A New York City-based rental marketplace is giving some women an unexpected way to build income from items already sitting in their homes. On Pickle, a peer-to-peer platform for luxury clothing and accessories, sellers can list everything from dresses to cameras and earn money when other users rent them.
One of the platform’s standout sellers is Kat Friday, a revenue operations employee at fintech company Marqeta. She first discovered Pickle on TikTok in early 2025 while looking for vacation outfits, but soon realized she could also rent out a Canon G7 X camera that had been unused in her apartment. After listing it for $150 a week in November 2025, she says the rentals started quickly. That led her to add more clothing items and eventually buy trendy pieces specifically to rent through the app.
Friday now earns about $7,000 a month from her Pickle storefront and says the business has grown fast enough that she rents a 100-square-foot storage unit to manage inventory. She is handling roughly 25 to 30 orders each week while still working a full-time job, and says the workload has become so demanding that she is considering hiring her first employee. To keep items ready for customers, she brings a portable power station to the storage unit so she can use steamers and irons after work.
Pickle was founded in 2021 by Brian McMahon and Julia O’Mara and began as a hyperlocal marketplace in New York City before expanding nationwide. The company says it now operates in all 50 states, with especially strong activity in New York, Miami, Los Angeles, and Boston. According to McMahon, one user made $30,000 on the app last month. The founders describe the service as a kind of rental-and-resale model for things people already own, with the idea that customers can borrow from someone else’s closet when they need an outfit quickly.
The platform is aimed largely at Gen Z and millennial shoppers who follow fashion trends but may not want to pay full price for luxury labels. Examples on the app include a Miu Miu straw cowboy hat that retails for $825 and can be rented for $50, as well as a Zimmerman dress priced at more than $1,200 that can be rented for $230. The company says the model is gaining traction because it offers both access for renters and a way for lenders to turn unused items into income.
Source: fortune.com
