- Mainstream apparel retailers and fast-fashion brands including Levi Strauss & Co., Primark, Uniqlo, Zara, and H&M are increasingly offering garment repair services and sewing workshops to attract budget-conscious Generation Z consumers focused on sustainability.
- Brands are actively educating shoppers on garment care, with Levi's launching handstitching courses for high school students and Primark holding hundreds of free workshops to teach basic clothing maintenance skills like patching holes and replacing buttons.
- The push toward mending comes amid rising global textile waste and growing pressure on the fashion industry, where overall garment production doubled between 2000 and 2015 while the average number of times an item was worn dropped by 36 percent.
- Sustainability experts caution that while in-store repair services build customer retention and brand halo effects, these programs currently operate alongside growing production volumes rather than reducing overall garment manufacturing.
- Retailers encounter steep economic challenges because producing new clothes is often cheaper than funding labor-intensive repair services, leading companies like H&M and Primark to urge governments to adopt tax policies that support profitable garment mending.
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