Communications To Date:

September 21, 2020 - An update to “no-contact” delivery at Rinse
March 31, 2020 - Rinse remains open as an essential service in Washington DC
March 30, 2020 - Rinse remains open as an essential service in Virginia
March 30, 2020 - Rinse remains open as an essential service in Maryland
March 25, 2020 - Rinse remains open as an essential service in Washington DC
March 23, 2020 - Rinse remains open as an essential service in Maryland
March 23, 2020 - Rinse remains open as an essential service in Boston
March 20, 2020 - Rinse remains open as an essential service in Chicago
March 19, 2020 - Rinse remains open as an essential service in California

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September 21, 2020

Over the past few months we have made significant changes to our pickup up and delivery procedures in order to keep our customers and Valets safe in the wake of this pandemic.

Since the onset of COVID, we have put processes in place to ensure “no-contact” pickups and deliveries for all orders at Rinse. During that time, we’ve collected a lot of great feedback from our customers and Valets.

To that end, we wanted to let you know about one important change we are making to our no-contact policy: if you would like your pickup or delivery to be completed without you being present (Rinse Drop), we require formal authorization from you in advance of our arrival. This means your Valet will no longer be able to accept verbal or text message approval for Rinse Drop.

As a reminder, below is a summary of your “no-contact” options at Rinse:

• Rinse Drop is a service we offer for customers who won’t be home (or don’t want to answer the door) when our Valet arrives. This option should only be used by those who feel their bags will be safe when left unattended at the delivery location. There are two ways to set up Rinse Drop:
   
  • Rinse Drop on your current order – If you would like to set up a “one-time” preference for Rinse Drop (meaning we pick up or deliver items without you needing to answer the door on that specific Rinse), authorize Rinse Drop through the link we send you on the day of your order (see below).
    
    
    
    Step 1 - The evening of your Rinse you'll receive a text that asks for instructions for your Valet. Just follow the link to update your Rinse Drop preferences.
    
    
    
    Step 2 - Under "Contactless delivery", select “I can’t come to the door” from the options dropdown menu and then authorize Rinse Drop for your order.
     
  • Rinse Drop on all orders – If you would like to set a permanent preference for Rinse Drop, you can do that on your “My Account” page under “delivery preferences."
     
• Socially-distanced pickups and deliveries – are available if you are able to answer the door when your Valet arrives or do not authorize Rinse Drop.
   
  • For pickups - Your Valet will text you when he/she arrives at your address. He/she will wait six feet away from your door while you place your bags outside. Once you close your door he/she will collect your bags and send you a confirmation text.
     
  • For deliveries - Your Valet will place or hang your clothes outside your door and notify you of his/her arrival. He/she will wait six feet away while you collect your bags. If you are not able to come to the door during his/her visit, your bags will not be delivered and your Valet will send you a text to reschedule for another, more convenient, time.

We hope the above gives you a clear understanding of what to expect during your next Rinse. If you have questions or feedback, don’t hesitate to reach out to [email protected].

Wishing you safety and health,
Your friends at Rinse

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March 31, 2020

COVID-19 UPDATE: Yesterday, Mayor Bowser issued a "Stay-at-Home" order to Washington DC residents, noting that only Essential Services, including Laundry Services like Rinse, will remain open. The order is effective as of 12:01 a.m. on April 1, 2020.

We take our role as an Essential Business very seriously during this challenging time. Rinse will remain OPEN for all our customers in Washington DC, (in addition to all our other markets) and we are ready to serve you.

You can read more below about the actions we are taking to keep our customers and our team safe and follow this blog for more updates. Stay safe and healthy!

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March 30, 2020

COVID-19 UPDATE: Today, Governor Northam issued a "Stay at Home" order for the state of Virginia, noting that only Essential Services, including Laundry Services like Rinse, will remain open. The order is effective starting, today, March 30, 2020.

We take our role as an Essential Business very seriously during this challenging time. Rinse will remain OPEN for all our customers in Virginia, (in addition to all our other markets) and we are ready to serve you.

You can read more below about the actions we are taking to keep our customers and our team safe and follow this blog for more updates. Stay safe and healthy!

