ISPO Munich 2025 marked an important moment for Rugged Thread — not just as a business, but as part of a growing global repair movement taking shape. Through our booth, CEO Kim Kinney’s panel, and our Design for Repair (DFR) workshops, we saw strong engagement and genuine curiosity about how repair fits into the future of the outdoor industry.
What became clear throughout the week is that repair is moving from a values-based conversation to an operational necessity. The brands, designers, suppliers, repair centers, and policymakers engaging most deeply weren’t asking if repair matters — they were asking how to make it work at scale.
Repair Is Not Cleanup — It’s Circular Integration
At the center of the week was Kim Kinney’s panel on building the outdoor repair economy. The message was simple and urgent: repair is not cleanup — it’s circular integration.
Millions of outdoor products are discarded every year not because they’re beyond use, but because the infrastructure to repair them at scale doesn’t yet exist. Repair is the missing middle between production and disposal — the connective tissue that makes circularity work. It extends product life, reduces demand for virgin materials, and creates powerful feedback loops that improve durability, design for repair, and material performance.
Repair also supports skilled work and workforce development — creating meaningful, technical jobs while keeping gear in use longer. When repair is treated as infrastructure rather than an afterthought, environmental impact, business resilience, and human value move in the same direction.
Making Repair Visible and Tangible
Our booth helped make these ideas tangible. We displayed repaired technical outdoor gear alongside a looping video that showed the repair process and the skilled labor behind it. For many attendees, this was their first time seeing what professional repair actually looks like at scale.
A wall featuring photos of the Rugged Thread team became a powerful focal point. It helped shift the narrative around repair — from a hidden service to a skilled trade, and from a back-end function to a visible, respected part of the circular system.
What It Takes to Scale Repair
The panel itself drew a full audience and reinforced growing interest across the industry. The conversation highlighted what’s needed to scale repair responsibly:
- Clearer workflows between brands and repair partners
- A better understanding of true product cost — including environmental and waste impacts
- Policies that explicitly support repair infrastructure, not just durability or resale
Across the discussion, one theme was consistent: repair cannot scale through isolated brand programs or marketing initiatives alone. Scaling repair responsibly requires alignment across the full system — brands, designers, suppliers of components and materials, repair centers, policymakers, and consumers — working toward shared standards, workflows, and incentives.
Policy Matters — and the Window Is Now
Policy alignment was another critical theme. Panelist Pascale Moreau emphasized that repair remains underrepresented in current legislation — but that this is actively changing. With the Circular Economy Act, Green VAT proposals, and related EU policy frameworks being written now, she underscored that this is a critical moment for brands, suppliers, and repair leaders to make their voices heard, particularly during active consultation periods.
Without participation now, repair risks being sidelined in favor of resale or durability-only measures, despite its central role in circular systems.
The Same Policy Moment Is Opening in the United States
This urgency is not limited to Europe. In the United States, California’s SB 707 (the Responsible Textile Recovery Act) marks the first extended producer responsibility (EPR) framework for apparel and textiles, signaling a broader shift toward producer-funded circular systems. As additional states advance EPR laws and fee structures across product categories, the details matter.
While many of these policies emphasize durability, repair infrastructure and repairability can still be under-specified unless industry voices insist on it. The takeaway mirrors Pascale’s message in the EU: this is the moment to engage — so repair is designed into the rules, not treated as an afterthought.
Design for Repair: Small Decisions, Big Impact
Our Design for Repair (DFR) workshops confirmed something we’ve long believed: the industry is still early in its learning curve, and education is essential.
Attendees were especially engaged by how small upstream design decisions — seam placement, component access, material choices — can dramatically reduce repair time and cost. In many cases, these changes can reduce repair time by 30–70%, improving turnaround, margins, and customer experience.
Suppliers and brands play a critical role in this shift. Modular components, accessible spare parts, and repair-friendly materials — when designed intentionally — can dramatically reduce labor time, lower costs, and extend product life, turning repair from a bottleneck into a scalable system.
Across conversations, one insight surfaced repeatedly: repair and DFR must be understood not as niche sustainability practices, but as strategic capabilities that support better products and more resilient business models.
Our Commitment: What Rugged Thread Is Building Next
Leadership in repair requires more than participation — it requires measurable commitments.
During the ISPO panel, CEO Kim Kinney shared Rugged Thread’s commitment to scaling repair:
Rugged Thread is committed to doubling our repair impact by the end of 2026 — and doing it in a way that strengthens the entire repair ecosystem.
This means continuing to:
- Build and support meaningful workforce pathways in repair
- Deepen brand and industry partnerships that make repair viable at scale
- Increase the visibility of repair as a normal, valuable part of the outdoor industry
One specific action Rugged Thread will champion is encouraging brands to clearly promote repair on their websites — not as a hidden service, but as a core value. This includes sharing real repair stories, quantifying repair impact, and reinforcing a simple, industry-wide message:
Fix your gear — no matter the label.
What This Means — and How to Engage
Whether you’re an individual consumer, a designer, a supplier, a brand, or a policymaker, scaling repair requires participation across the system:
- Brands & Product Teams: Integrate Design for Repair upstream and treat repair data as product intelligence.
- Suppliers & Material Innovators: Design components, materials, and systems that enable efficient repair, replacement, and reuse across product lifecycles.
- Industry Partners & Policymakers: Support repair as workforce and climate infrastructure through incentives, standards, and collaboration.
- Consumers & Community: Normalize repair, share repair stories, and choose to fix what you already own.
Rugged Thread works with brands and partners to make repair operational, visible, and economically viable — through repair services, Design for Repair workshops, and industry collaboration.
If you’re interested in working together — booking a DFR workshop, exploring repair partnerships, or rethinking how repair fits into your organization — we’d love to hear from you.
With Thanks
We’re deeply grateful to our sponsors YKK, Oregon Outdoor Alliance, and Business Oregon for supporting Rugged Thread and the continued growth of repair as a core business value.
“Repair is the missing middle of circularity — the most practical, scalable, and actionable step we can take right now.”
— Kim Kinney, CEO, Rugged Thread
“The most sustainable product is the one you already have.”
— João Mathia, YKK
“Repairability should be understood as a quality and performance characteristic.”
— Barbara Hinz
“Repair is not just an emotional topic. It’s a business opportunity.”
— Jonas, Houdini
“Repair has been missing from policy conversations — it’s time to change that.”
— Pascale Moreau