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Patagonia outdoor clothing and gear get a second life through the company’s repair program, a service it’s been offering to customers since its founding in 1973.
Most retailers want customers to replace their worn, torn, or failed items with new ones. But not Patagonia.
The Ventura-based retailer of outdoor clothing and gear will mend any of its products for free, a service it’s been offering since it was founded in 1973 by Yvon Chouinard. Customers pay only a $15 shipping fee.
“Repairs have been offered essentially since the inception of the company,” repair program experience manager Clara Redwood says. “It has grown significantly over the years as customers have learned about it.”
And they’ve definitely learned about it. In fiscal year 2025, Patagonia made 92,042 garment and bag repairs in North America — and that doesn’t even include the repairs their employees made in stores or during events.
The process is simple: Customers fill out a form on the Patagonia website and mail their items in. About 50% of those mailed-in items are repaired in Patagonia’s facility in Reno; the others are done by 15 third-party repair facilities across the country that are certified to do repairs for the company. When the garment or bag is mended, Patagonia sends it back.
Some garments and bags can be mended quickly in-store by team members like Kylynn Daley, a customer experience guide in the Ventura store. “People come in and are so excited and grateful for not having to throw their products away or send them out for six to eight weeks for repairs,” she says. “Sometimes I’m able to fix it in a couple days. Being able to give the items a second life so they can be used on the customer’s next adventure makes my job so enjoyable.”
The company also conducts Worn Wear event tours, where specially equipped vans visit various locations around the world to fix garments. The only items that can’t be mended at these events are waders and wetsuits, which are separate specialty repairs. Wetsuits are repaired in Ventura at Fletcher Chouinard Designs, and waders are fixed in Reno or Canada, where they are also waterproof-tested.
“That’s what we mean when we say that our products are high-quality and durable,” Redwood says, “but we can also repair them. We want you to use them and we want you to use them to the point that they break.”
In addition to offering in-store and mail-in repairs, the company encourages customers to fix their garments themselves. Their website includes Patagonia-specific repair tutorials produced by iFixit that explain how to make simple fixes, from darning a hole in a sweater to replacing a zipper.
DIY repairs don’t void the company’s Ironclad Guarantee, the warranty that covers everything that Patagonia makes. So, if a customer uses whatever they had on hand at the time to seal a hole on a down sweater hoody, no worries. “Putting that ‘I Climbed Mt. Washington’ bumper sticker on the jacket probably saved a lot of down feathers!” Redwood says.
Let’s say we’re seeing something break a lot. We’ll work with the designer and the quality team to close that loop.
– Patagonia repair program experience manager Clara Redwood
At Patagonia, repairs play a huge role in everything from design to end-of-life recycling. Every item that Patagonia makes is analyzed each season for repairability. The data is then used to identify design or production issues.
“Let’s say we’re seeing something break a lot,” Redwood says. “We’ll work with the designer and the quality team to close that loop.” The feedback also helps the company come up with new ways to make things more easily repairable.
Patagonia hopes that the impact of their repair program reaches far beyond the company.
“We want to show you how we do ours so you will do it, too,” Redwood says. “We don’t want to be the only outdoor company that offers repairs. I look at it as a case of doing the right thing and being successful. From our partner repair facilities, we find out that other outdoor companies have started doing them, too, and that makes us so happy.”
What You Can Do
Other outdoor gear retailers also have repair programs: REI partners with Rainy Day Repair, which can mend garments, tents, and sleeping bags; and Osprey repairs backpacks of any age. Patagonia, Northface, and REI also offer store credit to customers trading in gently used gear, which they sell on their website at a discount.