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March 30, 2020

COVID-19 UPDATE: Today, Governor Hogan issued a "Stay at Home" order for the state of Maryland, noting that only Essential Services, including Laundry Services like Rinse, will remain open. The order will go into effect starting at 8:00 p.m. on March 30, 2020.

We take our role as an Essential Business very seriously during this challenging time. Rinse will remain OPEN for all our customers in Maryland, (in addition to all our other markets) and we are ready to serve you.

You can read more below about the actions we are taking to keep our customers and our team safe and follow this blog for more updates. Stay safe and healthy!

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March 25, 2020

COVID-19 UPDATE: Yesterday evening, Mayor Bowser issued an order to temporarily close all non-essential businesses in Washington, DC starting at 10:00 p.m. on March 25, 2020. Laundry services are noted as an Essential Business.

We take our role as an Essential Business very seriously during this challenging time. Rinse will remain OPEN for all our customers in Washington, DC, (in addition to all our other markets) and we are ready to serve you.

You can read more below about the actions we are taking to keep our customers and our team safe and follow this blog for more updates. Stay safe and healthy!

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March 23, 2020

COVID-19 UPDATE: Today, Governor Hogan issued an order to close all non-essential businesses in Maryland starting at 5pm on Mon March 23. Laundry services are noted as an Essential Business.

We take our role as an Essential Business very seriously during this challenging time. Rinse will remain OPEN for all our customers in Maryland (in addition to all our other markets) and we are ready to serve you.

You can read more below about the actions we are taking to keep our customers and our team safe and follow this blog for more updates. Stay safe and healthy!

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March 23, 2020

COVID-19 UPDATE: This morning, Governor Baker issued a stay-at-home advisory for Massachusetts and ordered all non-essential businesses closed starting at noon on Tue March 24. Laundry services are noted as an Essential Business.

We take our role as an Essential Business very seriously during this challenging time. Rinse will remain OPEN for all our customers in and around Boston (in addition to all our other markets) and we are ready to serve you.

You can read more below about the actions we are taking to keep our customers and our team safe and follow this blog for more updates.

Stay safe and healthy!
 

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March 22, 2020

 
At Rinse, safety is our highest priority.  To that end, we are following developments around the coronavirus outbreak very closely and taking the necessary measures to protect our team and our customers.  Rinse remains OPEN for all our customers in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, and Washington DC Area as an Essential Service.  Please read more below about the actions we are taking to keep our customers and our team safe.

What Rinse Is Doing To Keep Our Customers and Employees Safe

During this uncertain time with new information coming in every hour, Rinse is taking every precaution to keep our customers and employees safe.  And we take our role as an Essential Service very seriously.  We’ve implemented the following protocol to protect against any potential cross-contamination:

During Our Pickup and Delivery Process:

“No-Contact” Pickup and Delivery – We have enacted "no-contact" pickup and delivery options so we can maximize social distance between our Valets and our customers to keep everyone safe. No contact pickup and delivery is now required for all Rinse orders. We now have three no contact options available:

• Rinse Drop is a service we offer for customers who won’t be home (or don’t want to answer the door right away) when our Valet arrives. This option should only be used by those who feel their bags will be safe when left unattended at the delivery location. There are two ways to set up Rinse Drop:
   
  • Rinse Drop on your CURRENT ORDER – If you would like to set up a “one-time” preference for Rinse Drop (meaning we pick up or deliver items at your door without you needing to answer the door on that specific Rinse), click on the link we text you on the day of your order that asks for instructions for your Valet. Select “I can’t come to the door” and then authorize Rinse Drop and provide any special instructions around where we can pick up or deliver your clothes.
     
  • Rinse Drop on ALL ORDERS – If you would like to set a permanent preference for Rinse Drop, you can do that on your “My Account” page under “delivery preferences."
     
• Socially distanced pickups and deliveries – If you will be home the evening of your pickup or delivery and need to interact with your Valet for some reason, please be aware that we are instructing our Valets to maintain at least 6 feet of distance between themselves and customers to keep everyone safe.
   
  • For pickups - Your Valet will text you when they arrive at your address. They will wait six feet away from your door while you place your bags outside. Once you close your door they will collect your bags and send you a confirmation text.
     
