worn wear repair tour

PATAGONIA MOBILE WORN WEAR TOUR: IF IT’S BROKE, FIX IT

March 31, 2015 by Corey Simpson

Extending the life of our garments is the single most important thing we can do to lower our impact on the planet. In keeping our clothes in use longer, we reduce overall consumption.

Today, we’re proud to launch a cross-country mission to change people’s relationship with stuff. The Worn Wear Mobile Tour, kicking off April 2 in Ventura, Calif., and ending May 12 in Boston, is our attempt to encourage customers to make their clothes last a lifetime.

As part of the tour, we’re bringing repair staff from Patagonia’s repair facility in Reno, Nev., on the road to offer free repairs on busted zippers, rips, tears, buttons, pulls and more – in addition to teaching people how to fix their own gear. Used Patagonia items will be for sale. The tour will be stopping at a myriad of locations such as retail locations, coffee shops, farmers markets and trailheads.

Patagonia’s Worn Wear program was created in 2013 as a way to encourage people to take good care of their gear, washing and repairing as needed. The program aims to keep clothing, regardless of brand, in circulation for as long as possible. When it’s time for a replacement, we want you to invest in something that lasts.

That’s why Patagonia makes the best quality, most functional products in the world, guarantees them for life and owns the biggest garment repair facility in North America. And it’s why were going on tour – bringing Worn Wear’s critical message to communities across the country.

“ There is nothing we can change about how we make clothing that would have more positive environmental impact than simply making less, ” notes Patagonia CEO Rose Marcario. “Worn Wear is a celebration of quality products and their relationship to our lives. It’s a simple but critical message: keep your gear in action longer and take some pressure off our planet.”

The Worn Wear Wagon is a one-of-a-kind custom vehicle, created by artist/surfer Jay Nelson. The solar-powered camper shell is made from redwood salvaged from giant wine barrels and mounted on a ’91 Dodge Cummins fueled by biodiesel. The mobile repair shop, complete with an Industrial Juki sewing machine, will be open to anyone who brings in a garment, regardless of brand. The tour will aim to educate visitors about the philosophy behind Patagonia’s Worn Wear program, in addition to offering up some fun with food, drinks and live music.

In November 2014, Patagonia announced a Black Friday investment in Yerdle , an innovative company providing a simple way for people to put goods back into circulation and avoid buying new   –   capturing the value of what they already own to save money and the planet. The investment, made through our internal venture fund, coincided with Worn Wear Swap Events in stores around the country, allowing customers to bring in their used Patagonia clothing and swap it with something off the rack.

At the end of the day, we can tinker with our supply chain, improve sourcing, use all-recycled fabrics and give away millions of dollars to environmental organizations until the cows come in, but nothing is more important and impactful than keeping our clothing in use for as long as possible. In fact, by keeping our clothing in use just nine extra months, we can reduce related carbon, waste and water footprints by 20-30 percent each, according to the UK-based group   WRAP   – simply because we’re making and throwing away less.  

We look forward to seeing you at Worn Wear Mobile Tour stops around the country!

Links to more info:

About Patagonia

Founded by Yvon Chouinard in 1973, Patagonia is an outdoor apparel company based in Ventura, California. A certified B-Corporation, Patagonia’s mission is to build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis. The company is recognized internationally for its commitment to authentic product quality and environmental activism, contributing over $56 million in grants and in-kind donations to date.

Contact :  Jess Clayton, 805-667-4755, [email protected]

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Fixing what’s broken instead of buying new reduces waste, takes responsibility for resources already extracted and is an essential step to closing the garment loop. Through care and repair—you can use our guides or the help of our repair pros—we can all work to reduce our collective impact and make gear better than new.

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Where can I find the Worn Wear Truck?

To find out where Delia and Uncle Dave —our mobile repair vehicles—and the Worn Wear crew will be next, check out the Events Calendar .

