Fast Company | Business + Innovation: Watching Ramon Leiva lift a nail-polish stain out of a dress is mesmerizing. He squeezes pungent chemicals out of plastic bottles and rubs the dark purple streaks with a brown, soft-bristle brush to see if the offending substance will come out. In less than 30 seconds, he finds the right treatment, and the stain begins to lighten. At that point, he starts hitting the dress with the brush until the discoloration disappears completely. It's an incredibly satisfying sort of magic.
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This article, surprisingly, kept me interested from start to finish. I had no idea that being a spotter was a thing much less that it is such a valuable skill to have. I think it would be really cool to get a couple of these people for large touring shows. You never know what kind of stain you can pick up in the theatre and touring shows need their costumes to last as long as possible so they don't have to make so many backups. Spotting is also just so interesting to me that I almost want to go learn how to be one. To make something that is supposed to be permanent just disappear holds so much power.
What an educational article! I had no idea that renting designer gowns was even a thing; though now that I think about it, genius! It makes sense that turnaround time would be the most important thing in the eyes of a business in such an industry. The less time you have possession of a garment, the more time it is being rented and more money you are making off of the dress. Of course the bottleneck would become blemished clothing. What a daunting task those spotters have. I remember Kenny Chu teaching us how to recognize different types of fabrics and all of the steps you needed to take. I could not imagine having to do that and also identifying the culprit of the stain with such confidence as to not ruin the stain, especially not in under 15 minutes. I wonder if there is a large enough market for this in another demographic. Maybe soon we might see a high-class formal toddler attire rental service. Sounds adorable.
This company is providing a fantastic opportunity for many consumers who simply cant afford to pay a ridiculous amount of money for an article of clothing that if they owned they would only wear once. Now they can just wear it once anyways and return it. Its really intriguing to read the process that spotter's go through. What impressed me the most is the forensic nature of the Spotter's job to finding out what exactly caused the stain and that determining how they will treat the stain. Having worked with blood before he is right about the drops versus a mark. This company is also providing a fantastic opportunity to keep a trade living on through new opportunities. They mention the job of a spotter slowly dying out but I find it very hard to believe with such an immense need for the business world but its not surprising that companies are opting for technology over well paid tradesman
I've heard of something like this for purses, but never for actual garments. This seems like a really cool idea, though I wonder how they deal with sizing issues. Like, does every person who signs up go in to get measured so they know exactly what size to send you? Also, I wonder if they have limits to how many of the same dresses they will rent out to people within a certain proximity (to avoid two people renting the same dress and wearing it to the same party). Before reading the article, I had no idea about how dry cleaning worked, and I didn't know about spotters. After reading it it makes a lot of sense, and I think that the work that spotters do is really interesting. I would be so scared to have a job like that though. Trying to remove a stain from a dress that costs more than I make in a week would be nerve wracking.
This is fascinating! It is so difficult to work with couture fabrics in the best of situations, but when you have a stain, watch out! I have found in the past that I will change a design to avoid using an easily stainable fabric. Maybe if I had even half of the skills these blotters have I wouldn't need to.
I love this company model, because with the advent of social media it's easy to spot when fancy dresses have been repeated, and who can afford a new smashing number for every event? Brilliant on their part. It worries me that they are having such trouble finding good spotters, given that stain removal isn't really a glamorous career, but I'm sure that if the demand increases enough, the lack of supply will mean wage increases for those who choose to take that path.
It's fascinating to think about ow many spotters there must be in the US and how many are actually good. I had never really thought about this before, but it makes sense why spotters are in demand. it makes sense for small dry cleaning places to send back a garment if they can't get the stain out, but for Rent The Runway they lose money. It's pretty smart that they offer a training program for spotters. This way they can teach them the standard of spot treatment they are looking for while employing more people. I wonder if they have expectations for how much spotting knowledge you have before you join their program. I think it might be more successful if people could go in with no prior experience. This way they are starting of fresh and can learn correctly the first time.
It is pretty crazy to find such an interesting article about stain removal, although it is something I have been known to get excited about. To begin with, the entire concept behind Rent The Runway is really awesome. Considering that these are the types of dresses a woman is likely to wear once or only a few times for special occasions, this seems like a great way to go about finding a dress. I looked at the website, and the prices are pretty reasonable considering what you might normally spend on a dress for a special occasion. It makes sense that the spotters would be so vital to this business, as the profit of each dress is dependent on how many times the company can rent it out. But I really never considered that there was this specialized industry of masters that exists within the dry cleaning world. The fact that there is an almost two-year training program offered by the company really accentuates what a serious trade stain removal can be. I wonder if there are fees for returning stained garments.
It's always interesting to read about the odd jobs that most people never even think about. I, for one, did not know that spotting was a job in itself, or that it required the skill and the training described in the article. I definitely didn't know that it could be such a lucrative position, though it is pretty obvious why a good spotter can be so valuable. It was kind of funny to hear about the "poaching", too. It sounds like the dry cleaning industry may be diminishing (at least, it's not growing) -- maybe that's due to improvements in kinds of fabrics? Also, I'd be interested to see if spotters get bored of their work; it seems pretty straightforward and potentially very repetitive.
What fascinated me about this article is the how they called dry cleaning an art form. That isn't a conclusion that I would normally draw, however the article definitely convinced me that this process is in fact a form of magic. Having no background in fabrics or clothing, I can't possibly fathom how in tune these spotters must be with both the types of stains that they see on the clothing that they deal with and the materials and fabrics they are working with. Having such a core understanding of a task should be a model for how technicians go about their jobs. Sitting around and waiting for someone to tell you each step in a process works, but the efficiency achieved by theses spotters can only be reached through active forward thinking, which can be applied to any field or profession.
How cool is this! This was such an informative article. I've always had such a high respect for people who work in clothing and wardrobe type settings, and the idea of a spotter as an artist (or a "unicorn") is so interesting. I love the way they describe the process of identifying the stain and determining the best solvent to use to remove it. It's like a magical matching game. Rent the Runway as a whole is also incredibly cool to me. The whole idea is great for the people who want to use it, and unlike most large companies, I really find myself rooting for them to do very well and continue expanding. There is something about a company that really seeks out the best in each field that garners so much of my respect and I really love that.
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