This weekend at Bay to Breakers, Rinse brought San Francisco a different kind of novel tech: a system designed to give ambitious people their time back.

With underwear you never have to wash.

Or more accurately: laundry you never have to think about.

We printed this concept on shirts, put it on billboards, and sent people into the middle of the city’s most chaotic, colorful tradition with QR codes that said:

“Ask me about the underwear you never have to wash.”

And people did.

Some laughed immediately. Others assumed we were promoting some kind of futuristic garment. Some stopped mid-run to ask questions. And that’s when people got it–that this wasn’t really about underwear. The invitation was about creating conditions for a more ambitious life. It got everyone thinking:

What if San Francisco’s builders, founders, creators, and operators had more time, focus, and energy for the work that drives this city forward? What if the next great idea didn’t lose an hour of momentum to laundry day?

“We’re giving Sundays back. Want one?” quickly became a shared line between our team, the runners, and people throughout the race.

People stopped to take photos of the signs, scan QR codes, and ask questions about Rinse all along the route. Everywhere we looked, people were bringing Rinse into the energy of the day, laughing with our sign holders, tagging friends in photos, and carrying the conversation forward through the city. Again and again, we heard versions of the same reaction: “Honestly, this is the kind of tech I actually need.”

Bay to Breakers felt like the perfect place to explore these ideas around a life well-lived, one where we make space to pursue the fun of a good run. The event runs on collective energy: people moving through the city together, helping carry each other forward. That spirit connects closely to The Loop, our ongoing exploration of the systems, routines, and support structures that quietly keep people ready.

People don’t move to San Francisco to spend their weekends doing laundry. They move to SF to build, explore, connect, create, and experience life alongside each other. They’re looking for fewer recurring logistics. Fewer background tasks. More systems that quietly support the life they actually want to live. That’s why the idea resonated so deeply at Bay to Breakers. Not because people want “high tech underwear,” but because they want infrastructure that supports momentum.

This weekend reminded us that sometimes the best way to start that conversation is with something unexpected.

Or, apparently, with underwear.

Laundry isn’t just a task. At Rinse, it’s a system—engineered for efficiency, at scale. We’re introducing our efforts to explore how that system can drive more sustainable outcomes.

Every time you use Rinse, your clothes move through a series of micro systems–interconnected loops within our Rinse system–that shape how long they last, how much energy is used, and how much waste is created along the way.

Chronicling Our Journey 

In The Loop, we share the experiments and outcomes that help us continuously refine our system. Fittingly, that system is built on interconnected loops—and strengthening them is how we move closer to more sustainable outcomes. Along the way, we’ll take you on our journey of exploring how Rinse helps extend the life of your clothes and reduces waste. This includes:

• Clothing care: How clothes are cleaned

• Logistics: How a garment moves through our network

• Materials: What travels with the clothing

• Resources: What’s used along the way

The Rinse System You Don’t See

There isn’t just one way to care for clothes. Different systems create different outcomes.

Some are:

• Fragmented

• Resource-intensive

• Harder on garments

Others are:

• Coordinated

• More efficient

• Designed to keep clothes in use longer

At Rinse, we’ve built our system with the aim of keeping your clothes in use for longer–and reducing complexity in your life.

Rinse is designed to handle this complexity for you. It’s intentionally invisible. It works in the background so you don’t have to think about it.

But invisibility doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter.

At our scale, small decisions—how we clean garments, how they move through our network, what materials we use—add up quickly.

Keeping You in The Loop

We are taking a closer look at our system and how we operate every day. We’re examining how it works and how it can be refined over time. We are introducing The Loop as a way of making that thinking more visible.  We are opening a dialogue about laundry with intention–clothing care in practice, and how thoughtful improvements can keep clothes in use for longer with less waste over time.

In the near future, we’ll be breaking this system down by:

• Interconnected system loops

• How they work

• What happens when new ideas are put to the test

• How we evaluate progress

Because circularity isn’t about one perfect solution. It’s about starting with a system designed to work and improving it over time.

