Lending Out Clothes Lying Around the House Earns $7,000 a Month... This Side Hustle is Booming in the U.S.

Earn Rental Fees from Unused Items Like Clothing and Cameras

Experience Over Ownership for Expensive Products... The Consumption Culture of Young Americans

Recently, a service that allows people in the United States to lend out unused clothing, fashion accessories, cameras, and other personal items in exchange for rental fees is gaining popularity. This trend, which aligns with the consumer culture of Millennials & Gen Z who prioritize experiences over ownership, is drawing attention as a new form of side hustle.

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Generating Income From Unused Items... Some Users Earn Tens of Millions of Won per Month

According to Fortune on July 27 (local time), peer-to-peer (P2P) rentals—where individuals lend unused items to others for a fee—are spreading among young people in the U.S. The media outlet highlighted "Pickle," a peer-to-peer (P2P) clothing and fashion accessory rental platform, as a representative example of this trend.

Pickle is a platform where individuals can lend out their clothing and fashion accessories to other users. The platform is often called the “Airbnb for clothing,” as it offers not only luxury apparel but also accessories and cameras for rent.

Kat Friday, an employee at a fintech company, registered her Canon G7 X camera—worth about $1,000 (approximately 1.4 million won)—as a rental item for $150 (around 200,000 won) per week after it had been sitting unused at home for a year. After immediate rental requests, Friday also listed shirts and dresses she no longer wore. Since then, she has purchased in-demand apparel herself to further expand her list of rental items.

Within eight months of joining Pickle, Friday has been earning an average of about $7,000 per month (approximately 1.009 million won). To manage the increased volume of rentals, she has leased a storage space of about 2.8 pyeong (approximately 9.2 square meters) and is currently considering hiring her first employee to handle order management.

According to Fortune, the highest-earning Pickle user last month made $30,000 (approximately 4.33 million won) in a single month.

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Renting Clothes for Special Occasions Instead of Buying..."Experiences Over Ownership"

The appeal of Pickle lies in the fact that individuals can generate income from items they no longer use, while consumers can experience high-end goods without having to own them.

This has resonated especially with young consumers who need specific outfits for events like travel, weddings, or social media photoshoots.

Luxury apparel—worth several million won—can also be rented at a much lower cost than its purchase price. The approach of renting expensive items when needed, instead of buying and owning them, and re-renting out unused possessions to make extra income, is taking root as a new consumer trend.

Julia Omara, co-founder of Pickle, said, "Today's generation places higher value on experiences than ownership," adding, "The fact that consumers can experience trendy products without actually buying them is what resonates with them."

Having started in New York, Pickle has now expanded its service nationwide to all 50 states, including Miami, Los Angeles, and Boston. According to Pickle, about 25% of women aged 18 to 35 living in Manhattan use the service, and more than half of its active users have rented items at least once a week in the past year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.