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More good stuff from Europe that I hope will radically change markets. Quality is a huge issue. It's changed my shopping habits because it's often better to si

More good stuff from Europe that I hope will radically change markets. Quality is a huge issue. It's changed my shopping habits because it's often better to simply go without than to buy cheap rubbish that lasts a week and causes you more inconvenience than if you'd never had it. I mostly buy vintage things that can be repaired now. In the UK brands like Marks and Spencer used to make clothes that lasted. Now they sell the same appallingly made sweatshop stuff. They still have their famous returns policy, and honour it, but I'd rather have something that lasts than something I can take back when it breaks. Guess they have a procurement issue because quality is uniformly low. Same with cheap electronic goods; pointless locked-down IoT cruft that cannot be repurposed or fixed and is landfill fodder straight after unboxing. We're drowning in cheap manufactured goods whose short lifespan and overhead (transport and disposal) dwarfs its functional utility.

WelcomeShorty 5y ago
As much as I share your sentiment, my daughters disagree. They buy quality handbags, jewellery and jackets, but everything else is a consumable. They do share their clothing amongst each other and a couple of close friends, but otherwise will hardly wear a combination more than once (outside that is). Here I am, buying all my cloths in 5 fold, since I do not like matching different items.
- FranzFerdiNaN 5y ago
  Lets be honest: your daughters are a victim of the cheap fashion brands and their succesful campaigns to brainwash people into thinking you need to have new clothed every week.
  - realPubkey 5y ago
    My whole generation is brainwashed with a shopping addiction.
    - 1over137 5y ago
      Your generation? I think most living generations have this addiction. :(
  - ushakov 5y ago
    they are victims of social media influencers, who encourage this behavior unsustainable and wasteful consumption the reason fast shopping exists, kids can’t afford new fashion item every week, but SHEIN and others make it so cheap and nice looking that makes this behavior possible
    - anthony_d 5y ago
      Maybe, but the social media influences I've seen are just as much victims as anyone else. The difference is they've embraced it more fully and figured out how to make money off it.
- hunter-gatherer 5y ago
  I wonder if consumable fashion is mostly a women's clothes issue??? I see this narrative told often, but I bought a couple pair of carharts and a few pair of jeans, a couple flannel shirts, and own 6 or 7 gildan cotten t-shirts. All of these I have owned more than 3 years and use one or two times a week. The t shirts are also my gym shirts. I have two pair of running shorts that have lost an almost unbelievably long time given the fact that I wear one or the other almost every day. None of my clothes look like they need replacing anytime soon. Except for socks, which for whatever mystery known but to god periodically vanish. My wife's clothing situation much more resembles your daughters I'm curious if other men here have cycle through clothes continously, and if so, how? Edit: spelling
  - ushakov 5y ago
    it’s not men and women issue the issue is social media addiction which encourages the said behaviors “influencers” make a living advertising fast fashion brands
    - amrocha 5y ago
      It's disingenuous to pretend that women aren't way more affected by this, from the material women's clothing is made out of all the way to social factors
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
  - dazc 5y ago
    The only clothes I need to renew are socks and underwear. I have enough smart, casual wear to last me the next decade at least.
  - itronitron 5y ago
    I haven't bought a new pair of pants in over five years, the ones I have now have held up rather well. I buy new shirts maybe every year or two. Many of my shirts are over ten years old. My wife would love to have the same arrangement with her work clothes. I think part of the problem is that women's clothing is made to not be as durable, although I think it could be. Most women would probably be happy to wear a fancy scarf over something basic and call it a day. There doesn't seem to be a good standard for women's professional work attire that isn't at risk of soon falling out of fashion. Because it isn't 'designed' to last for six months it doesn't.