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• What is Worn Wear?
• How can I recycle a Patagonia or Worn Wear item?
• Where can I purchase Worn Wear items?
• How do I return Patagonia Provisions or Worn Wear items?
• Can I use my Worn Wear Merchandise Credit on Patagonia.com?

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Patagonia's Mountain Road Trip Repair Tour

• February 2019
• Alf Alderson

Duck tape it? Chuck it? No get Patagonia to repair it - and save the planet from ditched ski and snowboard kit pollution.

In 2013 Patagonia introduced its ‘Worn Wear’ programme, a concept that is summed up nicely on the Patagonia website  it aims to ‘keep your gear in action longer through repair and reuse and recycle your garments when they're beyond repair’.

This year Patagonia's Worn Wear Repair Tour launched on 24th January in Innsbruck, Austria and finishes in La Grave, France for the Derby de la Meije on 3rd-6th April (below) after making its way to snow destinations across Europe repairing zips, buttons, rips and tears and, also, GORE-TEX apparel. Bring your most loved (and abused) piece of clothing and Patagonia will repair it for free, whatever the brand. 

Just think about that for a moment – you probably have a favourite piece of ski gear, it’s been through the great days and the grim days with you, served you well but as with all things one day it gives up the ghost.

Do you really want to chuck that favourite jacket or those great ski pants into the bin if they can be repaired? After all, they’ve given you hundreds of days of faithful service and fantastic memories.

Well, initiatives like the ‘Worn Wear’ programme mean you no longer have to; instead, Patagoina will help you in making your favourite jacket/pants/fleece last as long as possible by repairing them, and when they finally fall apart, they go for recycling.

And the company will do all this for you free of charge. Here’s a personal example: my favourite ski pants are, as it happens, made by Patagonia, and after the first season of use one of the boot gaiters tore. So, I packaged them up, sent them back to Patagonia and they repaired them free of charge.

They did the same thing when I tore the gaiter a second time; and a third. No questions asked (although I do question myself on why I’m so hard on my boot gaiters?) and no charges levied other than the postage to send the pants to Patagonia (they cover the return cost).

Apparently, by keeping a piece of clothing for nine extra months – which is effectively two ski seasons - we can reduce carbon, waste and water usage by 20-30 percent. Who’d a thunk it?

When a pair of top-quality ski pants, or a good ski jacket can set you back £300 or more it makes good sense to get them repaired, and when the time comes to finally ditch your kit it need not die in vain since you can get it recycled by handing it in at any Patagonia store; and if it’s a Patagonia item you can even trade it in for a credit to put towards another Patagonia garment.

It’s an integral part of Patagonia’s eco-friendly approach to manufacturing – as Alex Weller, Patagonia Marketing Director Europe told me, 'It’s a combined approach which encompasses functionality, minimalism, simplicity and being built to last and to be repaired'.

He explained that minimalism and functionality ensure there’s less to go wrong with a product, and helping people keep their gear in use reduces its environmental impact. Patagonia also provides the tools online to allow you to repair damaged items or find ways to reuse or recycle them when they have reached the end of the line – this includes everything from instructions on how to replace a zip to more prosaic but equally useful information on how to best wash any down and waterproof products.

As the website points out: 'One of the most responsible things we can do as a company is to make high-quality stuff that lasts for years and can be repaired, so you don’t have to buy more of it'.

You can return any Patagonia product bought within 100 years of the date of receipt of the item (assuming you actually live that long) and the service covers faults and general wear and tear; and, if the item is deemed irreparable, Patagonia may, at their discretion, replace it or send a credit note for the purchase amount, provided damage is not due to improper use.

Any irreparable kit will be recycled or, if it has sentimental value and you would like to have it returned to you rather than being issued a credit or replacement, they’ll do that instead.

You can see how all this is put into practice on one of Patagonia’s ‘Worn Wear Tours’, at which professional seamstresses will repair damaged gear for free; they’ll even repair products from other manufacturers too.

