REI Garage Sales are worth getting up early for–especially since we’ll be there fixing broken items for FREE! There will be great deals on returned and used clothing and gear, so come stock up for all your summer adventures.
This Saturday, June 8th from 8am-2pm at the REI of Bend.
Please note that our studio will be CLOSED in order to attend and staff this event.
See you bright and early!
If nothing changes, by 2050 the fashion industry is on track to consume a quarter of the world’s annual carbon budget, dump 22 million tons of microfibers in the ocean, and burn 300 million tons of petrochemicals every year.[1] Yet that’s not a necessary cost in order to clothe—even fashionably—every person on the planet. The current industry relies on non-renewable resources to mass produces clothing and gear which are, ultimately, destined for the landfill. However, this wasteful system is changing from the inside out, thanks to a rapidly growing repair economy.
Hiking Snake Dike, Yosemite. Primo and I awoke to bright clear skies of Yosemite October and previous plans of a day off the stone evaporated. Hotcakes and saskatoonberry jam, mugs of coffee and hickory brews appeared briefly and we lazed bout, stretching in the streams of sunlight trickling through the trees. I quickly scrawled out the topo for Snake Dike, packed some water, rock shoes and chalk bag then roared out of the camp through the chilly morning.
The fire spread in a blink of an eye and soon feathers were floating down around me like fat snowflakes. My down sleeping bag was the casualty in my momentary lapse of judgement that morning. I simply hadn’t let the alcohol dry on my hands when I lit my beer-can stove, and the moment my hand was on fire I waved it around (note: don’t do that) and splattered flames onto my sleeping bag.
It was day 100-something of my PCT thru-hike, and the only thing I could do was get out my patch kit of dental floss and a sewing needle to close up the 10 inch burn hole. Gathering as many feathers as I could, I stuffed them back in the gaping space that was once my sleeping bag and went to work.
As much as I use tape it’s no surprise that as a technical outdoor repair expert I also use a special tape to repair down jacket and sleeping bag rips, water-proof ski and snowboard pants, tents and backpacks. But I don’t use packing tape, NO to duct tape and NO to other funky sticky tape as it will leave a mess that is impossible to remove. You want to get a roll of McNett’s Tenacious Tape for $5, cut off what you need from the 3″x18″ resealable tube that can be tossed in a pack for repairs in the field. My favorite repair using Tenacious Tape is down jackets.
Up for repair this week is this BIG AGNES down sleeping bag. This bag is core gear on cold nights for ultra athlete Chris Scotch, from Bend, Oregon, an annual participant in Minnesota’s Arrowhead Ultra that takes place during the coldest week of winter. This repair is not under warranty– it’s good to know that bleach destroys nylon.
We ordered an ounce of 800 Fill Power White Goose Down with Activ-Dri from Thru-Hiker.com to refill what was lost then mend the inner baffles and patch it over it with fresh, beautiful down-proof nylon.