- riidom 5y ago
  I also think this is not at all a gender-related issue - if any, an age related or a zeitgeist related one. When there is no more fast fashion, people will just look in their wardrobe instead of shopping site xyz. And instead of "look what I found on xyz", they will say, "look what I found in my wardrobe". After a short time of friction, this fast-fashion behaviour will be unlearned. Especially if the new situation applies to everyone, so there is no peer pressure going on.
loceng 5y ago
The trend I have seen with clothing brands is most often once they become popular, become a recognized "brand name" - often because of their high quality, good design, and relative affordability. Then the economies of scale "engineers" of business folks start to scale it by reducing costs (less quality control, lower quality materials, etc) to maximize profit per unit sold - milking the brand as quickly as possible to extract as much as they can as soon as they can. This leads towards killing the brand or where it just becomes at par with whatever the status quo ecosystem allows based on environmental costs like mall rental space, etc. Executives seem to know or are making the bet that brands may not stay popular for long as it may be fad buying and not a sustainable trend, or they simply know they can make more money individually/selfishly if they use these tactics - and hire people who use these tactics; why make $15+ million over 20 years when you maybe could milk a brand to death and get $10+ million in 5 years? What I wonder is though are there potential pitfalls of this for consumers? Have they or anyone done a study on cost changes, e.g. will costs increase substantially in short-term but perhaps that is more than made up on the tail end with the durability? Did they publish a list of known poor quality textiles, I imagine that would include such things as low thread count for the textile and perhaps for stitching as well? Does this impact certain styles of clothing that say due to their sheer nature?
- FredPret 5y ago
  This happens in other industries as well. Mass-market beer comes to mind. The solution, as I see it, starts with owners demanding long term stability in earnings; and a broader quality over quantity philosophy spreading generally.
  - ghaff 5y ago
    This would horrify some friends. But mass market beer is a very predictable and relatively inexpensive product that 95% or whatever of the market likes. I do not and am grateful there are so many alternatives that didn’t exist a few decades ago. But it’s not a low quality just because us beer at least somewhat snobs prefer something different.
    - 5y ago
Bayart 5y ago
There are a few excellent UK-made brands out there, although it's on the expensive side it's definitely quality stuff that lasts : Mackintosh, Drake's, Barbour (depending on the price range), Sunspel, Private White V.C., John Smedley, Colhay's etc. I'm personally a huge fan of S.E.H Kelly. And of course there are still the venerable shoe makers of Northampshire which in my opinion remain the best industrial ready-to-wear shoemaking in the world (with a few exceptions, namely Carmina and J.M. Weston) : Edward Green, Crockett & Jones, Cheaney, Church's, Grenson etc. I'm myself a regular Crockett & Jones customer as they make the only size + width combination I've found in ready-to-wear that matches my feet really well. Of course it's a rather militant way of looking at clothing and it's all pretty expensive stuff but : - Frankly it's affordable if you've got an engineer's comp. - It keeps its value well on the second-hand market.
- Xenoamorphous 5y ago
  But then if someone hears what a pair of Edward Green shoes or SEH Kelly coat costs they’d look at you like you’re insane. PS my C&J Islays are probably my favourite boots, and I’ve got a ventile raincoat from Private White. Some day I’ll def buy something from SEH Kelly, although most of their stuff might be too warm for Spain.
- yodelshady 5y ago
  The heuristic seems to be: have a brand name but *not* one you'll see on the high street. If it is on the high street, it's expensive in order to fund advertising, not higher quality.
  - Bayart 5y ago
