The Art and Science of Repair: Towards a Responsible and Meaningful Relationship with Footwear
Pre and post-repaired Veja Sneakers. Image: Kirraly Antcliff, 2023
A few weeks ago I shared a post on LinkedIn with the opening line ‘Repairing is not just about fixing broken products, it’s about shifting a mindset to prioritise repair over replacement’. The post described an event at the Berlin store of French sneaker brand Veja on the topic of repair.
Veja has been exploring repair as a way to extend the life of their sneakers and reduce waste. The Berlin store is their third space to permanently host a brand-led cobbler service.
Within the first week, the post had received thousands of reactions and multiple reposts – more interest than I’d ever expected. It also sparked an interesting conversation about the importance of repair and the responsibility of brands to care for their products beyond the point of sale.
They say a picture tells a thousand words and the image featuring two Veja shoes seems to have been what captured so much attention. The worn and dirty shoe on the left showed scuff marks and creases on the leather with holes in the fabric at the heel. The repaired and cleaned shoe on the right appeared almost new, with new leather patches in the heel and carefully matched stitching on the areas that were separating.
The contrast between the two highlighted the power of care and repair to extend the life of a product, and the potential for repaired items to look just as good as new. Better than this, the shoes retained the sense of character and identity so valuable to their owner.
Repairing is not a new concept, as one comment highlighted, ‘It is an art and a science’. Practised throughout history, until the twentieth-century products such as footwear were regarded as highly valuable therefore their use was extended through care and repair and they were often passed on to new users.
This need to repair changed with the rise of mass-produced products, available at lower prices. Today it is often more affordable for users to purchase a new item than have it repaired. Thus, a shift in behaviour occurred towards a throwaway society and an increasing disconnection from the value of possessions, including footwear.
As a recent Sustainability in Fashion Masters graduate, I have been researching the potential of Digital Product Passports to support circularity strategies such as repair in the Outdoor Apparel Industry.
My research was inspired by a paradox: we purchase so many products in our pursuit to reconnect with nature, yet their development, use, and end-of-life cause so much harm to the natural world. From hiking boots to trail running shoes, these products are marketed as tools that can help us forge a deeper connection with the natural world. In reality, their production and often short lifespan contribute to the growing problem of waste and pollution.
To take steps towards addressing this issue, the European Commission has introduced the concept of Digital Product Passports within the EcoDesign for Sustainable Products Regulation proposal.
The aim of Digital Product Passports is simply to make the invisible visible by connecting a physical product to a unique digital identity. This ID provides information about the product gathered along its value chain as well as its inherent sustainability characteristics. The proposal also addresses the need to encourage circular business models; Digital Product Passports can enable access to appropriate product data that supports reverse logistics, resale and repair services, and product-as-a-service systems.
Repair is considered to be a key strategy for circularity, which aims to reduce consumption and extend the use phase of products. In the book Transitioning to Sustainability, authors Kirsi Niinimäki and Marium Durrani explore society’s shift towards repair. In their chapter Repairing Fashion Cultures: From Disposable to Repairable, the authors examine changes in consumer and brand attitudes.
They also discuss how businesses can benefit from a shift from one-transaction sales to repair services. Repair services are a way for businesses to improve customer relations and product satisfaction while gathering useful information to further improve product durability and quality.
Repair also promotes innovation; repairing can help brands identify design flaws and requires creative problem-solving. When led by brands themselves, key product development data can be gathered and embedded back into the design process, leading to better and more durable products in the future.
Product care services such as repair not only extend the life of a product but can also add a unique storytelling element. For outdoor products, there is potential for a unique digital identity to link products with repair events, showcasing the full lifecycle of a shoe. This creates a sense of identity for the product because each repair carries its own history and unique characteristics. As one LinkedIn responder shared, repairing outdoor products adds to a sense of emotional connection. These products carry the scars of their adventures and become truly unique to the wearer.
The conversations sparked by the Linkedin post suggest a renewed interest in repair and a growing desire to establish more meaningful relationships with products, particularly footwear. One comment in particular, ‘That picture is full of hope’, captures the optimism that repair can bring.
This sentiment inspires action, and I hope that more brands will adopt repair as a service to support the aftercare of their products and promote longevity. By doing so, we can contribute to developing a more responsible consumption and production pattern, one that values the craftsmanship of repair, reduces waste and gives products a longer life.
References:
European Commission. 2022. On Making Sustainable Products the Norm. [online] Available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52022DC0140&qid=1649112555090
Gwilt, Alison. 2014. What Prevents People Repairing Clothes? : An Investigation into Community-Based Approaches to Sustainable Product Service Systems for Clothing Repair. Making Futures Journal 3. [online] Available at: http://shura.shu.ac.uk/8125/1/Gwilt__Alison.pdf
Hernandez, Ricardo J., Constanza Miranda, and Julian Goñi. 2020. Empowering Sustainable Consumption by Giving Back to Consumers the ‘Right to Repair.’ Sustainability 12 (3): 850. [online] Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/su12030850
Niinimäki, Kirsi. 2014. Sustainable Fashion: New Approaches. Aalto ARTS Books. [online] Available at: https://research.aalto.fi/en/publications/sustainable-fashion-new-approaches
Reike, Denise, Walter Vermeulen, and Sjors Witjes. 2017. The Circular Economy: New or Refurbished as CE 3.0? — Exploring Controversies in the Conceptualization of the Circular Economy through a Focus on History and Resource Value Retention Options. [online] Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.08.027
