[eitland]

If nothing else this should do quite a lot to reduce carbon emissions, and I'm only half joking here.

Now if we could change fashion from fast fashion to focus on durability that would be an even bigger change. And it is not completely unrealistic:

While I have no hard and fast rule to go by on how exactly this could turn out I do sense a huge opportunity for one or more smaller brands to more or less utterly disrupt big chunks of the clothes manufacturing industry by providing reliable, repairable and nice garments.

Such efforts exist, but I'm waiting for something to hit mainstream:

- Nudie Jeans (expensive but not extremely expensive jeans) has repair spots :https://www.nudiejeans.com/repair-spots

- Norrøna (high end sports wear) repairs: https://www.norrona.com/en-GB/Help-me/Repairs/

- Alfa-for-life (trekking shoes, about $500 a pair) are replaceable part by part: https://alfaoutdoor.com/alfa-for-fe

As it it happens I work next to a Norrøna store, and they are serious about: When I was there there was a long row of garments waiting there, and some of them must be well above 20 years old based on how the logo and the style has changed over the years.

[sliken]

Heh, I'd settle for phones without epoxied in batteries.

A good start would be an iron clad right to repair law, making it illegal to include non-user replaceable batteries in any consumer electronics, and requiring anything cloud enabled to opensource the server side if they close the service.

[majewsky]

> requiring anything cloud enabled to opensource the server side if they close the service

That still won't help if a) the device talks to a fixed domain name or pins a particular TLS certificate or key, or if b) you get the code, but no instructions on how to build and run it.

[Qub3d]

There is hope: https://www.zdnet.com/article/eu-working-on-proposal-to-brin...

[TeMPOraL]

Agreed.

If anything, the virus just did a chaos monkey test on global supply chains. In the aftermath, it's going to be pretty apparent where the just-in-time approach caused most problems. I would really hope this would make some companies reevaluate their approach of cycling crap through consumers as fast as possible (e.g. fast fashion), but the cynic in me thinks they'll just chalk it up to a black swan and resume business as usual.

I wonder if money could be made (or if anyone is doing that already) by serving as a buffer/capacitor in the supply chain. I'm a layman in this space and don't even know what keywords to search to learn more; can anyone here tell me how people go about supply and price volatility reduction?

[supercheetah]

Patagonia is well known for repairing their stuff, and even helps customers sell their used clothes to others, but they're really expensive.

[anonsivalley652]

Awesome.

Columbia says they have a lifetime warranty, but a $300 running rain jacket I bought at their flagship store sometime ago they refused to repair or replace it when all of the inner liner started flaking off and it was no longer usable. I'm never buying anything from them again.

The most durable day-bag / school backpack I have ever owned was a Trager. It was needed because I went through 9 backpacks in high-school since our school didn't have lockers. Supposedly in the 70's pipe-bombs were detonated in them and the lockers created shrapnel. Anyhow, that backpack held 4-6 books like a champ. It had/has a lifetime warranty and they even replaced the zipper on a 10 year old product for free. Sadly, they're out of business now.

[im3w1l]

This may sound stupid but one reason I like disposable things is because I, fairly or unfairly, associate expensive repairable things with "all work and no play". No you can't do this or you'll scratch it. Can't do that or you'll dent it. Oh, of course you have to oil it every day how else will it last? And don't forget to iron the sleeves.

[dredmorbius]

High-quality durable practical goods wear their scars with pride.

It's the difference, though, between buying, say, fine china vs. a set of wooden or metal tableware. Or more typically in my experience, camping or outdoors gear, which gets rough use but remains highly functional.

[eitland]

I can see that.

Luckily for me a bit of wear and tear is considered OK with many of those products. I'd have far bigger problems if I tried to keep my shirts around for 5 years.

[jbob2000]

This doesn't solve anything if the parts you replace are then thrown in the landfill. All you've done is spent a lot of resources and energy to turn around and throw stuff away anyways.

[eitland]

It does matter a lot if the 5% of a product end up in the landfill vs if 100% of it end up at the landfill.

It also matters a lot if one product end up at the landfill after 10 years or if one product end up at the landfill every year, resulting in ten products at the landfill during the same period.