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There's another angle too. For a long time the only tailor in town was basically a bridal tailor. They charged steep prices for simple work on everyday clothing

There's another angle too. For a long time the only tailor in town was basically a bridal tailor. They charged steep prices for simple work on everyday clothing, and wait times were long. Fast forward to today. I had ripped holes in a few pairs of pants, and was wondering if it made sense to have them repaired- I was pretty sure I was going to be charged as much as the pants were worth for a fairly simple repair. Luckily there's a new shop in town, run by a group of older ladies who seem to have grown up tailoring, that charges sane prices. Anyway, the point is repairing can be uneconomical simply because of lack of availability of repair resources. As an example on the other side, Autozone has enabled countless mechanics with their tool library programs and other basic shadetree services like easy oil recycling. (P.S. Maybe I should learn to sew & get an inexpensive sewing machine, but that isn't the point)

jernfrost 10y ago
Repair services in any western country will be hideously expensive because it can't be automated and has to be paid western wages, while the products themselves are made in an automated fashion with third world wages. For this repair stuff to work, we have to make it easier to do so that people can do it themselves.
- HeyLaughingBoy 10y ago
  It does depend on the product. I have a KitchenAid blender and a KitchenAid stand mixer that I've had to repair. In both cases, the part was purchased for under $10 online and repair only took a few minutes. The alternative was buying a new $300 or $100+ product. Sure, I did the repair myself, but a local KitchenAid service center (yes, they exist!) would probably have done the job even faster. It boils down to cost/benefit. Would I have done the same thing with a $30 mixer? Not worth it; simpler to buy a replacement, but in this case, the products are built to last (both broken parts were "sacrificial" and designed to fail before something more expensive failed).
  - rplst8 10y ago
    Sacrificial parts are great design IMO, specifically when they protect a much more expensive part. However, it does bother me that the parts are often very custom and only available from the manufacturer. I enjoy listening to a conversation where some blowhard talks about was was obviously a shear pin breaking in some mechanical peice of equipment and then replaces it with a grade 8 bolt.
- r00fus 10y ago
  Well there is the desire for the consumer to keep an item they know works (ie, a good-fitting pair of jeans or shoes). I think the incentives here will simply make that edge-case more viable. In order to make a sea-change, Sweden and other countries will have to go to war against mass-market manufacturers.
- PavlovsCat 10y ago
  For a lot of things and a lot of small repairs/modifications (even just cleaning in some cases), all that's needed to is to use standard screws that aren't super soft. They were invented to allow reservible fastening of things, and they're great, if you're not making them suck on purpose. Unless you're making it even easier than screws, make the screws rock solid and straight forward.
- sliverstorm 10y ago
  It's a little chicken and egg, the bridal shop was able to command high prices because they were the only game in town and served a luxury segment of the market. As a result less people want to repair clothes. But if there was high demand, there would be a competitive market of general purpose tailor, and repairing clothes would be cheaper & more attractive.
- Grishnakh 10y ago
  The one factor you're missing in the equation is that those products, made in automated fashion with third-world wages, have to be shipped across an ocean, and then shipped to distributors, and then sold in retailers that pay western wages, and which are owned by corporations that demand western profits. The retail mark-up of almost any item is enormous, probably at least half to 2/3 the cost. When you repair something, you avoid all that retail mark-up. However any parts you buy will also have a big markup usually, plus shipping costs.
nugator 10y ago
Nudie Jeans company in Sweden offer free repairs on their jeans. So that's another way to go. (I'm not affiliated with them) https://www.nudiejeans.com/page/this-is-nudie-jeans https://www.nudiejeans.com/page/this-is-nudie-jeans
- irrational 10y ago
  Nudie Jeans? Is that a subsidiary of The Emperor's New Clothes Company?
- pm 10y ago
  They also send you free repair kits too, which I'm about to use on my pair of them.
reitanqild 10y ago
Two ideas since I hate things that breaks for no good reason: I bought a "used" (actually just preowned, not used) but real sewing machine for about $50 last year . Even simpler I also figured out that especially for jeans fabric glue is amazingly simple to get right (IMO, YMMW) and if I apply it before damage is done nobody even notices, just make sure you use another washed out fabric, apply fabric glue evenly and apply it to the inside of the knees etc. Edit: removed unnecessary details

jernfrost 10y ago

Repair services in any western country will be hideously expensive because it can't be automated and has to be paid western wages, while the products themselves are made in an automated fashion with third world wages. For this repair stuff to work, we have to make it easier to do so that people can do it themselves.

HeyLaughingBoy 10y ago
It does depend on the product. I have a KitchenAid blender and a KitchenAid stand mixer that I've had to repair. In both cases, the part was purchased for under $10 online and repair only took a few minutes. The alternative was buying a new $300 or $100+ product. Sure, I did the repair myself, but a local KitchenAid service center (yes, they exist!) would probably have done the job even faster. It boils down to cost/benefit. Would I have done the same thing with a $30 mixer? Not worth it; simpler to buy a replacement, but in this case, the products are built to last (both broken parts were "sacrificial" and designed to fail before something more expensive failed).
- rplst8 10y ago
  Sacrificial parts are great design IMO, specifically when they protect a much more expensive part. However, it does bother me that the parts are often very custom and only available from the manufacturer. I enjoy listening to a conversation where some blowhard talks about was was obviously a shear pin breaking in some mechanical peice of equipment and then replaces it with a grade 8 bolt.
r00fus 10y ago
Well there is the desire for the consumer to keep an item they know works (ie, a good-fitting pair of jeans or shoes). I think the incentives here will simply make that edge-case more viable. In order to make a sea-change, Sweden and other countries will have to go to war against mass-market manufacturers.
PavlovsCat 10y ago
For a lot of things and a lot of small repairs/modifications (even just cleaning in some cases), all that's needed to is to use standard screws that aren't super soft. They were invented to allow reservible fastening of things, and they're great, if you're not making them suck on purpose. Unless you're making it even easier than screws, make the screws rock solid and straight forward.
sliverstorm 10y ago
It's a little chicken and egg, the bridal shop was able to command high prices because they were the only game in town and served a luxury segment of the market. As a result less people want to repair clothes. But if there was high demand, there would be a competitive market of general purpose tailor, and repairing clothes would be cheaper & more attractive.
Grishnakh 10y ago
The one factor you're missing in the equation is that those products, made in automated fashion with third-world wages, have to be shipped across an ocean, and then shipped to distributors, and then sold in retailers that pay western wages, and which are owned by corporations that demand western profits. The retail mark-up of almost any item is enormous, probably at least half to 2/3 the cost. When you repair something, you avoid all that retail mark-up. However any parts you buy will also have a big markup usually, plus shipping costs.

nugator 10y ago

Nudie Jeans company in Sweden offer free repairs on their jeans. So that's another way to go. (I'm not affiliated with them) https://www.nudiejeans.com/page/this-is-nudie-jeans https://www.nudiejeans.com/page/this-is-nudie-jeans

irrational 10y ago
Nudie Jeans? Is that a subsidiary of The Emperor's New Clothes Company?
pm 10y ago
They also send you free repair kits too, which I'm about to use on my pair of them.

reitanqild 10y ago

Two ideas since I hate things that breaks for no good reason: I bought a "used" (actually just preowned, not used) but real sewing machine for about $50 last year . Even simpler I also figured out that especially for jeans fabric glue is amazingly simple to get right (IMO, YMMW) and if I apply it before damage is done nobody even notices, just make sure you use another washed out fabric, apply fabric glue evenly and apply it to the inside of the knees etc. Edit: removed unnecessary details