If your friends’ lack of kayaks keeps spoiling your dreams of organizing flotillas in nearby lakes, weep no more: last week, a small group of New Jersey men formally quit their jobs to focus on , a subscription-based gear closet.
The brainchild of outdoor enthusiast and startup veteran Dariusz Jamiolkowski, five-week-old OX gives subscribers access to . Basic subscriptions to OX (there are a few options, the cheapest of which is $100) allow users to rent one item per week. You can rent more items at 10 percent of each additional product’s value. OX recently , and expects to be “fully operational” by July, after which point basic subscription costs will double.
So far, most of the rentals come from New Jersey (OX is based in Fairlawn), but subscribers hail from California, Colorado, Florida, and even England. Jamiolkowski estimates the young company rents about 10 items per week, and he hopes to attract more than 1,000 total subscribers by the end of summer, mainly by preaching the company’s cause at big events like the Philly Folk music festival and relying on word of mouth.
But while OX is still young (currently it only has a couple hundred paying members), it’s run by seven business- and tech-savy teammates whose resumes are padded with names like Lockheed Martin and Novo Nordisk. Jamiolkowski officially left his position as in February after being accepted into , while marketing lead Adam Hackett quit his day job on June 6.
That team has come up with a unique gear-sharing model. Unlike GearCommons—another peer-to-peer program that depends on its users to supply gear—OX stocked its warehouse full of gear by working directly with manufacturers and distributors. The majority of the 300 products in its inventory were provided by companies like Black Diamond, Hobie, Maverick, and Folbot, a foldable kayak manufacturer. It’s a relationship that benefits both parties.
“The issue (Folbot’s) having is that they have a great product, but it’s hard for somebody who hasn’t been in a foldable kayak to spend $1,200 on a foldable kayak,” Jamiolkowski said. “So we’re putting butts in the seats for these guys. We’re gonna get people to try the product and nine out of 10 people are gonna try it and say it was great, but one person is gonna end up purchasing the kayak…And our customers are going to be happy because they get to use a premium product at a low entry-point.”
The company is still working out some kinks, including how to streamline shipping costs. For New Jersey residents, OX will drop off and set up gear at trailheads within 25 miles of its warehouse for $20. But the idea of spending $100 a year on shared gear doesn’t sound as good if you have to pay an additonal $200 in shipping.
This week, OX began testing what its founder calls the Trailblazer Program. For a set $74 per year, subscribers can ship all their rentals for free within the continental United States. Ultimately, the team hopes to open local warehouses where subscriptions are most concentrated to help defray costs.
You may be wondering, “What happens if the gear gets damaged?” Well, Jamiolkowski and his team have set up a system to incentivize good gear treatment. OX rates both customers and gear internally when products are returned. If a customer gets low enough marks, she can’t rent gear anymore. “In order for this to work, it’s gotta work both ways,” says Jamiolkowski. “Have you seen ? We’re building the Circle of Trust.
“We have families to support and mortgages to pay for, but we strongly believe in what we’re doing, based on everything we’ve done so far to build a very successful, not only business, but a community for outdoor enthusiasts,” he says.