    You've basically got it right when it comes to marking. All the brands I've mentionned, and really all the reputable clothing / shoeing companies, have a production cost that's around 50% of the retail price. Add in all the miscelanous costs and the final margin isn't that high. For the largest of them "marketing" is having a few stores in key areas (London, Paris, NY) and a stall at some events. If you take that formula and input marketing, you've got luxury companies : great craftsmanship at inflated prices.
juanani 5y ago
[dead]
vanilla-almond 5y ago
In the UK I still think Marks and Spencer (M&S) offer quality clothing at reasonable prices. They don't compete fully with 'fast fashion' prices but they have been affected by competition from other fast fashion retailers by offering their own 'value' lines. If you avoid the cheapest clothing lines at M&S, their mid-priced clothing is generally of longer-lasting and better quality. For example, you can buy organic cotton chinos and jeans in the price range £25-35 (approximately $35-45/€30-40). These are reasonable prices given the premium typically charged for organic clothing.
- skippyboxedhero 5y ago
  Yep, it is an odd comment because M&S have a relatively good supply chain. I think people assume that if anything breaks, it must have been made in a sweatshop. In reality, the reason why "fast fashion" exists isn't related to quality at all. You can buy t-shirts that cost £3 that will be as long lasting as anything 10x or 100x the price. I am not sure how people think t-shirts are made, there isn't some hidden secret of durability known only to companies that charge a lot. The reason "fast fashion" exists is because most retailers provide terrible value for money. Fast fashion charge significantly less for clothes made in the same factory, with the same materials and labour. That is it. So it is unsurprising this is occurring in Europe: luxury goods manufacturers there successfully lobbied for exemptions from Russian sanctions, they are a formidable lobbying force in Brussels, the aim of this is to stop competition from non-EU manufacturers (particularly from the UK and China). Classic EU. If you can't win, cheat. If you want to do more about this issue, just improve recycling...that is it. Done.
spicyjpeg 5y ago
This is all part of a larger phenomenon I like to call the "Amazon syndrome". The quality standard for products seems to be incredibly low nowadays. I see people happily buying whatever cheap Chinese junk Amazon dropshippers sell, for a "low" price that's usually 4-5x the price of the exact same item on AliExpress. Reviews are overwhelmingly positive because most people don't care about actual specs or functionality and give 5 stars as long as it's cheap and it works, even when the product is marked up by the dropshipper and leaves a lot to be desired. Reputable brands that used to make quality products now need to compete on price in a sea of "good enough" garbage, and many of them choose to do so by outsourcing manufacturing to the same Chinese factories that make the no-name stuff. Midrange products disappeared entirely and now the choice is between disposable landfill and ridiculously expensive high-end items. As someonce in a Reddit thread (?) once said: "The product that retails for $500 costs $5 more to manufacture than the low-end equivalent that sells for $20. If you try to find a middle ground and spend $100, you end up with the $20 product in a nice box."
- southerntofu 5y ago
  > Reputable brands that used to make quality products now need to compete on price I don't think it's just that. Many people (like myself) stopped buying "reputable" brands because they have betrayed their reputation. Nowadays when buying electromechanic devices even when putting 10x the price i have no clue if it's going to last more than 2 years (minimum warranty in EU) and that's a fucking awful problem. In my view, we need 20+ years warranty (minimum, i personally would argue for 50+) on all products mandated by law, then we can start to see some improvement. This is a public policy problem and as much as i hate the EU institutions they are the only entity i know doing anything about this very serious problem creating tons of waste/pollution.
  - b112 5y ago
