Looking after a jacket and repairing it can only go so far if it was never designed to be looked after or repaired. That’s starting to change. A growing number of brands are thinking about what happens to a garment in year five or year ten while it’s still on the drawing board, not after it lands in the bin.
What makes a jacket repairable?
- Replaceable components. Zip sliders, pullers, cord locks and toggles that can be swapped rather than requiring a whole new zip.
- Reinforcement where wear happens. Tougher fabric at the shoulders, cuffs, hem and seat.
- Access to repair. A brand repair service, spare parts and clear guidance on what can be fixed.
- A plan for the end. Materials that can be separated and recovered once repair is no longer practical.
Brand spotlight
Arc’teryx System 0™: designing for the whole life of a jacket
Technical ski jackets have become extraordinarily sophisticated, yet even the best of them eventually reach the point where something wears out, a zip fails or the fabric has simply taken all the abuse that years of skiing, travelling and mountain weather can throw at it, which raises the increasingly important question of what happens next.
Arc’teryx is trying to tackle that question much earlier in the process with System 0™, a new circularity programme that considers a product’s whole life before it has even been made, from the materials chosen at the start through to durability, repair and, eventually, what happens when the garment can no longer realistically be kept in use.
The first product to bring that thinking together is the Sperro SV, a GORE-TEX® Pro hardshell created for skiing, snowboarding, climbing and demanding mountain conditions, with recycled and recyclable materials alongside design details intended to make the jacket easier to live with for longer.
That includes reinforcement around areas most likely to fail and an easily replaceable zip slider, while owners receive three years of unlimited out-of-warranty repairs through Arc’teryx ReBIRD™ programme, all intended to postpone the moment when replacement becomes necessary.
The really interesting part comes when repair is finally no longer practical; the jacket’s fabric can be chemically processed to separate the nylon from the GORE-TEX membrane, with the recovered nylon then returned to Aquafil to be regenerated into ECONYL® yarn.
For skiers, that is perhaps the most important shift. The next generation of technical outerwear is increasingly being judged not only by how well it performs when new, but by how long it can stay in use, how easily it can be repaired and whether there is still a useful destination for the materials when its final ski day eventually comes.
The takeaway
When you do buy new, ask what happens when something breaks. A brand with a repair service and replaceable parts is telling you it expects the jacket to be around for a while.
Frequently asked questions
What makes a ski jacket easy to repair?
Replaceable zip sliders, pullers and cord locks, tougher fabric where the wear happens, and a brand that offers repairs or sells spare parts. Ask about all three before you buy.
Does a repairable ski jacket cost more?
Sometimes, but the cost per season matters more than the price on the tag. A jacket that can be fixed and kept going for years often works out cheaper than two that can’t.
How long should a ski jacket last?
With proper care and the odd repair, a well-made ski jacket should give you many seasons. Ask the brand how long it’s designed to last. If the answer is vague, that tells you something too.
Keep reading in Buy Less, Ski More
@ Arc’teryx System 0™