NIke/Jordan Basketball Shoe Rental Opinion

[dannyarcher]

 
Hey everyone, 

So, I'm considering starting an online sneaker rental company and I wanted everyones advice on it. That being said, here's how it'll work. If you have a big game or big event coming up and are bored of your current shoes, then my proposal is to rent a pair for however long you need them. Whether it be a day, or a month. Does anyone think they would use this? We would have all types of shoes from basketball shoes, to rare collector items as well. This also serves as a great way to try out a pair of athletic shoes before you buy them. Also, if you like them enough you'd be able to buy them from us as well. Does anyone think they would use this type of business any time in the near future? We've worked through a lot of the issues that could arise but we're just wondering if this idea would attract enough customers. Let me know what you guys think! 

Thanks 

I agree thought of this idea a while ago and thought it out with my friends. Whilst you can make people put down a deposit equal to the cost of the shoe (and then return the deposit when they return the shoes) to prevent them from stealing it or severely damaging them, you can't control what they will do with it when they are wearing it.

People will be careful wearing the kicks they own, but if it doesn't belong to them, they're going to walk through mud, jump in dog sh*t, scrape it along the road while riding a motorbike - all of which will cause significant depreciation to your assets. In the end, this is what stopped me from thinking any further about the idea.

An alternative could be renting out the kicks at a basketball stadium and only allowing people to wear them for games, but I don't have much confidence that people want to wear shoes that have been worn by an unknown number of others (see people's attitudes towards putting on bowling shoes or ice skates).

Kudos for thinking outside the square though.