    Quebec, a province in Canada, passed a law a few years back. Essentially, the language states that the product must last "a reasonable period of time" for its usage case. This is the new province wide, legislated warranty. Buy a washer, are a single man, use it once a week? It breaks in 15 years? Covered. Are a family of 8, wash 2x daily, it breaks after manufacture's stated warranty? Probably, not covered. This helps, because it stops parts that are designed to fail due to time, instead of usage, from destroying the product. There are a few government agencies which will help you with this too, instead of going to court, by merely a form to fill out.
bjelkeman-again 5y ago
There are smaller brands that try to be and are a lot better. They deserve attention. Trippen shoes from Germany make comfortable shoes that aren’t exactly main stream, but are repairable and used to offer a very reasonable refurbishment price (haven’t refurbished any for a bit). I have several pairs of 20+ years old shoes from them. https://en.trippen.com/t/men https://en.trippen.com/t/men Nudie jeans offer free repairs at their shops and 10+% discount for new jeans if they are not repairable, as trade-in. If you trade in, and they are usable, they sell as second hand. https://www.nudiejeans.com/repair-spots/#stores https://www.nudiejeans.com/repair-spots/#stores
- quickthrowman 5y ago
  > Trippen shoes You can just buy any Goodyear (or Blake) welted shoe to have rebuildable shoes, there are dozens of makers that offer more uh… conventional and mainstream styles of shoes anywhere from $200-$2500. England: Loake, Alfred Sargent, C&J, Trickers, Church’s, Edward Green, Saint Crispins, John Lobb US: Allen Edmonds, Alden, Rancourt, Red Wing, White’s, Nick’s, Grant Stone Canada: Viberg Spain: Meermin, Carmina Hungary: Vass
- viraptor 5y ago
  There's also Patagonia (not a smaller brand) https://www.patagonia.com.au/pages/worn-wear https://www.patagonia.com.au/pages/worn-wear They'll not only repair their clothes for free, even if you've been careless and damaged it yourself, but also you can pay them to repair other brands in their shop.
  - MrApathy 5y ago
    I see this line every so often that Patagonia will repair or replace damaged articles, but the one time I tried, I wasn't successful. I purchased a Tortentshell rain jacket and the laminate on the top of the hood started to peel after a year or so. I took it to a Patagonia store for inspection and they offered to recycle it for me. No repair, no free replacement, no offer of a discount on a replacement.
    - 5y ago
baybal2 5y ago
FredPret 5y ago
I’ve noticed this even with “nice” clothing brands like Banana Republic. I bough a shirt, and within two months it was ready for the garbage pile. I’ve since switched over to the even more expensive Lululemon, which seems vastly better. Time will tell. I’d rather have three very expensive shirts that fit great and last a decade than a tidal wave of garbage that costs the same in the end.
- adhesive_wombat 5y ago
  Timberland suckered me with their sustainable-fairtrade-robust vibe. I have never seen a pair of trousers disintegrate so fast in the wash, or a pair of jeans wear though at the knees so rapidly.
mytailorisrich 5y ago
This is a trade-off like for everything else. Fashion changes fast and therefore does it make sense to sell more expensive clothes that last? Many people want what is fashionable this season, not wear the same things for years. In terms of environmental impact and use of resources I suspect that there is a sweet spot between not lasting at all and very long lasting (like there probably is for appliances and about everything else that people will replace after x months/years anyway) Likewise, "fixable" may incur overheads that actually negate the a priori benefit.
yeetsfromhellL2 5y ago
The trouble is not only finding quality goods now, its that once you do they are way more expensive than they used to be since they now serve a smaller market. Not only are they trying to stay afloat with a smaller customer base, they're losing some of the economies of scale, so prices go up or quality goes down.
dazc 5y ago
Marks and Spencer are one of many brands that pivoted from quality to crap yet saw no significant decrease in customer loyalty.
maigret 5y ago
I once went to a cloth repair shop and asked what brand was better for long term. “None”, they said, “all of them are equally bad nowadays“. So no chance much to make it work over the market it seems.