  • For deliveries - Your Valet will place or hang your clothes outside your door and notify you of their arrival. They will wait six feet away while you collect your bags. If you are not able to come to the door during their visit, they will collect your bags and send you a text to reschedule your delivery for another, more convenient, time.

How you can help: In addition to keeping a safe distance from our Valets, if you have items with special instructions (e.g. an item needs a repair), please pre-separate the item and put it at the top inside of your Rinse bag. This minimizes our need to find the item within your bag.
 

Keeping Our Valet Team Safe and Healthy

In addition, we are working to keep our customers and Valets healthy by supporting the health of our Valets. We are providing our Valets with soap and water, gloves, and disinfectants to use as they work their shifts. We are also encouraging Valets who may be experiencing concerning symptoms to stay home. As W-2 employees of Rinse, our Valets accrue Paid Sick Leave so they are able to take advantage of this benefit as needed. We are in constant communication with our Valets and their safety and health (and yours) is our top priority.

During Our Cleaning Process:

We are taking every precaution we can to ensure the safety and health of our Cleaning Teams as well, and to make sure your clothes are returned cleaned and disinfected. Here are some of the steps we are taking:

• Most importantly, 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.
• Rinse never mixes customer clothing during our launder process. This was true prior to the COVID-19 outbreak as well. Your clothing never comes in contact with another customer’s clothing throughout the Wash & Fold process.
• 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.
• Rinse Operators, Valets, and Cleaning Teams are required to wash their hands prior to the start of their shift, frequently during their shift, and again at the end of their shift.
• Frequent cleaning of all surfaces within Rinse facilities, trucks, and at our Cleaning facilities. This includes the racks where orders are stored and all customer name tags.
• Our Operators, Valets, and Cleaning Teams are being supplied with gloves, hand soap, cleaning supplies, and paper towels.
• Our entire team, including our Cleaning Teams, are required to follow the same 6 feet social distance protocol at all times.
• At all times our warehouses do not exceed 10 employees on premise, and the majority of time we do not exceed 5 people on premise, while adhering to the 6 feet social distance protocol at all times.

We are in constant communication with our Cleaning Teams as well and are working diligently to ensure the safest process possible.

We hope that understanding our processes and some of the safety measures we have taken helps you feel confident in using Rinse during this stressful time. If you have any questions, feedback, or suggestions, please reach out to [email protected].
 

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March 20, 2020

COVID-19 UPDATE: This afternoon, Governor Pritzker issued a statewide "Shelter-in-place" order for the state of Illinois, noting that only Essential Services, including Laundry Services like Rinse, will remain open. We are encouraged by the actions taken by Governor Pritzker (and hope to see more of these across the US).

We take our role as an Essential Service very seriously during thie challenging time. Rinse remains OPEN for all our customers in Chicago (in addition to all our other markets) and we are ready to serve you.

You can read more below about the actions we are taking to keep our customers and our team safe and follow this blog for more updates. Stay safe and healthy!

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March 19, 2020

COVID-19 UPDATE: Earlier this evening, Governor Newsom issued a statewide "Stay at Home" order for the state of California, noting that only Essential Services, including Laundry Services like Rinse, will remain open. We applaud Governor Newsom for implementing strong measures to help us "flatten the curve" and we take our role as an Essential Service very seriously.

Rinse remains OPEN for all our customers in the Bay Area and Los Angeles (in addition to all our other markets) at this time and we are ready to serve you. Read more below about the actions we are taking to keep our customers and our team safe. Stay safe and healthy!

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March 17, 2020

To our customers,

First, I wanted to send a quick note that Rinse remains OPEN to provide all of our customers an essential service during a challenging time.

Second, I wanted to follow-up on my email from last week. As we all work to navigate the coronavirus outbreak, the safety and health of our team and customers is the main thing on our mind. To that end, we have expanded the "no-contact" delivery options available at Rinse so we can maximize social distance between our Valets and our customers to keep everyone safe.

Effective immediately, we are working to ensure “no-contact” pickup and delivery in the following ways:

+ Rinse Drop is a service we offer for customers who won’t be home (or don’t want to answer the door) when our Valet arrives. This option should only be used by those who feel their bags will be safe when left unattended at the delivery location. There are two ways to set up Rinse Drop:

• Rinse Drop on your current order – If you would like to set up a “one-time” preference for Rinse Drop (meaning we pick up or deliver items without you needing to answer the door on that specific Rinse), authorize Rinse Drop through the link we send you on the day of your order (see below).
  
