies that will rent things that have been traditional buy items.  I ran across a company last night that rents designer baby clothes called Plumgear.  For as little as $16 a month, you can get bundles of baby clothes delivered to you a la Netflix.  They even say on their site that they are “Netflix for baby clothes.”  You keep the clothes for up to three months, and then ship them back.

When I first heard about Plumgear, my first question (having some amount of experience with babies) was “What if you stain it?”  Turns out they answer that question right on the home page.  If you stain the clothes, they either donate them to a foster care organization or turn the clothes into toys.  That’s pretty cool.  They also tell you right up front how they launder the clothes in the event that there are allergies and the like to consider.

If you have had kids, you know that they grow out of clothes remarkably fast in the first few years.  This inevitably leaves you with bins of clothes that you either (a) hold onto for your next child and hope they are the same sex; (b) Lend/give as hand-me-downs to your friends and hope they don’t ruin them or (c) sell them to some local consignment store and get 25% of what you paid for them.  Of course, you don’t realize this when you are in the middle of the fray and just trying to keep your life moving.

Plumgear is another in a growing line of companies, particularly in clothing, that allow you to rent rather than buy the things you really want.  Whether it’s Rent The Runway for designer women’s fashion, or Bag Borrow or Steal for women’s handbags (featured in the first Sex and the City movie), I love these companies allowing access to top-end gear at prices most people can afford.

If you go onto Plumgear’s site today, you will see a notice that they are sold out and are not accepting new memberships.  I imagine these are just growing pains.  I am looking forward to seeing how these guys do going forward.

What do you think of this idea?  Is it something you would do / would have done for your babies?