[hunter2_]

It's using less material and less landfill, but I wonder if it really is more sustainable in the grand scheme of things, at the scale of clothing and similarly sized items. The additional round trip shipping and workshop operations (HVAC, lighting, commuting, etc.) could potentially exceed the footprint of just sending you a replacement right off the production line. Obviously there's a crossover point above which this couldn't possibly be (cars, etc.) but it's probably a very blurry line, and I wouldn't be surprised if some companies knowingly take the worse but ostensibly sustainable option, i.e. greenwashing, for the resulting brand loyalty and word of mouth advertising.

[MLij]

You mean HVAC, lighting, shipping (half across the globe probably) isn't involved in purchasing a new thing?

[hunter2_]

It absolutely is, but [using it for production of new items and using it for a repair shop] might take more resources than [just having the former and supplying some replacements]. What I'm saying is that we can't just compare consumption/waste of materials (which is obviously worse when doing replacement instead of repair) because there are also "overhead" resources required in order to offer repairs. Theoretically, in cases where replacements are better for the bottom line than repairs, it's due to using fewer resources, and the open question is how "green or dirty" those resources are.

If replacement is cheaper only because of geographic differences in wages, then we ought to repair. But if replacement is cheaper because of streamlining the use of nonrenewable electricity and so forth, then we ought to replace.

[matrix2003]

Prefacing saying this is just my experience.

I sent back a down jacket which weighed practically nothing and packed down extremely small. However, harvesting the down is somewhat controversial and only recently has there been a movement to use ethically-sourced down feathers (I haven’t looked into the RDS standard. I’m sure it has problems, but hey, it’s a step in the right direction).

For normal fabric clothing, I think you are probably right. I do feel like the roundtrip in this case was worth it to get the most usage out of the feathers as possible (not to mention the 1000+ fill jackets like this are expensive).