  
  
  Step 1 - The evening of your Rinse you'll receive a text that asks for instructions for your Valet. Just follow the link to update your Rinse Drop preferences.
  
  
  
  Step 2 - Under "Contactless delivery", select “I can’t come to the door” from the options dropdown menu and then authorize Rinse Drop for your order.
   
• Rinse Drop on all orders – If you would like to set a permanent preference for Rinse Drop, you can do that on your “My Account” page under “delivery preferences."
   

+ Socially-distanced pickups and deliveries are available if you are able to answer the door when your Valet arrives or do not authorize Rinse Drop.

• For pickups - Your Valet will text you when he/she arrives at your address. He/she will wait six feet away from your door while you place your bags outside. Once you close your door he/she will collect your bags and send you a confirmation text.
• For deliveries - Your Valet will place or hang your clothes outside your door and notify you of his/her arrival. He/she will wait six feet away while you collect your bags. If you are not able to come to the door during his/her visit, your bags will not be delivered and your Valet will send you a text to reschedule for another, more convenient, time.

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If you have feedback, questions, or suggestions on more we can do to optimize prevention and continue to provide an essential service for you during this challenging time, we are very open to it. Please don’t hesitate to reach out.

We will continue to communicate with you during this evolving situation as we make or have any updates.

Stay safe and healthy!

Best,
Ajay

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Ajay Prakash
Co-Founder & CEO | Rinse

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March 11, 2020

To our customers,

At Rinse, safety is our highest priority. To that end, we are following developments around the coronavirus outbreak very closely and taking the necessary measures to protect our team and our customers.

During this time of uncertainty and increased social distancing, Rinse plans to operate with no interruptions while keeping our team and customers safe. We have taken extra steps to ensure that preventive measures like washing hands thoroughly and disinfecting work surfaces are practiced diligently and frequently across our entire workflow. In addition, the detergent and heat involved in our normal cleaning processes will continue to act as a powerful disinfectant as we clean your clothes.

Here are a few other steps we are taking to optimize prevention:

• For Valets - Our Valets are W-2 employees of Rinse, so they already accrue Paid Sick Leave. We are advising any Valet who has concerning symptoms to stay home and take advantage of this benefit. In addition, we are providing Valets with soap and water, gloves, and disinfectants to use as they work their shifts.

• For Cleaning Partners - We are in constant communication with our Cleaning Partners to ensure they are taking the same proactive measures as our internal team. In addition, to remove any barriers to being fully stocked, we are covering the cost of supplies like gloves, disinfectant, and hand soap for our Cleaning Partners.

• For Customers - We would like to remind you of Rinse’s option for “personless” pickup and delivery (“Rinse Drop”), which may be preferable to you at times like this. Below is a quick overview of your Rinse Drop options:

• One-time preference – If you would like to set up a one-time preference for Rinse Drop (meaning we pick up or deliver items at your door without you needing to be there on that specific Rinse), click on the link we text you on the day of your order that asks for instructions for your Valet. Select “I can’t come to the door” and then authorize Rinse Drop and provide any special instructions around where we can pick up or deliver your clothes. 

• Permanent preference – If you would like to set a permanent preference for Rinse Drop, you can do that on your “My Account” page under “delivery preferences.” 

 

In addition to the steps we are taking, there are a few things our customers can do to help:

• Please have your clothes ready and in your Rinse bag when your Valet arrives. To optimize prevention, we are advising Valets to minimize touchpoints across their workflow, and having your bag ready to go will help.

• If you have items with special instructions (e.g. an item needs a repair), please pre-separate the item and put it at the top inside of your Rinse bag. This minimizes our need to find the item within your bag.

• Consider Rinse Drop (but only if you trust your clothes to be left alone outside your door). 

We are continuing to monitor and implement local Health Department and CDC guidance for each of our locations. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at any time.

Thanks for being a great customer. We hope you stay safe and healthy during this challenging time!

