Last year, clothing rental company Nuuly repaired 1.7 million garments, removing 1.2 million stains, replacing 50,000 buttons, stitching 500,000 rips, and shaving more than 64,000 cubic inches of sweater fuzz—enough fuzz to fill a hot tub, for reference.

Those efforts allowed the company to keep more than 42,000 pounds of clothes in rotation on the platform, which is owned by Urban Outfitters, Free People, and Anthropologie parent URBN. The company enables its 300,000 subscribers to rent six styles a month from more than 300 brands for $98, reaching profitability in 2023.

Nuuly is “scratching that itch of wanting to have newness and trend in their life without the burden of the ownership,” Sky Pollard, Nuuly’s head of product, told Retail Brew, but in order to ensure that happens, it has to keep the products just like new. The company, whose net sales had grown 48.4% YoY as of November, opened a new 600,000-square-foot fulfillment and laundry center in Kansas City last year, joining its first facility located outside Philadelphia.

Nuuly does not charge any damage fees, unlike Rent the Runway, which has a stricter policy that covers only minor wear and tear, and encourages subscribers not to wash the items themselves. As such, about 25% of the clothes in its offerings today have received at least one repair and 9,000 items in its original assortment in 2019 remain in rotation. Pollard broke down Nuuly’s repair and cleaning process and life cycle of the company’s garments.

Keep reading here.—EC

Nike is hoping that Kim Kardashian can help it rebound. The struggling activewear giant is partnering with Kardashian’s shapewear brand to launch NikeSkims this spring in a rare partnership that aims to bring together Nike’s expertise in “innovation” and “sport science” with Skims’s “obsession for the female form.”

Despite bringing in CEO Elliott Hill last year to revitalize the brand, Nike’s struggled to bounce back from a historic slump: Sales were down 8% last quarter, and the stock has lost more than 25% of its value in the last year. Nike is betting that Skims—and Kim—will boost its stock with a key demographic it’s been losing.

Keep reading here on Morning Brew.—CC

This week retail industry leaders are gathering in Palm Springs, California, to talk shop. Over four days, the annual eTail conference will feature sessions and talks on emerging retail and e-commerce trends, including specialized tracks focused on customer loyalty, artificial intelligence, and omnichannel strategies. This year’s lineup includes executives from Walmart US, Sam’s Club, Office Depot, Lowe’s, and H&M, to name a few.

Here’s what else is going on retail this week:

In earnings: We’re getting into the heart of Q4 earnings season. Reporting this week are The Home Deport on Tuesday and Lowe’s and TJX Companies on Wednesday. Both home improvement chains had strong Q3s, but noted that consumers were still cautious in their spending in response to higher interest rates. TJX Companies, meanwhile, continued its winning streak in Q3 and noted that the holiday season was already off to a strong start, auguring well for the quarter to come.

Keep reading here.—AV