Patagonia & Worn Wear. Two words that instantly evoke not only a great success story (I haven’t yet met one person that doesn’t see this as a really cool initiative); but also simply great stories. As Patagonia puts it: “The stories we wear”. Stories of individuals, their adventures and their garments. More often than not garments that have lasted them a lifetime of adventure. And, like anybody else it’s those adventures, those special moments that fuel my daily grind, when I’m sat in the office on Monday morning… So imagine how excited I was when I got a phone call a few months back from Patagonia asking if we could help them to integrate GORE-TEX garment repairs for their ISPO Worn Wear event. Sure it was a great communication opportunity but, more than anything else, it was an opportunity to have a concrete impact, to do something because we choose to do it. Trust me, there is no regulation behind it. You could even argue there is no commercial sense in doing it because it is going to make people buy less stuff, not more. And that is the beauty of it, this is a chance to put our money where our mouth is and enable you to keep that garment another year, even when it’s not the latest style or the latest colour. That jacket that you took to "---" (insert name of favourite place/trip) and that is now worn out, torn, has a whole in it and the zipper is kinda awkward; well we can repair it for you. With the help of one of our certified repair centers, the Worn Wear team will repair it for you during ISPO: We will stitch it, patch it up, seam-seal it, change the zippers, put new poppers on and more so you can take it out there again and again. As it turns out, durability is also one of the better ways to reduce our clothing’s environmental impact. A 2007 report from Cambridge University’s department of engineering concluded that: “The impacts of the (textile) sector are largely driven by the volume of material passing through it – so the greatest beneficial change would occur if we purchased less clothing and kept it for longer. And that’s important to me because my job is to reduce the environmental impact of what we make. Not just because it’s my job, but because I love the outdoors and I love being outdoors and if we don’t protect that it won’t be there in a few generations. So yes, Worn Wear will be offering free repairs for ALL GORE-TEX products, regardless of the brand, on the Patagonia booth (Hall A6-302), and we will be supporting Patagonia's Worn Wear initiative during the show. See you there! Stewart Sheppard (Fabrics Sustainability Team)   Pictures: Joachim Stark