However, don’t pat yourself on the back too hard just because you’ve repaired or recycled your worn-out kit. Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard is known for being forthright with his opinions and said in a recent interview, 'The reason why we won’t face up to our problems with the environment is that we are the problem. It’s not the corporations out there, it’s not the governments, it’s us. We’re the ones telling the corporations to make more stuff and make it as cheap and as disposable as possible.

'We’re not citizens anymore. We’re consumers. We’re in denial that each and every one of us is the problem. And until we face up to that, nothing’s going to happen. So, there’s a movement for simplifying your life: purchase less stuff, own a few things that are very high quality that last a long time, and that are multifunctional.'

When you think about it, that final statement makes particularly good sense for skiers; good quality kit ain’t cheap, but at least it makes your days on the mountain more comfortable and at best it may even keep you alive, so surely it makes sense to follow Mr. Chouinard’s advice?

To find out more head to the  Facebook event page  and check out all the European Worn Wear Repair Tour dates  here . 

Walking the Talk

More and more Ski and Snowboard brands are making tracks in sustainability, using organic and PFC free materials, recycling and repairing to help keep our mountains - and planet - clean. Let us know other eco-warriors to add to the list...

Paramo   is a pioneer of PFC (perfluorocarbons)chemical free outdoor clothing: In January 2016, in ' Leaving Traces ', Greenpeace reported on their testing of 40 outdoor products, nominated by consumers and discovered that only 4 out of the 40 products were free of PFC-treatment. This underlined the fact that most outdoor brands, with the exception of Páramo, are still wedded to the use of PFC-based water repellents as they are nervous that without them, their products would not stand up to the technical requirements of wild conditions. UK company, Páramo has been able to establish that high performance waterproofing does not require PFC pollution. Greenpeace scientists wore Páramo clothing when collecting remote area samples and were very satisfied with the protection it gave at altitude and in extreme environments.

In January 2016, Páramo took the significant step of signing up to the Detox commitment. As part of the  Greenpeace Detox programme , this commitment lays out the basis for ensuring and demonstrating that hazardous chemicals are excluded from the production of all Páramo products. Páramo is the first Outdoor company to sign up to the Greenpeace Detox commitment. 

Meanwhile, the Páramo Recycling Scheme is their way of providing a safe route for disposal of unwanted garments. They will take back any Páramo product (except underwear), and either find it a new home, or recycle it into new fabric. As a reward for your effort in getting old gear back to them, you can expect a generous discount on new Páramo products.  

Read our interview with Nick Brown, Founder of Paramo and Nikwax, a Breath of Fresh Air for the outdoor sports industry.

Picture Organic   are now also able to cliam that their technical products are 100 percent PFC free  using water repellent treatment. When it comes to using organic and recycled materials for ski and snowboard wear then Picture this - ninety five percent  of their cotton collection is organic from Turkey – either GOTS or Organic Content Standard certified.  The remaining 5 percent is made in India with recycled cotton for products such as shirts and chinos pants.  All of Picture Organic technical products are made from a minimum of  50 percent recycled polyester  from plastic bottles, using Greenplus Taiwan certification to guarantee recycled rates of each product and Bluesign Approved Fabric to guarantee that they do not contain harmful chemicals.Fifty plastic bottles equals one Picture jacket. Plastic in the ocean or a ski /snowboard jacket? No brainer.

Planks clothing was set up by ex-pro freestyle skier Jim Adlington in Val d’Isere nearly a decade ago. Over the last few years Planks have put considerable effort into featuring as many eco-friendly materials in their products as they can. They work with both Bluesign fabrics and Repreve, who are the world’s leading recycled yarn manufacturer (they take used plastic bottles and use them to create yarns for garment production). Recycled materials now feature in over half the Planks product line.

NoK Snowboards are the latest eco-warriors. What to do with your old snowboard? Store it, dump it, hang it on the wall. Now there's another eco-alternative. Donate your old snowboard to NoK Boards for a new lease of life on the road. Two French snowboard product engineers, Vincent Gelin and Adrien Reguis, are the latest brand from the winters sports community to join the environmental protection movement by creating NoK Boards in Grenoble recycling old snowboards into new skateboards. Read more here .