Best,
Ajay

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Ajay Prakash
Co-Founder & CEO | Rinse

Rinse acquires OffToYou and continues rapid expansion across the Bay Area

San Francisco, March 9, 2020 – Rinse, the leading national brand in dry cleaning and laundry delivery, today announced that it has acquired OffToYou, a Bay Area competitor located in San Jose. As part of the acquisition, Rinse extended its Bay Area regional footprint by opening up more San Jose neighborhoods and launching Los Gatos and Milpitas.

Rinse was founded in 2013 with the goal of making trips to the dry cleaner and the washer / dryer obsolete while building the first national brand in clothing care. The service launched in San Francisco, and has since expanded its footprint to serve Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Chicago, and Boston. More recently, Rinse has shifted its focus to regional expansion within its markets, including launching its service in the Peninsula, South Bay, and East Bay in the Bay Area within the past 18 months. The acquisition of OffToYou strengthens its foothold in San Jose and surrounding areas.

“Rinse is solving a universal need and a universal pain point, and we’ve always had a clear vision of serving customers in big cities and suburbs alike,” said Ajay Prakash, Co-founder and CEO of Rinse. “We’ve received a tremendous response from suburban customers in the Bay Area and our other markets and saw OffToYou as a great partner as we double-down on those customers and those areas.”

OffToYou was founded in 2015 with the suburban customer in mind. Its founders were able to demonstrate steady growth in the South Bay while bootstrapping the business by focusing on high-quality cleaning, strong customer service, and technology. The company viewed partnering with Rinse as a way to take its service to the next level.

“We’ve looked up to Rinse over the past couple years and have developed a deep admiration for their team and their service,” said Joy Banerjee, Co-founder and CEO of OffToYou. “Rinse shares our commitment to quality, convenience, and supreme customer service, which is why we are so excited to work with their team.”

Rinse has a history of acquisitions in this space, including its acquisition of the customer list of its defunct competitor, Washio and the San Francisco arm of Cleanly, a New York-based competitor, and is actively exploring and evaluating new acquisitions at the moment.

"Rinse is actively exploring acquisitions with several dry cleaners and laundromats. We’re happy to give them an exit path if that’s what they are looking for,” said Prakash. “The key for Rinse is to find the best partners out there, provide a seamless transition for their customers, and continue to raise the bar on quality and customer service in the industry."

Happy National Dry Cleaning Day! Today is a special day for us #laundrynerds at Rinse and a great opportunity for us to briefly share the fascinating history of dry cleaning and the incredible man behind the process, Thomas Jennings.

The History of Dry Cleaning

Modern day dry cleaning can be traced back to the 1800’s when Thomas Jennings (more on Jennings later!) first developed the process known as “dry scouring,” where he would use non-water based solvents to remove stains from fabric. At the time, many viewed the process as dangerous and attempted to stop Jennings from pursuing a patent, however Jennings persevered and his work paved the way to what we now know as dry cleaning. It wasn’t until 30 years after Jennings received his patent that his process became widely adopted. Then, nearly 100 years later, in the 1930’s, the solvent tetrachloroethylene or perchloroethylene (perc for short) became prevalent throughout the dry cleaning industry, causing the next wave of innovation in dry cleaning. Perc is a powerful cleaning solvent, nonflammable, and can be used on many different types of garments without causing them harm. However, today, we know that perchloroethylene (perc) has been known to cause health issues in some and many dry cleaners (including Rinse!) no longer use it.

Thomas Jennings: The Man Behind Dry Cleaning

Born free in New York, Thomas Jennings worked many jobs until he found his footing as a tailor. Highly skilled and well-respected in the community, people would come from far and wide for his services. As mentioned previously, one of those services was dry scouring a method that he patented in 1821. In fact, Thomas Jennings was the first African-American to receive a U.S. patent! With his success as a tailor and the earnings from his patent, he was able to open up his own store, which became one of the largest clothing stores in New York City.

Not only was Jennings an accomplished inventor, but he also fought hard for the civil rights of African-Americans long before the Civil War, Emancipation, and the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 60s. Jennings dedicated much of his life to securing civil rights for his fellow African-Americans, donating his time and money and founding abolitionist organizations. He spent the income he earned from his tailoring business to buy his wife and children out of slavery and continued to put the bulk of his earnings towards abolitionism to free others.

The next time you have something dry cleaned, just remember the amazing man that invented the process and the good he did for our country and his community.

