Two recent graduates from North Carolina State University have a growing retail business.
As students, Amelia Zahn and Emmy Weiland noticed a common frustration among their sorority sisters and friends at N.C. State. Many of them were using online clothing rental services like Rent the Runway to find dresses to wear to the plethora of college events they attended. But when the dresses arrived, they often wouldn’t fit, and the students found themselves wasting their time and money.
Zahn and Weiland had the idea to help their friends try on dresses before spending the money on renting them. “We saw how popular the clothing rental industry was, and we saw that frustration, so we just kind of looked for a way to fix it,” Zahn said.
Their business, TrenLend, had humble beginnings, with Zahn and Weiland lending out their own clothes from their closets.
That was back in 2022. Now, the two founders who graduated last month have a retail storefront in Cary and a growing presence in the Triangle. The retail space at 8420 Chapel Hill Road near downtown opened last August.
TrenLend’s monthly rent in Cary is $1,250, Zahn said. The owners applied for a line of credit through TowneBank in Cary to help fund their business into the future.
With degrees in business administration with a focus on marketing, the founders are ready to focus solely on growing their business, including adding a location in Raleigh.
“We really want to normalize the clothing rental industry and make it more accessible, and also just show customers how easy and accessible these designer brands can be for them, and just make it feel more normal by having that traditional retail aspect to it,” Zahn said.
Zahn hopes to have a Raleigh store open by the beginning of 2025. They are targeting the north Raleigh area. “We're really interested in looking at a storefront that sees a lot of foot traffic every day, so we can increase exposure that way,” Zahn said.
At TrenLend’s retail store, customers can try on whatever they want, and secure a rental in-person or through TrenLend’s online store as well. While TrenLend started by appealing to the styles of college students, the business is branching out to cater to many different women’s styles and sizes. Many customers are coming to TrenLend to rent dresses for weddings, bachelorette trips, vacations or work events.
“Slowly but surely, we're adding more styles that can be more versatile,” Zahn said.
Online rentals are and will continue to be a big part of TrenLend’s business model, as the company has sent rentals to 42 states and has shipped at least 300 orders so far this year. Zahn said expanding into office or warehouse space is a possibility in the future in order to accommodate more online orders and cleaning.
Year-to-date, TrenLend’s total sales are already 56 percent higher than total 2023 sales.
The two TrenLend owners currently handle all cleaning in-house through machine and hand washing; Weiland’s sewing skills come in handy for repairs, but they also use a local tailor for any significant repair work.
“We get a lot of red wine spills, or stuff like that. And we’ve figured out our own recipes through trial and error to get that stuff out,” Zahn said.
A few clothing rental companies have opened retail stores across the country, including Rent the Runway. But that company closed all of its locations in 2020.