Book review…
Being radical through repair
STRAIGHTENING my bookshelf recently — okay, that’s not an all-too-frequent event — I came across a booklet that I picked up a couple years back in the Patagonia adventure equipment shop in Sydney. I took a copy not because it was free but because between its covers were instructions for fixing the common mishaps to outdoor clothing which we encounter in the mountains, on the coasts and even in the city.
Clothing comes in for a lot of wear and tear in the mountains. Scrapes on rough rock, tears, malfunctioning zips. We use useful repair tools like gaff tape to make repairs when we’re out, but what of more durable repairs when we come back? That’s what this little book is about.
The booklet is also about preventative maintenance. We know the saying ‘if it‘s not broke don’t fix it’ leads to malfunction and waste. So, occasionally, usually very occasionally, climbers, bushwalkers, mountaineers and other travellers of the rough places might decide it’s time to wash their down or polyester puff jacket or their waterproof parka. This might sound a little radical to some, and it has to be done properly. This booklet explains how.
When I worked in the adventure equipment industry I associated with climbers. They can be a rowdy and rough bunch who defy and disregard authority, however when it comes to safety they put corporate safety managers to shame. I remember how some would check the condition of their carabiners by having them X-rayed to look for hairline fractures. When you are dangling of a cliff with only the aluminium loop of a carabiner to hold your harness and you to the rope, safety becomes a big thing in life. Same with climbing rope. They would feed it through their hand, looking for abrasion and wear points. The clothing that Patagonia’s repair booklet teaches you to maintain and fix might not be that life-critical when it comes to safety, however there is that old saying, that cliché about a stitch in time…
What do a bunch of climbers know about sewing?
As he tell it, that was the question Yvon Chouinard and friends confronted when they were thinking about making clothing for adventure pursuits like climbing, bushwalking, mountaineering. Chouinard was a blacksmith who used his smithing skills to make climbing equipment. But clothing for mountain sports?
The answer to the question was: not much. To start with. But they soon learned and out of that came the Patagonia adventure equipment company. Not bad for a pioneering dirtbag climber of Yosemite’s big walls.
Worn Wear
In their Sydney store, Patagonia has a person with a sewing machine and offers free repair of their clothing, It’s aboout keeping stuff in use longer. They call it their Worn-Wear program.
The inside cover of that little booklet I picked up, Patagonia’s 2017 DIY Repair Guide, carries the heading ‘Repair is a radical act’. We have become a society of product consumers, not owners, the introduction says. The difference is that owners care for their equipment. They clean and repair, reuse and share. Consumers take, make, discard and repeat. Think fast fashion. The single best thing we can do is to keep our stuff in use longer. Expanding the life of our advanture equipment through care and repair reduces the need to buy and replace, reduces carbon emissions, water use and waste.
Content of the DIY Repair Guide includes:
- how to patch a down or synthetic jacket
- coil zipper diagnosis
- replacing the slider on a zipper
- plastic tooth zipper diagnosis
- washing and drying a down jacket
- de-pilling a sweater
- testing for water repellency
- washing a waterproof jacket
- drying a waterproof jacket.
Why synthetics?
Perhaps I should say something here about why outdoor adventure clothing often uses synthetics like polyester. It is because polyester will insulate even when wet. Used to make a jacket, it is windproof. Apply a coating or add a waterproof and moisture vapour permeable later, and it is waterproof with minimum clamminess.
Staying warm and wet in the cold mountains is a big survival plus. Wool also retains warmth when wet, however it is not wind or waterproof. Patagonia uses merino wool for some of its warmwear, sometimes combining it with recycled polyester to get the best of both materials. What about cotton? No way. Cotton absorbs water which in wet and cold conditions leaches warmth from the body and leads to cooling, all of which in the mountains is a sure recipe for hypothermia. There’s that saying known to mountain travellers: cotton kills.
A useful contribution
The DIY Repair Guide as a useful contribution to the campaigns to minimise waste and encourage reuse, recycling and repair. If repair is the radical act that Patagonia says it it, then it is maybe time for all of us to become radicals.
I contacted Patagonia Australia to ask whether the DIY Repair Manual is still available. Linley Hurrel from Patagonia’s customer service in Torquay, on the Victorian coast where the company is based, got back next day—not a bad response time. She had a look but found that the booklet is no longer available. Not in print, anyway. It’s online now, and there is more on Patagonia’s ifixit page on the company’s website than in the print edition. Here’s where you find it.
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