The Loop is an ongoing series and an open dialogue. If there’s something you think we should explore, bring it into The Loop by submitting your ideas to [email protected].

If you're moving into Boston on September 1st --- welcome to the show. Locals call it "Allston Christmas," and for good reason: the sidewalks overflow with abandoned couches, IKEA bookshelves, and mystery futons that should probably come with a hazmat warning. Add in traffic jams, late apartment turnovers, and long lines at IKEA, and you've got yourself a day that's equal parts comedy and chaos. 

Rinse, the leading global, technology-enabled laundry and dry cleaning delivery service, knows a thing or two about logistics. Here, Rinse offers insights from its very own Boston-educated leadership:

James Joun, Co-Founder at Rinse, is a Harvard Business School alum. 

Darshil Jariwala, Senior Director, Business and Corporate Operations at Rinse, is a Northeastern University alum. 

Aaron Wippold, Senior Director, Regional Operations at Rinse, is a MIT alum. 

We tapped into some Rinse insiders who've lived it --- grad students, former Boston residents, and yes, folks who've braved moving a futon on the Green Line --- to give you the real pro tips:

1. Your comforter is not a moving- day carry-on.

Bulky stuff (comforters, winter coats, duvets) is the worst to drag even up a staircase, much less across town. Instead of jamming it in a trash bag and praying, let Rinse handle it.

Schedule a pickup before your move, and have it delivered fresh, folded, and waiting at your new address. Imagine walking into your new place with clean sheets already ready for night one, so that you're set for the next day --- that's the kind of win you'll thank yourself for. 

2. IKEA is not for the faint of heart. 

Boston Moving Day means everyone's raiding IKEA at once. Expect lines, empty shelves, and the very real possibility of balancing a desk on your lap on the T. Rinse can't assemble your MALM dresser, but at least you don't have to worry about the pile of laundry eating up precious backseat space. 

3. Think of laundry as "time you get back." 

When you're starting fresh in a new city, the last thing you should be doing is wasting hours in a laundromat. As Darshil advises, "Spend your time meeting people, not sitting next to a dryer that eats quarters." Rinse makes laundry one less thing to think about because you have to --- freeing up hours for, well, literally anything else you want to do.

In fact, James' experience just after Moving Day is a testament to how useful Rinse would have been for him --- and students like him, who were focused on making the most of their time. He remembers that laundry was often his last priority because he and his roomate were, "Too busy acclimating to graduate school life --- meeting classmates, going to events, and chasing a constant fear of missing out." He recalls, "Hauling loads to the basement laundry room was its own ordeal, with a complicated card payment system that only worked half the time." 

4. Parents, this one's for you. 

You might be wondering if your kid can survive on their own. Spoiler: many college students arrive knowing advanced physics, but not how to sort lights from darks. Hand them the gift of Rinse and you'll both rest easier.

They'll thank you...eventually. 

5. Moving Day is chaos, but it's also a new start. 

As Aaron puts it, "Every September in Boston feels like possibility --- new faces, new beginnings, new messes to clean up."  With Rinse, at least one part of that equation - the mess - can disappear from day one."

Pro Move

Ship your laundry to Rinse before you move. Update your new address. Boom --- it arrives clean and ready at your new apartment. It's basically using Rinse as your personal laundry-moving service. Genius? We think so. 

Bottom Line 

Boston Moving Day will always be wild. But your laundry doesn't have to be with Rinse.

SEATTLE - June 1, 2022 - Rinse, the nation’s leading laundry & dry cleaning delivery service, is now serving Seattle customers.

Rinse is thrilled to announce Seattle as our 10th market! We also launched in New Jersey, Dallas, and Austin this year. Additionally, we serve the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C., Boston, and New York City.

“We are incredibly excited to bring Rinse to Seattle,” said Ajay Prakash, Co-founder and CEO of Rinse. “Our focus has always been delivering high-quality clothing care for everything in your closet, and we know Seattle will appreciate our convenient, reliable, and tech-forward laundry and dry cleaning services.” 

