THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. **** Saturday/Sunday, April 4 - 5, 2020 |D3
STYLE & FASHION
C
OKE CANSget recy-
cled. Houses get
flipped. And today,
clothing gets recom-
merced. Recommerce
is the practice by which a brand or
store buys or takes back a used gar-
ment from a customer, repairs it to
like-new condition and resells it at
a sliver of the original cost. Labels
and stores including the North Face,
Nordstrom and Patagonia have all
lately trotted out their own micro-
sites devoted to the phenomenon.
It’s a concept rooted in L.L. Bean’s
legendary, decades-old policy of
mending items however decrepit—
but this very old idea has caught on
as more eco-minded customers opt
for a spruced-up secondhand shirt
rather than a brand-spanking-new
one.
Two rehabbing services have
made the recom revolution possi-
ble: Trove in California and the
Renewal Workshop in Oregon.
When a company such as elevated
outerwear brand Arc’teryx buys
back a jacket, it sends it to Trove
which then cleans it, realigns the
zipper or sews up a hole, photo-
graphs it and lists it on a special
rehabbed-gear section of
Arc’teryx’s website. The Renewal
Workshop similarly revitalizes and
reincarnates garments for its part-
ners, which include Carhartt and
the North Face.
Offering a recommerce program
bolsters a company’s environmental
bona fides, but what do customers
get out of it? Well, anyone with
used gear from the label can trade
it in for store credit, though how
much varies widely by brand. At
Patagonia, you can reap up to $100
for a pricier item, while San Fran-
cisco workwear label Taylor Stitch
and women’s essentials brand Ei-
leen Fisher pay as little as $5 per
piece, and Arc’teryx offers 20% of
the garment’s original price.
But shoppers, not swappers, ben-
efit most from these programs. Af-
fordability is the first major hook of
recommerce, which Andy Ruben, the
co-founder of Trove, likened to the
world of used cars: “If you’re a
Honda buyer, you can now afford a
Mercedes if it’s preowned.” In the
same way, if you’re a menswear ad-
dict who’s been making do with Ba-
nana Republic button-ups, you can,
thanks to Nordstrom’s See You To-
morrow program, likely swing re-
habbed Canali shirts on the same
budget. Deals are proliferating: In
the used gear section of REI’s e-
commerce site, you can find Salo-
mon hiking shoes for $41.95, down
from $110 new. The North Face of-
fers a repaired Gotham Three parka
for $149.50, half of the $299 retail
price. And Arc’teryx is selling a
$35.70 pre-worn Incendo vest that
would fetch $85 if it were embark-
ing on its first life. (Most recom-
merce programs, including those of
Patagonia, Eileen Fisher and Nord-
BYJACOBGALLAGHER
Brands are bringing the responsible and thrifty custom of mending clothing into the 21st century. Here’s what’s in it for you
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle—Fashionably
strom, are temporarily on pause in
response to coronavirus, but they
say they will be back.)
Some shoppers gravitate to
recommerced garments that aren’t
so economical because such pieces
glorify wear, tear and repair. Taylor
Stitch’s “Vintage” line features items
like an elderly, faded-in $200 jacket.
Co-founder Mike Maher said the col-
lection appeals to “more of a fashion
customer” who might shirk the
work of breaking in a coat. For over
a decade, French denim label A.P.C.has operated its Butler program,
where customers trade in worn-in
jeans for half-off a new pair. A.P.C.
then repairs all the holes, de-funks
the old denim and resells the beauti-
fied result at a premium. Other la-
bels offer limited runs of comely
new clothes cobbled from scraps of
pieces too far gone to be repaired,
including Resewn at Eileen Fisher,
Recrafted at Patagonia and the Re-
newed Design Residency at the
North Face.
Recommerce’s environmentalupside is its strongest sell. “I think
we have an issue with overcon-
sumption in fashion,” said Alex
Green, 21, a college student in
Massachusetts who recently pur-
chased a pair of swim trunks from
Patagonia’s Worn Wear collection.
For people like Mr. Green, shop-
ping has gotten complicated: They
like clothing, but also fret over the
future of the planet.
According to the Waste and Re-
sources Action Programme in Eng-
land, keeping a garment in actionfor just nine extra months reduces
its carbon, water and waste foot-
prints by around 20-30% each.
(Both Trove and the Renewal Proj-
ect use a Tersus machine, which
cleans clothes with carbon dioxide,
not water.) Recommerce programs
are a way to assuage the guilt of
buying something new elsewhere.
Said Mr. Green of his attraction to
the phenomenon, “As young peo-
ple and young consumers, it’s kind
of our responsibility to take fash-
ion the direction we want to go.”BETH HOECKEL
UP WITH UPCYCLINGBrands with a range of sensibilities have leapt into the recommerce market. Vancouver’s Arc’teryx rehabs and resells its techy
outerwear (1, 10); Eileen Fisher turns scraps into patchworked pieces (2); Taylor Stitch’s Restitch collection focuses on well-worn workwear (3, 8,9); A.P.C.’s
Butler Program recycles pre-worn jeans (4); Patagonia’s Worn Wear line sells a number of the brand’s classics as secondhand steals (5, 6, 7, 11).124356789
10111 23JESSIE KANELOS WEINER
4As drugstore shelves empty and boutiques shutter, now is the
time to ensure you’re stocked up on your self-care safeguards.
Four stylish gentlemen recommend their nonnegotiable
products for fresh faces and kempt locksThe Holy Grails of Grooming
1
NameD.J. Augustin,
basketball player, the
Orlando Magic
Age 32
LocationOrlando, Fla.
Grooming EssentialAfri-
can Black Soap Soothing
Body Wash,$10, sheamois-
ture.com
WhyIt’sGreat“The way it
smells, how it feels...there’s
just something about this
soap. A lot of my team-
mates actually use it now,
because they’ve seen me
with it.”2
NameScott Studenberg,
co-creator of fashion brand
Baja EastAge 36
LocationLos Angeles
Grooming EssentialSuper
Vitamin C Serum,$20,
newyorkbiology.com
WhyIt’sGreat“I was out
of it for a week and a half,
and my skin literally does
not look as glowy. It makes
your skin vibrant-looking
and healthy. I also really
like how it smells.”3
NameTony King, CEO, cre-
ative director of technology
and creative agency King &
Partners
Age 47
LocationBedford, N.Y.
Grooming EssentialBril-
liant Anti-Humectant Po-
made,$26, aveda.comWhyIt’sGreat“It com-
pletely changed my look
and my luck...I started meet-
ing girls, my hair looked bet-
ter and I felt more confi-
dent. It doesn’t feel like my
hair’s got anything on it—it
just feels good. I buy the
stuff in bulk.”4
NameDarren Barnet, actor
Age 24
LocationLos Angeles
Grooming EssentialCeraVe
Moisturizer,$12, ulta.com
WhyIt’sGreat“It’s very
lightweight, but keeps my
skin moist all day. Dry
skin—I can’t deal with it. So
I’m very diligent about
moisturizing.”
—Sara Bosworth