Funi Headwear started life in Bourg St. Maurice 10 years ago (their name comes from the slang term for the funicular railway that whisks skiers from Bourg up to the slopes of Les Arcs). Their ethical approach is apparent from the make-up of their work force, which consists of a team of pensioners in the north-east of England who knit every beanie by hand. The company has abandoned the use of acrylic yarns in favour of merino wool and now offers a 10-year warranty on their beanies.

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Home » Events news: Patagonia’s Worn Wear Repair Tour is back

Events news: Patagonia’s Worn Wear Repair Tour is back

Patagonia’s Worn Wear Tour will be heading to a selection of European resorts to fix your technical snow gear, giving it second life or helping it to last longer.

This year, Patagonia’s Worn Wear Repair Tour launches on January 24th in Innsbruck, Austria and makes its way to snow destinations across Europe repairing zips, buttons, rips and tears, whilst also repairing GORE-TEX apparel. Launched in 2013, Worn Wear is an idea created to encourage people to take good care of their gear – repairing it as necessary, to ensure it lasts as long as it can.

The idea is simple: fixing gear and using it for many seasons reduces overall consumption. Patagonia will repair used and abused items of clothing for free, whatever the brand, and they aim to educate people on how best to protect and repair their garments themselves.

To kick off the tour, Patagonia will head to Innsbruck on Thursday, January 24th for a special launch event, free for everyone to join, at the new Innsbruck store (opening soon). Alongside the repairs there with will be music from Dalai Jama and a light installation from Upcycling Studio, plus Patagonia Snowboard Ambassador, Nicholas Wolken, will present his new short film “Close to Home” .

To find out more about the Innsbruck Kick-Off head to the  Facebook event page  and check out all the European Worn Wear Repair Tour dates  here .

Alex has been a hillwalker, mountaineer, and backpacker since 2003, cutting his teeth winter climbing while working as a barman in the famous Clachaig Inn in Glen Coe, before backpacking extensively throughout Britain and Europe. He’s the author of several books and an editor, writer, and photographer across outdoor media. He’s been part of the review team for The Great Outdoors since 2016, and is based in Scotland.

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Patagonia Worn Wear Wetsuit Repair Tour

The Worn Wear Tour is back and once again Patagonia will be making repairs on wetsuits, as well as repairing surf (and other) apparel. All brands are welcome as long as the suits are dry and there is one repair per person. See the dates below for the rest of summer and into autumn and get yourself to one of these locations. 

13/8/2019 – 14/8/2019 Le Surfing Seignosse, France

16/8/2019 ATS Surf Shop Plouharnel, France

17/8/2019 The Swenson House Audierne, France

18/8/2019 Baie des trépassés Plogoff, France

19/8/2019 The Surf Room Audierne, France

21/8/2019 – 22/8/2019 The Surf Yard St. Ouens – Jersey, France

25/8/2019 – 26/8/2019 Freshwater West Pembroke, Wales

29/8/2019 Troggs Surf School Portrush, Ireland

31/8/2019 – 1/9/2019 Tullan Strand Beach Bundoran, Ireland

3/9/2019 The Green Room Surf School Lahinch, Ireland

4/9/2019 – 5/9/2019 Moy Hill Farm Lahinch, Ireland

7/9/2019 – 8/9/2019 Secret Spot Scarborough, UK

12/9/2019 – 13/9/2019 Bellheaven Beach Dunbar, Scotland

14/9/2019 – 15/9/2019 Seabanks Tynemouth, UK

20/9/2019 – 21/9/2019 Uni München Munich, Germany

24/9/2019 – 25/9/2019 Langbrett Berlin Berlin, Germany

27/9/2019 – 28/9/2019 Langbrett Hamburg Hamburg, Germany

So get your old suits ready for repair! Here Patagonia explains the concept behind the Worn Wear Tour. 

