Dive Brief:

• Following its launch of outdoor furniture in May, furniture rental brand Feather on Tuesday expanded into Texas by offering its services in Austin, Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth and San Antonio. The move marks the company's entrance into the Southern United States.

• The outdoor collection is in partnership with West Elm and Pottery Barn, a move that builds on the DTC brand's existing relationship with West Elm, according to details emailed to Retail Dive. 

• The Playa collection from West Elm and the Indio collection from Pottery Barn are now available through Feather.

Dive Insight:

Home retailers have experienced a boost over the past year as the pandemic altered nearly every aspect of consumers' lives, and Feather was no different.

Over the past year, the brand saw a 400% increase in demand for home office items and a 260% increase in demand for soft goods such as sofas, chairs and beds, the company said.

The move into outdoor furniture comes as vaccination rates increase and consumers look for safer ways to start entertaining again. 

"Where and how we live has changed so much over the past year," Jay Reno, founder and CEO of Feather, said in a statement. 

As consumers were forced to work from home during the pandemic, employers shifted practices related to remote work. This spurred a migration of some consumers away from cities to suburbs and more rural areas to get more space.

According to the 2021 Texas Relocation Report cited by Feather, "thousands" have relocated to the state, and of those migrating to southern states, millennials (age 25 to 39) made up a large percentage, per data from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey.

In addition to the Texas markets it expanded into, Feather is currently available in more than 900 zip codes, including in New York City; San Francisco; Los Angeles; Orange County, California; Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Richmond, Virginia.