THE FUTURE OF RETAIL PART 3: Rental x Retail: The Untapped Growth Loop Hiding in Plain Sight
There’s a paradox in outdoor retail that we rarely talk about.
Rental is one of the most powerful acquisition engines available… and yet most operators treat it like an operational burden rather than a strategic advantage.
Ski shops, snowboard shops, bike shops — they’ve all run rental programs for decades. Consumers love the lower upfront cost. They tolerate the compromises. And they grit their teeth through the line on a powder morning when they’d give anything to skip the circus and get on the mountain.
But underneath all that friction is an extraordinary truth:
When designed intentionally, rental isn’t a service. Rental is the beginning of a long-term retail relationship.
And the outdoor operators who understand this are going to shape the next era of growth.
What Rental Behavior Really Tells Us
When a customer rents skis, a snowboard, or a high-end mountain bike, they’re not signaling low value. They’re signaling high intent.
They’re saying:
“I want to try before I commit.”
“I’m willing to pay for the right guidance.”
“I’m not confident enough yet to buy.”
This is gold.
Rental customers come back multiple times. They ask questions. They browse. They spend more on accessories because they didn’t just drop $1,000 on gear. In many outdoor shops, rental-day accessory sales represent 20–40% of total revenue.
And the biggest unlock? Once renters know what “good” feels like, they convert — and they convert fast.
The problem is that most rental programs stop at the moment of return. They don’t build a bridge to what comes next.
The Three Frictions Holding Traditional Rental Back
Outdoor rental has always carried the same pain points:
1. Cost curves that don’t make sense
A couple of days of renting skis or a bike can eclipse the cost of ownership — making rental feel like a sunk cost rather than a trial.
2. Massive time friction
Rental shops on peak mornings are exercises in controlled chaos. Nobody enjoys the experience — not the guests, not the front-line staff, and certainly not the operators watching conversion opportunities walk out the door.
3. Gear that never feels exactly right
You compromise on the model, the fit, or the performance. You get “close enough,” but not your gear.
These frictions don’t kill rental — but they do kill the rental → retail progression.
The New Outdoor Rental Models Fixing These Issues
Across outdoor categories — bikes, skis, snowboards — we’re seeing new models that address the pain head-on:
1. Lower, clearer, more strategic pricing
Tiered performance levels. Multi-day bundles. Applying rental or demo spend toward a purchase. These shift rental from “cost center” to “confidence builder.”
2. Tech-enabled speed and convenience
Mobile fittings, hotel delivery, express pickup, pre-sized reservations. When you eliminate the worst part of the process, you transform the entire perception of the brand.
3. True rent-to-own pathways
This is the breakthrough the industry has been waiting for. If people know their rental dollars build toward ownership, every day on the mountain becomes a test ride — not a transaction.
Outdoor operators are finally beginning to recognize that rental isn’t the end of the journey; it’s the beginning.
What the Car Rental Industry Already Learned the Hard Way
If outdoor operators want a glimpse of where rental models can go — and where they can fail — the car rental industry has already written the playbook.
Zipcar: Convenience without a moat
Zipcar’s entire value proposition was simple: “wheels when you want them.” No counters, no paperwork, no headaches. They proved that removing friction drives adoption.
But convenience is easy to copy. It only takes once for my neighborhood car to not be available for me to not consider Zipcar. And without an ecosystem or progression path, Zipcar became a feature — not a flywheel.
Silvercar: Premium without progression
Silvercar got the experience right. Every car was an Audi. No surprises. No upsells. But even with rabid fans, the model stalled.
Why? There was no move from renting an Audi to owning one. The ecosystem stopped at the return lane.
The Legacy Fleets: Digitized but not personalized
Hertz, Avis, Enterprise modernized their operations. Apps, faster checkouts, loyalty programs.
But they never built customer progression. They offered efficiency, not relationship.
Outdoor Can Avoid These Mistakes — And Build Something Better
Unlike car rentals, outdoor retailers and resorts have a natural, high-emotion pathway from trial → trust → ownership.
Skiing, riding, biking — these are identity sports. Once someone finds gear that fits, performs, and aligns with how they see themselves on the mountain, they want to own it.
Outdoor brands have an advantage car rental never had:
They can turn rental into confidence. And confidence into retail.
Which Brings Us to Vail Resorts — And the Real Potential of Epic Gear
Epic Gear is one of the first big moves in the industry that acknowledges this shift.
It removes the worst frictions:
No rental-shop chaos
Predictable, high-quality gear
Pickup across resorts
A consistent experience season to season
But more importantly, it opens the door to something bigger: a full rental → retail flywheel built inside the world’s most powerful mountain ecosystem.
Imagine the possibilities:
1. Rent → ride → buy
Guests can apply portions of their subscription or rental spend toward ownership — without leaving the Vail ecosystem.
2. Retail attachment on steroids
Rental users spend more on accessories, layers, helmets, and goggles than gear owners. Epic Gear can become the anchor for a reimagined retail mix.
3. Data-driven personalization
Boot flex, ski width, stance angle, ability progression, terrain preferences — these aren’t just specs. They’re retail signals. In a sport like Skiing where personalization is key to performance and enjoyment, the fact that Epic Gear records all of my stats makes it easy to personalize the equipment I'm renting.
Epic Gear could eventually recommend the exact gear someone should buy and make it feel like a natural next step, not a hard sell.
4. Building lifelong loyalty through progression
Kids who start in seasonal or subscription rentals become families who trust the brand with bigger-ticket purchases for decades.
This is the opportunity: Turn the world’s most frustrating experience (traditional rental) into the most powerful growth engine in mountain retail.
The Real Takeaway
Most retailers chase traffic. Rental gives you traffic for free — if you design it with intention.
If you solve the three frictions (cost, time, compromise) and build a path to purchase, rental stops being a cost center.
It becomes:
A trust engine
A confidence engine
A progression engine
A retail engine
Rental isn’t the warm-up act.
Rental is retail’s future — especially for operators with platforms as large as Vail Resorts.