Tell us about the Worn Wear programme? We believe that one of the most responsible things we can do as a company is to make high-quality product that lasts for years and can be repaired so you don’t have to buy more of it. Our multi-faceted  Worn Wear  programme includes a trade-in programme, shopping used Patagonia gear online ( wornwear.com US only ), repairs through DIY workshops and tours, and responsible apparel recycling practices.  According to WRAP UK, using clothing an additional nine months reduces the carbon, water and waste footprints by 20-30% each. Additionally, repairing and reusing usually requires less resources than the energy and chemicals required to recycle a garment.

How has the programme evolved?  The inspiration and seeds of Worn Wear were planted in 2005 as the Common Threads Recycling Programme. This was Patagonia’s effort to take back all 100% polyester garments for closed-loop, chemical recycling and use the output of the process – 100% recycled yarn — as a raw material for new clothing. While this was extremely successful from materials and technological standpoint, it didn’t scale because Patagonia clothing is so durable that there really isn’t much that needs to be recycled.  This realisation led us to expand Common Threads from a recycling programme to a mutual partnership with our customers to take full responsibility for the stuff we make and they purchase – including repairing and reusing garments before recycling them. In 2011, Common Threads Recycling re-launched as the Common Threads Partnership with a New York Times ad on Black Friday that carried the headline “Don’t Buy This Jacket” and suggested that we should only buy what we truly need and then care for it.

Over the next few years, a blog called  Worn Wear  was developed by Lauren and Keith Malloy that celebrated the relationship with the garments we love. The value that stories have to make us feel is far greater than preaching an ethos, and so we joined forces in 2013 to make Worn Wear about repairing, reusing, recycling and celebrating the stories we wear.   WornWear.com , our trade-in programme started in April 2017 ( US only) .

Today we have over 70 repair centres located in Patagonia stores all over the world that repair clothing for free or for a nominal charge and in 2018 we repaired over 100,000 garments globally. At our Reno repair facility – the largest in North America – we have over 70 repair technicians. In Europe, last year, we held 56 Worn Wear events, attended by over 25,000 people.

Find out more here  

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Patagonia worn wear tour | europe dates, patagonia worn wear tour returns to europe, check out the dates.

After a two-year hiatus, our favourite repair team returns to Europe for the Patagonia Worn Wear Snow Tour 2022 . The classic Worn Wear trailer will travel to the alps again to hit snow destinations in France, Switzerland, Austria, Germany and Italy, offering free repairs on busted zippers, rips, tears, buttons, pulls and more, as well as teaching people how to fix their own gear. And best of all, the repair team onboard will offer free repairs on any brand of clothing, on a first-come, first-served basis.

“And best of all, the repair team onboard will offer free repairs on any brand of clothing, on a first-come, first-served basis”

The Worn Wear trailer has been hand-built to an original design to be able to travel to the toughest locations around Europe. It plays host to some very technical repair equipment while bringing hot chocolates and good vibes to the slopes. On top of that, the team is also there to educate people on how to keep snow gear in good condition for multiple seasons through teaching different skills such as patching, re-waterproofing shells and fixing zippers.

Patagonia’s Worn Wear programme was created in 2013 to encourage people to take good care of their gear, washing and repairing as needed. Extending the life of our garments, through proper care and repair, is the single most important thing we can do to lower our impact on the planet and reduces the need to buy more over time – thereby avoiding the CO2 emissions, waste output, and water usage required to build it. By keeping our clothing in use for just nine extra months, we can reduce related carbon, waste and water footprints by 20-30 % each , according to the UK-based group WRAP – simply because we’re making and throwing away less.

Check out the dates for the Worn Wear Europe tour below:

18-20 February – Salzburg, AT 19 February – Chamonix, FR 25-27 February – Oberstdorf, DE 26-27 February – Manchester, UK 4-6 March – Andermatt, CH 5 March – Montebelluna, IT 5-6 March – Milan, IT 11-13 March – Aosta, IT 11-12 March – Innsbruck, AT 12-14 March – München, DE 18-20 March – Lyon, FR

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We are teaming up with Patagonia for the Worn Wear Repair Tour, to bring free clothing and wetsuit repairs out to Hatteras Island. 

