NYC Women Earn Up to $30,000 a Month Renting Out Wardrobes to Strangers via Peer-to-Peer App Pickle

New Yorkers are fast turning their wardrobes into mini-businesses through peer-to-peer rental app Pickle, with some women in the city now earning as much as $30,000 a month by lending out clothes and accessories to strangers across the US.

One of those new entrepreneurs is 27-year-old revenue operations worker Kat Friday, who runs a growing Pickle storefront from a 100-square-foot storage unit in Manhattan while holding down a full-time job.

Pickle launched in New York City in 2021 as a hyperlocal marketplace and has since expanded across all 50 US states.

Pickle Targets Gen Z and Millennial Customers

The service, founded by former Blackstone colleagues Brian McMahon and Julia O'Mara, focuses on luxury clothing and accessories rented out directly by owners, largely to Gen Z and millennial customers who want high-end looks without paying designer retail prices.

Its cofounders have pitched it as a kind of Airbnb for wardrobes, arguing that younger shoppers increasingly value access over ownership.

Friday did not join Pickle with a grand plan. She first stumbled across the app on TikTok in February 2025, looking for holiday outfits. Despite joking that she is 'not into fashion one bit' and prefers to wear all black, she noticed her unused Canon G7 X camera on a shelf at home and wondered if anyone on Pickle might want it. In November 2025 she listed the camera, which typically sells for about $1,000, for $150 a week. Bookings came almost immediately.

'I never use this thing and people are dying for them,' she said. 'I immediately got a bunch of rentals for it, and I was like, okay, I'm gonna list some other stuff.'

From there, Friday began uploading shirts and dresses that rarely left her wardrobe. As orders grew, she started buying what she calls 'investment pieces' specifically for Pickle, consciously choosing on-trend items in multiple sizes so more renters could wear them. Watching top sellers in New York convinced her there was room to scale.

'I remember after renting out that camera a couple times, I was like, Holy sh-t, there's a market for this,' she said. 'I looked at some of the other top lenders in the New York area and surely I could just buy these clothes.'

Within eight months, Friday had become one of Pickle's highest-volume lenders, earning around $7,000 a month from her listings. That side income is now substantial enough that she rents a dedicated storage unit to manage her inventory and is considering hiring her first employee to keep up with roughly 25 to 30 orders a week.

How Pickle Turned Wardrobes Into Microbusinesses

Pickle's premise is disarmingly simple. Users scroll through more than 500,000 listings, from Miu Miu straw cowboy hats to floral Zimmerman 'Euro Summer' dresses and pay a fraction of retail price to borrow them for a few days. One user recently made $30,000 in a single month on the platform, McMahon said.

The name is a nod to being 'in a pickle' when you have a last-minute wardrobe emergency. As O'Mara explained, if you suddenly need a standout outfit for a wedding, a beach trip or an overseas holiday, you can borrow from a neighbour's closet or have it shipped via two-day express to almost anywhere in the country.

Initially confined to New York, Pickle now sees its heaviest usage in New York, Miami, Los Angeles and Boston, with shipping helping to seed new markets. O'Mara says borrowers often become lenders themselves once they see items successfully circulating and realise their own wardrobes could generate income.

The founders are pitching Pickle squarely at younger, digitally fluent consumers who obsess over trends online but struggle with the price of luxury labels.

Boston Consulting Group figures cited by the company suggest Gen Z will account for 40% of US fashion consumers over the next decade, while a McKinsey report estimates the global luxury market could reach $700 billion by 2030. Against that backdrop, Pickle's offer of a £1,000-plus look for a sub-£200 rental fee is a direct response to squeezed discretionary budgets.

O'Mara argues this cohort is less attached to owning things outright. Renting designer pieces on Pickle, she says, lets them test micro-trends 'guilt free', wear something once and pass it on.

Inside Pickle's New York Power Users

New York remains Pickle's power base. The company claims that around a quarter of women aged 18 to 35 in Manhattan now use the app, with many treating it as a structured side hustle rather than a casual clear-out.

Friday's operation borders on small business territory. After work, she hauls a portable power station to her storage unit so she can run steamers and irons, keeping garments in lender-ready condition. She is also considering sharing a studio apartment with other sellers to centralise operations. 'There's always things to be cleaned,' she said. 'There's always orders to be packed. There's always orders to be accepted.'

Another New York 'Pickler,' Pinterest advertising employee Martyna Wiacek, has carved out a niche in wedding gowns and guest dresses. She now brings in between $2,000 and $3,000 a month renting pieces tailored to that one-off-event market. After the first few bookings, she said, 'you kind of get hooked,' and she began combing her wardrobe for anything else that might work on the platform.

Wiacek compares the experience to lending clothes to a friend, saying repeat local customers have turned transactions into something closer to a community.

She describes helping renters through major life moments as a 'cute bonding experience,' noting that demand tends to ebb and flow with the wedding and party season.

Pickle, which has raised $20 million in total funding as of July 2026, faces competition from bigger names in resale and rental such as Rent the Runway, Nuuly and The RealReal. Its founders are betting that a pure peer-to-peer model, powered as much by word of mouth as by influencer deals, will keep it distinctive.

McMahon insists the app is becoming 'a gateway into luxury' for Gen Z renters, arguing that trying designers through Pickle helps them decide which labels are ultimately worth saving up to own.

For now, at least in New York, plenty of young women appear happy to let their closets do some of the earning.