Story at a glance
- Since 2005, Patagonia has been repairing, recycling and reselling used items that customers drop off at its stores.
- But some things are just too far gone, especially since the brand’s customers are often subjecting items to harsh environments.
- To keep the most tattered garments out of landfills, the company is now launching a new line called ReCrafted, which stitches the scraps together into new, one-of-a-kind products.
If you’ve ripped or otherwise messed up your pricey Patagonia puffy jacket or any other piece of gear they make, the outdoor brand will take it back and repair it for you. They’ll also accept unwanted garments if you’re no longer trying to put out the, “I might be headed into the backcountry after work” vibe. Depending on the state of the piece, they’ll recycle it or refurbish and resell it.
But what does Patagonia do with all the stuff that’s simply too far gone to be saved or re-sold and can’t be recycled? The cheapest option would be to landfill or incinerate these well loved scraps, but in hopes of reducing waste the brand is launching a line of products made from these old duds called ReCrafted.
The new line is based out of a workshop in Los Angeles. Each product in the ReCrafted line gives between three and six tattered Patagonia garments a glitzy afterlife as a renewed one-off item.
Right now, they’re offering down jackets and vests, sweaters, t-shirts and bags. The multicolored franken-tees make no bones about the many different shirts that went into their fabrication, in fact it seems like part of the point. The products are designed simply in a way that highlights rather than conceals the fact that your new overnight bag used to be several pairs of pants.
The current lineup is available on Patagonia’s Worn Wear website or in person at a new Worn Wear shop in Boulder, Colorado, at prices ranging from $27 to $327.
Besides Patagonia, other brands like REI, Eileen Fisher, Arcteryx and Taylor Stitch also sell their used goods secondhand. A company called Yerdle is helping these and other brands run their resale operations. The slower fashion gets, that is to say, the longer a garment stays out of the trash, the smaller its environmental footprint.
But with Patagonia’s ReCraft line, they’re picking up the pieces that fall through the cracks of their resale program and giving them a second wind.
Published on Nov 15,2019