In late 2020, while walking through a park in New York City and passing tennis and basketball courts, Griffin Harrington was struck by a question: “Why can’t people rent tennis rackets and basketballs as easily as they rent Citi Bikes?” This idea sparked the creation of RecRe, a robust automated resource-sharing platform designed to make public recreational spaces more accessible by offering easy access to equipment, much like bike and scooter rentals.
After a period of experimentation and refinement, RecRe lockers were piloted in the residence halls at James Madison University, the RecRe founding team’s alma mater. By the spring of 2022, RecRe had established itself as a solution for making shared inventory easily accessible to students while also improving efficiency for campus life administrators. Today, RecRe serves more than 40 universities nationwide, providing hundreds of thousands of students with self-service access to resources ranging from games and cleaning supplies to tech gear.
“RecRe has evolved into an invaluable tool for residence life leaders who seek to meet the changing expectations of students,” says Harrington, RecRe’s co-founder and CEO.” The platform saves time and reshapes the student experience by empowering students with greater autonomy and accountability while streamlining operations for administrators.”
Residence life professionals are pivotal in shaping a student’s experience outside the classroom. It’s not just about providing housing; it’s about fostering a sense of community and supporting students’ holistic development. This includes offering resources that help students thrive, whether that means a vacuum cleaner to keep their space tidy, a yoga mat for relaxation, or tech gadgets to aid in academic success. However, managing and distributing these resources has long been challenging for many campuses.
Traditional resource management methods are often outdated and inefficient. Jeremy Sheffield, director of student housing at the University of South Alabama, highlighted this issue by noting, “It’s hard to look at residence life from a lens of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.” His department faced difficulties meeting those student needs that arose outside of these limited hours, causing frustration for staff and students. Often, essential items were locked away behind RA desks during non-business hours, leading to missed opportunities for student engagement and personal development.
RecRe provided a solution by offering an automated rental platform that makes resources available around the clock, without requiring staff presence. At the University of South Alabama, students can access games, cleaning supplies, and tech gear anytime in the lobbies of their residence halls. This has improved the student experience by reducing stress and providing convenience. Sheffield also noted that RecRe serves as a tool for social engagement, helping to create learning opportunities within residence halls that contribute to personal and academic growth.
Today’s students expect greater convenience and access than ever before. They want flexibility, autonomy, and the ability to engage with their campus on their terms. RecRe meets these demands, enabling them to interact with their campus in ways that suit their schedules and interests. Matt Milless, assistant vice president for student engagement at Union College, emphasized the changing nature of student engagement, noting, “Students are engaging with peers and their institution differently now, and we want to be sure we’re meeting them where they are.” RecRe supports this shift by offering passive engagement opportunities such as renting a game for a late-night gathering with friends or borrowing a charger during a study session. Milless highlighted that the availability of these resources empowers students to take the initiative, fostering a more engaged and connected student body.
Additionally, RecRe helps students save money. At the University of Cincinnati, residents can avoid the cost of purchasing items like vacuum cleaners or cleaning supplies by renting them from RecRe for free. This reduces financial stress for students and aligns with the growing focus on sustainability and shared resources on college campuses.
Time is a precious resource for campus administrators, and RecRe helps them use it more efficiently. Departments no longer need to allocate staff to manually check out equipment. Boise State University experienced this problem firsthand as staff members spent significant time checking out and retrieving basketballs and other gear, leading to job dissatisfaction and turnover. By implementing RecRe, Boise State was able to automate the rental process, reducing turnover and freeing up staff to focus on more meaningful tasks.
RecRe also enhances student accountability. The system requires students to take a photo when returning an item, creating a digital record of its condition. This accountability reduces loss and damage, allowing universities to save money on equipment replacement and instead invest in more innovative offerings.
Beyond operational improvements, the platform has addressed staffing challenges for many universities. Lauren Gyurisin, assistant director of operations and facilities at Virginia Commonwealth University, explained that RecRe allowed her team to reintroduce inventory to students while addressing staffing issues exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. With automated rentals, VCU could provide equipment to students without requiring round-the-clock staff supervision. This has been particularly impactful as universities contend with rising labor costs.
RecRe’s journey from a simple idea to a nationwide solution serving thousands of students has been driven by a commitment to listening to students and campus administrators and continuously adapting the platform to meet their needs. As the company looks to the future, it aims to expand its impact further, helping more universities transform their residence life departments and enhance the student experience.
At its core, RecRe is about making life easier for both students and administrators. By providing students with the tools they need to succeed, whether academically or in building a community, and by offering administrators a more efficient, accountable, and scalable way to manage resources, RecRe is helping to reshape the student experience one campus at a time.
RecRe is the convenient, cost-effective, and sustainable inventory management solution. Discover what more than 20 campus already know. To learn more about how RecRe can support your campus, visit recrebox.com to book a demonstration.