WelcomeShorty 5y ago

As much as I share your sentiment, my daughters disagree. They buy quality handbags, jewellery and jackets, but everything else is a consumable. They do share their clothing amongst each other and a couple of close friends, but otherwise will hardly wear a combination more than once (outside that is). Here I am, buying all my cloths in 5 fold, since I do not like matching different items.

FranzFerdiNaN 5y ago
Lets be honest: your daughters are a victim of the cheap fashion brands and their succesful campaigns to brainwash people into thinking you need to have new clothed every week.
- realPubkey 5y ago
  My whole generation is brainwashed with a shopping addiction.
  - 1over137 5y ago
    Your generation? I think most living generations have this addiction. :(
- ushakov 5y ago
  they are victims of social media influencers, who encourage this behavior unsustainable and wasteful consumption the reason fast shopping exists, kids can’t afford new fashion item every week, but SHEIN and others make it so cheap and nice looking that makes this behavior possible
  - anthony_d 5y ago
    Maybe, but the social media influences I've seen are just as much victims as anyone else. The difference is they've embraced it more fully and figured out how to make money off it.
hunter-gatherer 5y ago
I wonder if consumable fashion is mostly a women's clothes issue??? I see this narrative told often, but I bought a couple pair of carharts and a few pair of jeans, a couple flannel shirts, and own 6 or 7 gildan cotten t-shirts. All of these I have owned more than 3 years and use one or two times a week. The t shirts are also my gym shirts. I have two pair of running shorts that have lost an almost unbelievably long time given the fact that I wear one or the other almost every day. None of my clothes look like they need replacing anytime soon. Except for socks, which for whatever mystery known but to god periodically vanish. My wife's clothing situation much more resembles your daughters I'm curious if other men here have cycle through clothes continously, and if so, how? Edit: spelling
- ushakov 5y ago
  it’s not men and women issue the issue is social media addiction which encourages the said behaviors “influencers” make a living advertising fast fashion brands
  - amrocha 5y ago
    It's disingenuous to pretend that women aren't way more affected by this, from the material women's clothing is made out of all the way to social factors
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- dazc 5y ago
  The only clothes I need to renew are socks and underwear. I have enough smart, casual wear to last me the next decade at least.
- itronitron 5y ago
  I haven't bought a new pair of pants in over five years, the ones I have now have held up rather well. I buy new shirts maybe every year or two. Many of my shirts are over ten years old. My wife would love to have the same arrangement with her work clothes. I think part of the problem is that women's clothing is made to not be as durable, although I think it could be. Most women would probably be happy to wear a fancy scarf over something basic and call it a day. There doesn't seem to be a good standard for women's professional work attire that isn't at risk of soon falling out of fashion. Because it isn't 'designed' to last for six months it doesn't.
riidom 5y ago
I also think this is not at all a gender-related issue - if any, an age related or a zeitgeist related one. When there is no more fast fashion, people will just look in their wardrobe instead of shopping site xyz. And instead of "look what I found on xyz", they will say, "look what I found in my wardrobe". After a short time of friction, this fast-fashion behaviour will be unlearned. Especially if the new situation applies to everyone, so there is no peer pressure going on.

loceng 5y ago

The trend I have seen with clothing brands is most often once they become popular, become a recognized "brand name" - often because of their high quality, good design, and relative affordability. Then the economies of scale "engineers" of business folks start to scale it by reducing costs (less quality control, lower quality materials, etc) to maximize profit per unit sold - milking the brand as quickly as possible to extract as much as they can as soon as they can. This leads towards killing the brand or where it just becomes at par with whatever the status quo ecosystem allows based on environmental costs like mall rental space, etc. Executives seem to know or are making the bet that brands may not stay popular for long as it may be fad buying and not a sustainable trend, or they simply know they can make more money individually/selfishly if they use these tactics - and hire people who use these tactics; why make $15+ million over 20 years when you maybe could milk a brand to death and get $10+ million in 5 years? What I wonder is though are there potential pitfalls of this for consumers? Have they or anyone done a study on cost changes, e.g. will costs increase substantially in short-term but perhaps that is more than made up on the tail end with the durability? Did they publish a list of known poor quality textiles, I imagine that would include such things as low thread count for the textile and perhaps for stitching as well? Does this impact certain styles of clothing that say due to their sheer nature?

FredPret 5y ago
This happens in other industries as well. Mass-market beer comes to mind. The solution, as I see it, starts with owners demanding long term stability in earnings; and a broader quality over quantity philosophy spreading generally.
- ghaff 5y ago
  This would horrify some friends. But mass market beer is a very predictable and relatively inexpensive product that 95% or whatever of the market likes. I do not and am grateful there are so many alternatives that didn’t exist a few decades ago. But it’s not a low quality just because us beer at least somewhat snobs prefer something different.
  - 5y ago

Bayart 5y ago

There are a few excellent UK-made brands out there, although it's on the expensive side it's definitely quality stuff that lasts : Mackintosh, Drake's, Barbour (depending on the price range), Sunspel, Private White V.C., John Smedley, Colhay's etc. I'm personally a huge fan of S.E.H Kelly. And of course there are still the venerable shoe makers of Northampshire which in my opinion remain the best industrial ready-to-wear shoemaking in the world (with a few exceptions, namely Carmina and J.M. Weston) : Edward Green, Crockett & Jones, Cheaney, Church's, Grenson etc. I'm myself a regular Crockett & Jones customer as they make the only size + width combination I've found in ready-to-wear that matches my feet really well. Of course it's a rather militant way of looking at clothing and it's all pretty expensive stuff but : - Frankly it's affordable if you've got an engineer's comp. - It keeps its value well on the second-hand market.

