A global skiwear manufacturer that has launched numerous major and genuine initiatives to help the environment has announced a tour of Scottish ski shops this month; and of European ski resorts through the winter, where it will offer free-of-charge repairs to damaged skiwear.
In total, Patagonia’s Worn Wear Tour will be coming to 28 snow destinations around Europe.
The team will offer skiers and snowboarders free repairs on busted zippers, rips, tears, buttons, pulls and more, as well as teaching people how to fix their own gear. For the first time, it will also offer technical repairs on GORE-TEX® garments.
The Worn Wear initiative, first launched in 2013, encourages customers to extend the lifetime of their garments. The Patagonia repair team onboard will offer free repairs on any brand of clothing, on a first come, first served basis.
Patagonia, which has so far contributed over $89 million in grants and in-kind donations to date, has created a bespoke wooden snow trailer to house its team of garment reapir professionals and the supplies they need.
“Extending the life of our garments, through proper care and repair, is the single most important thing we can do to lower our impact on the planet and reduces the need to buy more over time — thereby avoiding the CO2 emissions, waste output, and water usage required to build it. By keeping our clothing in use just nine extra months, we can reduce related carbon, waste and water footprints by 20-30 percent each, according to the UK-based group WRAP – simply because we’re making and throwing away less,” a Patagonia spokesperson said.
The tour starts this weekend in Engelberg, Switzerland, but for those who live in the Scottish Highlands or are visiting to enjoy the skiing and boarding there with all five centres currently open, the service is being offered at selected locations in the Scottish too. The service will be the same, it’s just the caravan won’t be there.
Tour Locations
The Scottish venue are Ellis Brigham in Fort William on 13-14 January; Cairngorm Mountain Sports in Aviemore on 16-17 January before continuing on to locations in Aberdeen, Perth, Renfrew and Edinburgh.
The trailer will be in Laax (18-20 January); Val d’Isere 29-31 January; Les Arcs (Arc 1800); Bormio 7-8 February; Corvara 10-11 February; Cortina 14-15 February; Sestriere 17-18 February and thenvisit numerous other resorts including Chamonix, Innsbruck, La Grave, Aschau, Livigno, Kuhtai, Warth-Schrocken and Verbier before rolling in to Tignes finally at the end of April.