Here is the initial list of zip codes we serve in the Seattle Area: 98101, 98102, 98103, 98104, 98105, 98106, 98107, 98108, 98109, 98112, 98115, 98116, 98117, 98118, 98119, 98121, 98122, 98126, 98134, 98136, 98144, 98154, 98164, 98174, 98199, 98004, 98039, and 98040.

Throughout Rinse’s consistent growth and expansion, we have been committed to hiring W2 employees (including all Valet drivers) and working with only the best local cleaning partners. Rinse also takes many actions to protect the environment.

Since the company’s launch, we’ve had zero tolerance in using the solvent and known carcinogen, PERC, for Dry Cleaning services. Additionally, Rinse has collected and donated over 10 tons of clothing on behalf of our customers, saved over 25 million gallons of water by using high efficiency washers, and conserves energy by defaulting to cold water. Rinse is proud to serve Seattle, which consistently ranks among the most sustainable, green, and environmentally friendly cities in the United States!

About Rinse

Founded in 2013, Rinse is building the first and largest national brand in clothing care. The company picks up, cleans, and delivers customers' laundry and dry cleaning straight to their doors. Rinse’s unique approach to reducing customer friction while modernizing the laundry and dry cleaning space has been integral not only to the company’s continued success but in the industry’s evolution to meet the demands of today’s customer. Services offered by Rinse include Dry Cleaning, Wash & Fold, Hang Dry, and more. The company was founded by Ajay Prakash, James Joun, and Sam Cheng, and is headquartered in San Francisco. To experience Rinse for yourself, schedule a pickup here.

NEW YORK - November 28, 2022 - Rinse, the nation's leading service for pickup and delivery of laundry and dry cleaning, announces the acquisition of Room Service Laundry, a boutique on-demand laundry service that operated in Brooklyn and lower Manhattan. Room Service Laundry is the latest in a series of acquisitions for Rinse, which included FlyCleaners in March of this year and ButlerBox in 2021.

Founded in 2013 with the goal of removing friction from clothing care, Rinse offers a simple, consistent, high-quality solution to laundry and dry cleaning in New York City, San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. Metro Area, Chicago, and Boston. Rinse will be expanding to additional markets in early 2023. 

“We’re thrilled to expand Rinse’s presence in New York with the acquisition of Room Service Laundry.” says co-founder and CEO Ajay Prakash. “New York is a rapidly growing market for us and we’re excited to streamline laundry and dry cleaning for Room Service’s customers in Brooklyn.”

The acquisition of Room Service Laundry will expand the company’s customer base in New York, further solidifying Rinse as the market leader and the fastest growing clothing care provider in the New York market. Former customers of Room Service Laundry will receive the high quality service that Rinse is known for, and be seamlessly redirected to the Rinse website or mobile app to schedule door-to-door service seven days a week. They will have the option to use additional services beyond Wash & Fold, including Dry Cleaning, Hang Dry, Clothing Repairs, Leather Cleaning, and more. Rinse also offers Rinse Repeat, the leading laundry subscription service priced by the bag instead of the pound.

Rinse is a global leader in the online laundry service space. Throughout Rinse’s consistent growth and expansion, it has been committed to hiring W2 employees (including all Valets) and working with the best local cleaning partners. In addition, it offers its award-winning service to property managers and apartment buildings via the Rinse for Rentals program; it provides local employers the most convenient dry cleaning and laundry benefits available for their employees through its Rinse for Business service; and it has developed a rapidly growing commercial laundry business, partnering with leading restaurants, spas, and more.

Rinse has also taken several actions to protect the environment. Since the company’s launch, Rinse has had zero tolerance in using the solvent and known carcinogen, PERC, for Dry Cleaning services and only uses environmentally friendly detergents to clean clothes. Additionally, Rinse has donated over 10 tons of clothing to date through collecting and donating clothing on behalf of its customers, and helped save over 25 million gallons of water by cleaning laundry using only high efficiency washers.

