Patagonia is an outdoor industry pioneer when it comes to extending the life of its products through Worn Wear, its resale platform, and its extensive repairs services.
But that doesn’t mean the company can guarantee consumers will be interested in every initiative the California-based company takes to promote those services. Case in point: the company’s wader repair team was on tour again this spring, setting up shop at various angling and fly-fishing events in Colorado, Utah, and Montana to offer free assessments and repairs on any waders, whether they were purchased at Patagonia or not.
“When you host these events, you never know if people are going to read the fine print and actually bring waders,” said Corey Simpson, a communications manager in product and sport community. “We’re always a little bit scared, because we have multiple repair techs with us and we do so much prep work to make sure that we’re ready. And you just really don’t know what you’re going to show up to.”
Thankfully, there was massive demand at the team’s first stop at the Fly Fishing Show at Denver’s Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center. Fifteen minutes before the booth opened, there was a line of around 25 people waiting, waders in hand. That line grew so long throughout the day, that despite its best efforts, the team couldn’t get to every hopeful angler with leaky or damaged gear.
Photo courtesy of Patagonia/Kitt Doucette.
Both economic pressures and a desire to protect the planet are behind a growing demand for repairs services in the outdoor industry. In addition to an increasing number of brands offering repairs services such as Arc’teryx’s ReBird program, which expanded to 11 stores in 2024, and Osprey’s All Mighty lifetime guarantee, they’re also now designing products to lower the cost of repairs, and even finding ways to show their consumers how to do easy repairs on their own. Retailers are also filling in gaps in repairs networks, offering to send products on behalf of consumers, and third-party repair services are still seeing strong demand, which surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, both from consumers and brands.
It may seem counterintuitive to promote repairs and extend product life in an industry that’s struggled since the pandemic boom. But those service costs are built into prices, Simpson said.
“I really feel like any quality brand that is touting how amazing they are, if they don’t offer either repairability or circularity at the end of a product life, that’s a huge component that’s missing,” he said. “And for us, we lose hours of sleep, buckets of sweat and blood, trying to really make the absolute best product, and then also figuring out, how do we make it long lasting? How can we find end-of-life solutions for these products? And it’s really all part of the cost that people pay when they buy the product.”
Growing the Repair Network at Retail
Ohio specialty retailer Roads Rivers and Trails has always offered some in-house repair services to its customers, said co-founder Bryan Wolf. But the store started promoting more sophisticated repairs offered by brands such as Benchmade and Bedrock, and working with the brands directly to create programs where the retailer will solicit products in need of upgrades by those brands from their customers, send them in for repairs, and cover the cost of shipping. In some cases, they’ll even work with brands to offer discounts on the services.
“It’s a friendly reminder, with free shipping at the very least and hopefully some discounts, to keep your gear lasting longer,” Wolf said.
Roads Rivers and Trails has broadened the program out to more brands such as Osprey, Nemo, Rab, Livsn, and more, and in addition to repairs, they’ll also connect consumers to washing or recycling services.
“A lot of times, customers come into our shop, and maybe they’re replacing a pack that they bought elsewhere,” he said. “We’re the first people to tell them, ‘There’s a lifetime warranty on that pack. Do you know Osprey could just fix that for you?’ We wanted to amplify that a little bit more.’”
By connecting customers with repairs and other services and extending the lifespan of their gear, it helps the retailer tell brand stories and it engages customers and earns their trust.
“It creates relationships, builds trust, and gives consumers confidence in what you’re selling them,” Wolf said. “Because not only are you willing to stand behind it, but you’re willing to do that hand holding to make sure that you’re standing behind it.”
Bill and Paul’s Sporthaus, a Grand Rapids, Michigan specialty retailer, has also offered ski and snowboard repair services, as well as tent, kayak and other repairs for a long time, said Jon Holmes, the director of marketing and ecommerce. But when he noticed there was more demand for information about repairs, he started creating content, such as a video about fixing tents, for the website and Bill and Paul’s YouTube channel.
After the video went up, the store got inquiries from all over the country about whether they could fix their tent poles. The store, which has been open since the 1960s, has a huge inventory of tent poles, and is usually able to fix them or replace them, he said.
Holmes said the store has also partnered with NoSo Patches to promote repairs in an easy and cost-effective way.
“The price of replacing items is getting high,” Holmes said. But younger generations in particular want to extend the life of their products. “We’re on board with that. We make a living selling things. But if you can keep somebody’s product working a little bit longer, you’ve made a friend for life. That’s a customer for life, and at some point they’ll need to replace those things. And it gives us a better chance of working with them.”
Third-Party Repairs
Kim Kinney, the founder and CEO of Bend, Oregon-based Rugged Thread, said it has three different types of customer bases. The outerwear repairs shop has its local direct customers, or people who just walk in. Its national customers, a group which grew by 160% through the pandemic, send everything from sleeping bags to outerwear to motorcycle clothing to patio cushions to the studio from all over the U.S. and Canada. And its B2B customers include approximately 35 brands who send products. But the fastest-growing trend is brands directing consumers to Rugged Thread’s services and promoting repairs as a whole, rather than just promoting repairs for its own brand, she said.
“I think the biggest movement is more for brands to be pushing gear stewardship onto their consumer base and then providing a resource,” Kinney said. “That’s the next big growth.”
Photo courtesy of Rugged Thread.
Consumers are increasingly reluctant to throw gear away into landfills or donate it to second hand stores, she said, particularly if it just requires simple repairs such as a hole patch.
Rugged Thread trains its employees on one repair at a time. Most don’t have sewing experience when they start, but they’re required to have machine experience. Repairs work can be seasonal. Kinney is working to close the gaps on its shoulder season – which runs roughly from July to October – by winning contracts with governments to repair uniforms and gear.
Kinney’s repair work has also helped inform a workshop she leads about how to design products to make repairs easier. Burton brought team members across a variety of functions, such as a pattern maker, its global repair lead, and even customer service employees to the workshop in 2022, she said.
“We deconstructed their products, got them on the sewing machines, and then really opened it up to them,” she said. They zeroed in on common repairs such as pocket zippers, which can take up to two hours to replace, and thus are expensive to fix.
“If we can get our brands to manufacture zippers in a different way, those could be replaced at a much lower time commitment and skill training level,” she said.
And when items are easier to repair, their resale value should be higher, and the likelihood that they’ll be used by future generations increases, too.
“They can be exchanging and trading products a lot easier and cheaper,” Kinney said. “If (products) can be designed to be repaired, they just last longer, right?”
Kate Robertson can be reached at kate@shop-eat-surf-outdoor.com.