We’re excited to formally launch Rinse for Business as the most convenient dry cleaning and laundry benefit available for your employees. We soft-launched with select partners in the Bay Area in 2019 and have received a very positive response from their teams (and significant inbound interest from new partners at the same time). We’re now ready to officially launch Rinse for Business in all of our markets — SF / Bay Area, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Chicago, and Boston. It will also be a core part of our offering as we expand nationally.

DRY CLEANING AS AN OFFICE PERK … BEFORE RINSE

Clothing care has always been full of friction and the experience hasn’t changed over the decades. Most customers simply go to the nearest cleaner and are held hostage to proximity. Since there are no trusted brands out there (and the space is incredibly fragmented), customers can’t really assess quality until after their clothes come back. In addition, there is little to no investment in transparency, customer service, and technology.

The biggest point of friction, though, is that cleaners are only open from 9am to 5pm, which means that customers have to either be late to work or leave early to get to the cleaners, and they have to do this twice since they have to drop off and pick up their clothes.

At Rinse, we refer to all of these pain points in dry cleaning as “death by a thousand cuts.”

Dry-cleaning-as-a-perk was born in response to the last pain point — if so much productivity is lost because our employees are going to the dry cleaner during the workday, what if we brought the dry cleaner to them? This incremental innovation led to companies partnering with a local dry cleaner to pick up from and deliver directly to the office. This benefit has been most prevalent in markets like San Francisco, where the war for talent (and subsequently, the availability of benefits) is a bit of an arms race.

While the intentions of the incremental innovation of bringing the dry cleaner to the office were good, there were still issues with the customer experience. Not only were the “death by a thousand cuts” (or maybe 999 now?) still there, but it’s not necessarily a positive customer experience for your employee. For some it certainly can be, but it creates extra friction for employees who need to bring their clothes to work via public transportation, a company bus, a bike, walking, or any other way that is not conducive to carrying a laundry bag or clothes on a hanger. In addition, not all employees are comfortable literally showing their peers and managers their dirty laundry.

THE ORIGINS OF RINSE FOR BUSINESS

Rinse was founded in 2013 with the explicit focus of systematically removing the death by a thousand cuts in dry cleaning and laundry and creating a seamless customer experience from start to finish. We started with a sole focus on serving our customers at their homes and in the evening between 8pm to 10pm (we call our approach “smart scheduling”). We felt the evening schedule was a better approach to addressing the biggest point of friction noted above, and allowed our customer’s to deal with their dirty laundry in private and where it’s piled up — at home.

As we scaled Rinse from three zip codes in San Francisco to much of the SF / Bay Area (including all of SF, Oakland, and San Jose), Los Angeles, DC, Chicago, and Boston, we received a constant stream of inbound demand from companies that wanted to do something special for their teams and offer dry cleaning and laundry as a potential benefit. For six years straight, we politely turned down that inbound interest, maintaining our focus on delivering and scaling an amazing customer experience between 8pm and 10pm.

In 2019, we were approached by one of the most prominent Tech companies in the Bay Area and asked if we would work with them to provide dry cleaning and laundry to their team. They already had a cleaner who was coming on-site to pick up and deliver, but they were most intrigued by our evening schedule and the ability for employees to use Rinse at home outside of work.

We had developed a very strong operational and technological infrastructure to serve our customers between 8pm to 10pm at the time, and had already started testing a few “B2B” type relationships, so the timing of this conversation was perfect for us. We decided to jump into the partnership and provide service both at home and on-site at the office.

The initial feedback from this partner’s employees was amazing, and the data showed that 70% of the employees were choosing to use Rinse at home instead of at work, indicating we were providing a more convenient experience for these employees than what they had in the past.

In addition to providing our core service and adding an additional service window for on-site employees, we also used this opportunity to develop product features that help make Rinse for Business the obvious perk to bring to your team, including custom landing pages, a dedicated sign-up funnel for your team, and an administrative dashboard for your HR / Benefits team to track usage and understand if your employees are taking advantage.

RINSE FOR BUSINESS IS LIVE!