Xenoamorphous 5y ago
But then if someone hears what a pair of Edward Green shoes or SEH Kelly coat costs they’d look at you like you’re insane. PS my C&J Islays are probably my favourite boots, and I’ve got a ventile raincoat from Private White. Some day I’ll def buy something from SEH Kelly, although most of their stuff might be too warm for Spain.
yodelshady 5y ago
The heuristic seems to be: have a brand name but *not* one you'll see on the high street. If it is on the high street, it's expensive in order to fund advertising, not higher quality.
- Bayart 5y ago
  You've basically got it right when it comes to marking. All the brands I've mentionned, and really all the reputable clothing / shoeing companies, have a production cost that's around 50% of the retail price. Add in all the miscelanous costs and the final margin isn't that high. For the largest of them "marketing" is having a few stores in key areas (London, Paris, NY) and a stall at some events. If you take that formula and input marketing, you've got luxury companies : great craftsmanship at inflated prices.

juanani 5y ago

[dead]

vanilla-almond 5y ago

In the UK I still think Marks and Spencer (M&S) offer quality clothing at reasonable prices. They don't compete fully with 'fast fashion' prices but they have been affected by competition from other fast fashion retailers by offering their own 'value' lines. If you avoid the cheapest clothing lines at M&S, their mid-priced clothing is generally of longer-lasting and better quality. For example, you can buy organic cotton chinos and jeans in the price range £25-35 (approximately $35-45/€30-40). These are reasonable prices given the premium typically charged for organic clothing.

skippyboxedhero 5y ago
Yep, it is an odd comment because M&S have a relatively good supply chain. I think people assume that if anything breaks, it must have been made in a sweatshop. In reality, the reason why "fast fashion" exists isn't related to quality at all. You can buy t-shirts that cost £3 that will be as long lasting as anything 10x or 100x the price. I am not sure how people think t-shirts are made, there isn't some hidden secret of durability known only to companies that charge a lot. The reason "fast fashion" exists is because most retailers provide terrible value for money. Fast fashion charge significantly less for clothes made in the same factory, with the same materials and labour. That is it. So it is unsurprising this is occurring in Europe: luxury goods manufacturers there successfully lobbied for exemptions from Russian sanctions, they are a formidable lobbying force in Brussels, the aim of this is to stop competition from non-EU manufacturers (particularly from the UK and China). Classic EU. If you can't win, cheat. If you want to do more about this issue, just improve recycling...that is it. Done.

spicyjpeg 5y ago

This is all part of a larger phenomenon I like to call the "Amazon syndrome". The quality standard for products seems to be incredibly low nowadays. I see people happily buying whatever cheap Chinese junk Amazon dropshippers sell, for a "low" price that's usually 4-5x the price of the exact same item on AliExpress. Reviews are overwhelmingly positive because most people don't care about actual specs or functionality and give 5 stars as long as it's cheap and it works, even when the product is marked up by the dropshipper and leaves a lot to be desired. Reputable brands that used to make quality products now need to compete on price in a sea of "good enough" garbage, and many of them choose to do so by outsourcing manufacturing to the same Chinese factories that make the no-name stuff. Midrange products disappeared entirely and now the choice is between disposable landfill and ridiculously expensive high-end items. As someonce in a Reddit thread (?) once said: "The product that retails for $500 costs $5 more to manufacture than the low-end equivalent that sells for $20. If you try to find a middle ground and spend $100, you end up with the $20 product in a nice box."