About Rinse

Founded in 2013, Rinse is building the first and largest national brand in clothing care. The company picks up, cleans, and delivers customers' laundry and dry cleaning, straight to their doors. Rinse’s unique approach to reducing customer friction while modernizing the laundry and dry cleaning space has been integral not only to the company’s continued success but in the industry’s evolution to meet the demands of today’s customer. Services offered by Rinse include Dry Cleaning, Wash & Fold, Hang Dry, and more. Rinse serves customers in six major regions, including the San Francisco Bay Area (San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland), Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Washington, D.C., and New York City (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and The Bronx). The company was founded by Ajay Prakash, James Joun, and Sam Cheng, and is headquartered in San Francisco. To experience Rinse for yourself, schedule a pickup here.
 

Updated: Aug. 12, 2022

At Rinse, safety is and always has been our highest priority. In March 2020, Rinse took swift action to maximize safety when COVID hit, implementing several protocols across our cleaning and delivery processes to minimize the risk of transmission. Our proactive approach ensured we were able to provide a convenient, high-quality, and safe laundry experience to all of our customers.

We are taking a similar proactive approach with respect to Monkeypox. Based on what we know today, this outbreak is not as serious (or confusing) as COVID was when it hit, but we will do everything we can to stay ahead of it to ensure the safety of our customers and our team.

According to the CDC, there is a very low risk of Monkeypox spreading through contact of contaminated clothing. That said, standard laundry and dry cleaning processes are more than sufficient to kill the virus.  Given that, we wanted to share notes on some of the standard processes and procedures we have in place to maximize safety and eliminate the risk of Monkeypox transmission:

HANDLING THE CLOTHES BEFORE CLEANING

• Anyone at Rinse who might need to touch customers' clothing are required to wear gloves, which are immediately disposed of before touching any other items or surfaces.
• We continue to require regular sanitization of all surfaces that come into contact with worn clothing and regular hand-washing.

THE CLEANING PROCESS

• First and foremost, all customer orders are sorted and washed separately from other customers. Your clothes always have their own dedicated space and their own dedicated machines, meaning they will never come in contact with another customer’s clothes.
• As stated above, the detergent and heat involved in our normal cleaning processes acts as a powerful disinfectant as we clean your clothes. The CDC has confirmed that laundry detergent and heat from various stages in our Dry Cleaning and Wash & Fold cycles are effective at killing the virus.
• Since the laundry detergent we use is effective against the virus, our washing machines are cleaned with each clothing cycle. Absolutely no clothing enters a dryer that hasn’t first been washed, to ensure dryers remain virus-free.
• Cleaned orders are always kept separate from unserviced orders in a polyurethane bag. This helps to protect against cross-contamination as well.
• All Cleaning Partners are required to have their team wear gloves when handling clothing. Rinse provides gloves to all Cleaning Partners for their employees to avoid any cost constraints on their end.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

• Please ensure that all of your items are secured inside your Rinse bags and that the bags are closed/zipped up, with nothing overflowing so that our Valets can minimize the need to come in contact with clothing.
• If you have items with special instructions (e.g. an item that needs a repair), please pre-separate the item for our Valets so we can minimize contact with other clothes in your order as we look for the item.

We will continue to follow the latest developments on Monkeypox very closely. We are constantly reviewing our delivery and cleaning processes to ensure the safest process possible and will remain proactive as we work to eliminate the risk of transmission.

We have provided a consistent and safe laundry and dry cleaning experience for all of our customers throughout COVID and will continue to do so with Monkeypox. We are very proud of the commitment to safety our team members have made and are confident that our processes and protocols will eliminate the risk of transmission while we work to provide you the convenient, high-quality laundry and dry cleaning experience you have come to expect from Rinse. 

If you have any questions, feedback, or suggestions, please reach out to [email protected].