In 2019, we developed and refined Rinse for Business to make sure it was ready for prime time. Rinse is already active at dozens of leading companies in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, including leading tech companies, public companies, media companies, some of the largest consulting firms in the world, fast-growing startups (unicorns and aspiring unicorns), and more.

Rinse is solving a universal need — regardless of what your employees do, they all need to take care of their dry cleaning and laundry, and they all would love to save three hours a week at the same time — so it’s not surprising that we’ve been able to partner with a wide variety of companies at different stages and in different industries.

The standard offering for Rinse for Business is as follows:

• Rinse for Business @HOME is free for your company and it instantly gives the benefit of Rinse to all your employees at their home. @HOME is available 7 days per week, including Sundays, with door-to-door pickup and delivery between 8pm and 10pm. Rinse’s services include Dry Cleaning, Launder & Press, Wash & Fold (priced per pound), and Rinse Repeat (a subscription service for Wash & Fold).
• For organizations that want to bring Rinse for Business on-site @WORK, we offer fully-customized solutions at an additional cost. (Note — we have found Rinse for Business @WORK works best for companies of 500+ employees, but it is an option for all companies).

Benefits to employees include Rinse credit, special promotions, and ongoing service discounts, plus the same high-quality service they’ve come to expect from Rinse.

Rinse for Business has been available for select organizations to date, but today we are making the benefit accessible across all of Rinse’s service areas, including San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington DC, and Boston.

We are very excited to bring Rinse for Business to more companies across our markets (and soon enough, across the entire US) and would love to hear from you if you think your company would benefit from Rinse for Business as an employee perk.

If you are interested in learning more, please reach out to [email protected].

Rinse might have had a late start this past decade (we launched in 2013), but the 2010’s will always be special - we took care of some of your most treasured items, grew significantly, and had a positive impact on the environment. Thanks to our customers, our team, and our supporters for making this past decade great...we're excited to do so much more in the 2020's!

Why do we wear socks? Chances are socks were first created for the simple fact of protecting our feet from cold weather and debris. Unless you’re lucky enough to live in a climate that supports year-round warm weather you most likely wear socks to keep your feet warm and prevent chafing the majority of the year. And if you’re like most people you have a dedicated sock drawer full of dress socks, low cut socks, high socks, crazy socks, lonely mismatched socks...you name it!

It’s amazing how something as simple as a sock offers so many choices and variation. Let’s take a look at the evolution of the sock through the ages from ancient civilizations to today.

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Ancient Civilizations And The First Knit Stockings

Ever since the days of the caveman, we have been wearing versions of the modern sock. Ancient civilizations such as the Greeks and Romans both adopted their own versions using animal skin or leather and often tied them around their ankles to hold them in place. The first knit stockings were first discovered in an Egyptian tomb that dates back to c.1000 CE and was most likely worn with their version of sandals. Fashion faux pas!

Socks similar to those worn in ancient Egypt c.1000 CE - Source Link

Socks As A Status Symbol And The Beginning Of The Modern Day Sock

As societies progressed knit stockings became more popular, but they were still for the privileged and rich, in particular with Europeans. Since stockings were seen as a sign of nobility their manufacturing was kept a guild secret for many years.

European stockings, the mid-1500s

Englishman William Lee (of Nottingham) first invented the knitting loom in the year 1589, which made knit fabrics easier to manufacture. France’s King Henri IV provided financial backing and William Lee relocated to France to establish a stocking factory. Around the time of the Industrial Revolution socks, which were mostly still made of wool, became easier and cheaper to manufacture and began to spread more rapidly throughout Europe.

A pair of 18th-century socks featuring a stripe pattern - Source Link

The sock took on many lengths and patterns and designs were added. Cotton became the fabric of choice around the 17th century, but otherwise, there was not much innovation across several centuries.

Men’s dress socks made of cashmere from 1906 - Source Link

Men wearing argyle and patterned socks from the 1920s - Source Link

Tall socks from the 1950s - Source Link

Mid-length socks (over the ankle) from the 1960s - Source Link

Socks Today

Around 1938 nylon was invented, which added elasticity to socks and many socks today are still made of nylon. Much like the 1920s-1960s, today has seen a resurgence of socks that feature more color and bolder designs and patterns. The sock is made of cotton, spandex, wool, polyester, nylon and more. There certainly is not a shortage when it comes to options!

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