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Repair is a Radical Act

patagonia.com

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Re: Repair is a Radical Act

#21

Post by ghaff »

nathancahill wrote: post #16
ghaff wrote: post #2

This tends not to work with electronics which tend to be at least somewhat obsolete by the time you'd repair them--and, frankly, is less economical than it used to be for many items. That said, I do tend to fix or have fixed clothing with a relatively minor issue that is otherwise still good.

I have a Macbook Pro that is 5 years old now. I've replaced and upgraded every single component as they failed (battery, SSD, RAM, trackpad and most recently the matte screen when a pixel went dead). It still benchmarks on par with current models. So I don't agree with your comment at all.

I've made repairs and upgrades to a five year old MacBook as well. However, I eventually replaced it primarily for reasons of weight and battery life. I've also repaired an old iPod although I honestly didn't have a lot of use for it after I repaired it because I had newer iPhones.

Certainly compared to clothing electronics do tend to become obsolete but it obviously depends a lot on the electronics and what they're being used for.

Re: Repair is a Radical Act

#22

Post by famousactress »

mc32 wrote: post #8

Maybe as the CEO of a clothing company I hope she can effect change in the seasonal nature of fashion, so that people aren't pushed to buy new clothes every year --and that clothes be made to last more then one season (via velocity of fashion, or via making compromised clothing fashionable (acid wash, tears, rips, etc...) People who darn and patch already do what she proposes. It may take off with others, but she can…

That's literally happening at Patagonia and has been for more than twenty years.

It's worth reading Yvonne's book [1]. In it, he talks about Patagonia clothes becoming fashionable in the 80's which led to a spike in demand, then a trough when fashion shifted and layoffs which deeply hurt him and the company. The reaction was to focus severely on attracting customers that were using the products for utility and to discourage others from purchasing. Wonder why you can't buy everything Patagonia makes in black, like you can for anything North Face? This is why. Wondering why effectively everything they make with a hood has an oversized hood that fits a helmet instead of being geared to bay geeks that have to walk two blocks from their Uber in the rain? This is why.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Let-People-Surfing-Education-Businessm...

Re: Repair is a Radical Act

#23

Post by DiabloD3 »

BogusIKnow wrote: post #18
ghaff wrote: post #2

This tends not to work with electronics which tend to be at least somewhat obsolete by the time you'd repair them--and, frankly, is less economical than it used to be for many items. That said, I do tend to fix or have fixed clothing with a relatively minor issue that is otherwise still good.

My wife has a Nexus 5 which is cheap to repair and replace parts. She's so happy with the phone she doesn't want a new one (Shame Google stopped makeing excellent, upgradeable, repairable and cheap smart phones).

I am a huge Nexus 5 fan, I own one, but it is not cheap or easy to repair.

Also, the Nexus 5X is out, almost identical, but based on the LG G4 instead of the G2, and has a small handful of niftier features, including better battery life.

Re: Repair is a Radical Act

#24

Post by mattnewport »

I appreciate companies making repairable products, providing repair manuals and avoiding proprietary screws etc. but I think it's overly simplistic to say repair is the default right choice.

It makes sense to strive for efficiency. In some cases repair is the most efficient choice but in others it is not. There are always tradeoffs and sometimes durability and repairability are over-engineering for a particular use case. Individuals are not necessarily well placed to determine the most efficient choices directly. Prices act as a mechanism to incorporate information on efficiency of resource use and cheap disposable items are cheap in part because they take fewer resources to manufacture and transport. If they are sufficiently durable for their intended use then they may well be the efficient choice.

Re: Repair is a Radical Act

#27

Post by famousactress »

I want to add an anecdote to inject some reality into this discussion. I bought a wetsuit from Patagonia in 2009 (I think). They were super new to the wetsuit industry and I paid 300+$ during their "half price" sale. Full price was ~600$ and 300 was the price for the top of the line "money is no object" wetsuit.

For someone who surfs a lot (me) wetsuits traditionally last about three years/seasons. Last year my patagonia wetsuit was showing it's age and I brought it to the store. They sent it to their repair shop and the repair folks re-taped every seam, put new knee patches in and installed a new car-key-loop (original suit lacked one) free of charge.

The neoprene is starting to break down and the suit isn't as warm as it used to be. I anticipate I'll get this season out of it and maybe 1-2 more.

The company is fanatical about the quality of the products they produce and even more fanatical about their support/repair for those products.

Re: Repair is a Radical Act

#28

Post by voltagex_ »

ghaff wrote: post #2

This tends not to work with electronics which tend to be at least somewhat obsolete by the time you'd repair them--and, frankly, is less economical than it used to be for many items. That said, I do tend to fix or have fixed clothing with a relatively minor issue that is otherwise still good.

My X1 Carbon appears to be almost wholly unrepairable, but it's not like any of the similar alternatives I could buy are any better.

Re: Repair is a Radical Act

#29

Post by Camillo »

famousactress wrote: post #22
mc32 wrote: post #8

Maybe as the CEO of a clothing company I hope she can effect change in the seasonal nature of fashion, so that people aren't pushed to buy new clothes every year --and that clothes be made to last more then one season (via velocity of fashion, or via making compromised clothing fashionable (acid wash, tears, rips, etc...) People who darn and patch already do what she proposes. It may take off with others, but she can…

That's literally happening at Patagonia and has been for more than twenty years. It's worth reading Yvonne's book [1]. In it, he talks about Patagonia clothes becoming fashionable in the 80's which led to a spike in demand, then a trough when fashion shifted and layoffs which deeply hurt him and the company. The reaction was to focus severely on attracting customers that were using the products for utility and to dis…

> The reaction was to focus severely on attracting customers that were using the products for utility and to discourage others from purchasing. Wonder why you can't buy everything Patagonia makes in black, like you can for anything North Face? This is why.

What? A black waterproof coat is dorky, it makes you look like a walking garbage bag. I should know, I have one (it was the only color left in my size). They are popular with people who have to wear them on the job, though, because they look "professional" (I don't mean a cool, adventurous job like mountain helicopter rescue who can wear a red and orange coat, think instead of a security guard who has to patrol the same block all day in the rain.)

> Wondering why effectively everything they make with a hood has an oversized hood that fits a helmet instead of being geared to bay geeks that have to walk two blocks from their Uber in the rain? This is why.

First off, do you not understand how Uber works? Second, you think bay geeks don't wear helmets when they go mountain biking or snowboarding? If anything, they need an even bigger hood to fit their GoPro.

You know, that Patagonia post, obvious brand marketing though it is, was actually working. "Patagonia sure cares about the environment and making sturdy, quality goods like in the good old days", I thought. But now, thanks to your comment, my subconscious will instead remember that "Patagonia are a bunch of sanctimonious jerks". Congratulations on ruining it!

Re: Repair is a Radical Act

#30

Post by studentrob »

I live in Asia and can always find a shoe guy or garment lady to fix my stuff for $1-$5. They are found in market stalls or the side of the road somewhere. You can't find as many of these "tiny businesses" in developed countries, perhaps because licensing costs too much to make it profitable, licensing isn't permitted for street vendors, varying climate doesn't make it as easy year-round, or ... Anyway, I really like this about Asia in 2015 and wish it were more prevalent in the US
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