southerntofu 5y ago
> Reputable brands that used to make quality products now need to compete on price I don't think it's just that. Many people (like myself) stopped buying "reputable" brands because they have betrayed their reputation. Nowadays when buying electromechanic devices even when putting 10x the price i have no clue if it's going to last more than 2 years (minimum warranty in EU) and that's a fucking awful problem. In my view, we need 20+ years warranty (minimum, i personally would argue for 50+) on all products mandated by law, then we can start to see some improvement. This is a public policy problem and as much as i hate the EU institutions they are the only entity i know doing anything about this very serious problem creating tons of waste/pollution.
- b112 5y ago
  Quebec, a province in Canada, passed a law a few years back. Essentially, the language states that the product must last "a reasonable period of time" for its usage case. This is the new province wide, legislated warranty. Buy a washer, are a single man, use it once a week? It breaks in 15 years? Covered. Are a family of 8, wash 2x daily, it breaks after manufacture's stated warranty? Probably, not covered. This helps, because it stops parts that are designed to fail due to time, instead of usage, from destroying the product. There are a few government agencies which will help you with this too, instead of going to court, by merely a form to fill out.

bjelkeman-again 5y ago

There are smaller brands that try to be and are a lot better. They deserve attention. Trippen shoes from Germany make comfortable shoes that aren’t exactly main stream, but are repairable and used to offer a very reasonable refurbishment price (haven’t refurbished any for a bit). I have several pairs of 20+ years old shoes from them. https://en.trippen.com/t/men https://en.trippen.com/t/men Nudie jeans offer free repairs at their shops and 10+% discount for new jeans if they are not repairable, as trade-in. If you trade in, and they are usable, they sell as second hand. https://www.nudiejeans.com/repair-spots/#stores https://www.nudiejeans.com/repair-spots/#stores

quickthrowman 5y ago
> Trippen shoes You can just buy any Goodyear (or Blake) welted shoe to have rebuildable shoes, there are dozens of makers that offer more uh… conventional and mainstream styles of shoes anywhere from $200-$2500. England: Loake, Alfred Sargent, C&J, Trickers, Church’s, Edward Green, Saint Crispins, John Lobb US: Allen Edmonds, Alden, Rancourt, Red Wing, White’s, Nick’s, Grant Stone Canada: Viberg Spain: Meermin, Carmina Hungary: Vass
viraptor 5y ago
There's also Patagonia (not a smaller brand) https://www.patagonia.com.au/pages/worn-wear https://www.patagonia.com.au/pages/worn-wear They'll not only repair their clothes for free, even if you've been careless and damaged it yourself, but also you can pay them to repair other brands in their shop.
- MrApathy 5y ago
  I see this line every so often that Patagonia will repair or replace damaged articles, but the one time I tried, I wasn't successful. I purchased a Tortentshell rain jacket and the laminate on the top of the hood started to peel after a year or so. I took it to a Patagonia store for inspection and they offered to recycle it for me. No repair, no free replacement, no offer of a discount on a replacement.
  - 5y ago

baybal2 5y ago

FredPret 5y ago

I’ve noticed this even with “nice” clothing brands like Banana Republic. I bough a shirt, and within two months it was ready for the garbage pile. I’ve since switched over to the even more expensive Lululemon, which seems vastly better. Time will tell. I’d rather have three very expensive shirts that fit great and last a decade than a tidal wave of garbage that costs the same in the end.

adhesive_wombat 5y ago
Timberland suckered me with their sustainable-fairtrade-robust vibe. I have never seen a pair of trousers disintegrate so fast in the wash, or a pair of jeans wear though at the knees so rapidly.

mytailorisrich 5y ago

This is a trade-off like for everything else. Fashion changes fast and therefore does it make sense to sell more expensive clothes that last? Many people want what is fashionable this season, not wear the same things for years. In terms of environmental impact and use of resources I suspect that there is a sweet spot between not lasting at all and very long lasting (like there probably is for appliances and about everything else that people will replace after x months/years anyway) Likewise, "fixable" may incur overheads that actually negate the a priori benefit.

yeetsfromhellL2 5y ago

The trouble is not only finding quality goods now, its that once you do they are way more expensive than they used to be since they now serve a smaller market. Not only are they trying to stay afloat with a smaller customer base, they're losing some of the economies of scale, so prices go up or quality goes down.

dazc 5y ago

Marks and Spencer are one of many brands that pivoted from quality to crap yet saw no significant decrease in customer loyalty.

maigret 5y ago

I once went to a cloth repair shop and asked what brand was better for long term. “None”, they said, “all of them are equally bad nowadays“. So no chance much to make it work over the market it seems.