The Worn Wear team will be setting up at REAL from May 31st-June 2nd ( 12pm-5pm) for the repair tour.

They'll fix ANY brand of wetsuit and clothing as long as the item is DRY. Ripped knee, opened seam, hole in the sleeve; you wear it, they repair it.

As always, it's first come, first served and one item per person.

All repairs are free!

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Taylor Swift's worn hundreds of custom Louboutins on the Eras Tour — luxury cobblers say she's got Gen Z hooked on red bottoms

• Taylor Swift's 'Eras' tour features custom Christian Louboutin shoes adorned with strass crystals.
• Luxury cobblers say the shoes are well-built and are a status symbol.
• The cobblers also say Louboutin shoes are getting more popular — and Swift may have played a part in that.

For the past year, pop megastar Taylor Swift has been prancing around her glitzy "Eras" tour stage in pairs of red bottoms adorned with crystals.

Designer Christian Louboutin recently told Vogue that he designed 250 pairs of custom shoes for the pop star and her dancers — including 60 new ones for the recent European leg of her tour.

Styles in Swift's collection include the knee-high Eleonora Botta and the Cate Boot, per Louboutin's website . Many of the styles are dripping in hand-applied strass crystals.

"The way strass crystals catch the light is super impactful onstage. After all, this is the biggest tour in the world — the girl needs to shine!" Louboutin told Vogue.

Louboutin also told Vogue that he tried to design Swift's shoes to be comfortable and performance-ready.

Pasquale Fabrizio, designer and owner of Pasquale Shoe Repair in Los Angeles, told Business Insider that the heeled versions of the showpiece shoes aren't necessarily built for dancing, but the iconic red bottoms carry a sought-after reputation. Many performers wear the shoes onstage, he said.

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"The pinnacle of footwear is Louboutin," Fabrizio told BI.

Dean Rago of the Rago Brothers, a Louboutin repair shop in Morristown, New Jersey, told BI he could not imagine himself wearing those heels at Swift's height (the songstress is nearly 6 feet tall). Still, he said some customers find the shoe more comfortable than those from other designers.

"Some people will say that if they're gonna go that high, they want a Louboutin because they can bear it," Rago said.

Fabrizio, whose shop has done repair work for celebrities like Oprah and Meryl Streep , said there are ways to help reinforce the shoes — but emphasized that the shoes were never built for "parachute jumping."

For example, he said a metal brace can be added inside the heels of shoes to help prevent splitting or opening up. This can happen, as evidenced by Swift herself, when one of her heels broke in Brazil .

Rago said customers also protect the shoe's bottom with a thin piece of red rubber that his shop installs to prevent scuffing.

Vogue reported that Swift began working with Louboutin in 2018 when the designer first lent his designs to her "Reputation" tour.

Years later, she's still showing loyalty to the brand.

Rago said the shoe is long-lasting and repairs easily — a worthy investment for Swifties inspired to follow in Swift's footsteps and purchase a pair of their own.

Both Fabrizio and Rago say they've seen more and more people coming into their shops over the past few years to have their Louboutin shoes repaired — and Swift may play a role in this trend.

Fabrizio, who said Swift once entered his shop nearly a decade ago, found her loyalty to the brand admirable.

"She's a big influencer in the brand and product," Fabrizio said. "Just endorsing it and wearing it allows the younger generation of girls to go after that look. She exemplifies fashion."

Representatives for Louboutin and Swift did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Watch: How Adidas, Asics, and other shoemakers deal with waste

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Laxaþjóð | A Salmon Nation

Our relationship with nature not only defines our history, it shapes our future, too. Yet beneath the surface of Iceland’s fjords, an industrial fish farming method threatens to destroy one of Europe’s last remaining wildernesses. Laxaþjóð | A Salmon Nation tells the story of a country united by its lands and waters, and the power of a community to protect the wild places and animals that helped forge its identity.

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