In 2018, the New England outfitter L.L. Bean discontinued their famed no-proof-of-purchase lifetime-returns policy, which the retailer had offered since its founding, in 1912. The new policy instituted a dramatically reduced, one-year return window, a sad shift that seemed to suggest the company’s waning interest in engendering customer confidence by producing items with longevity in mind.
That same year, on the other side of the Atlantic, the U.K.-based clothing brand Toast began trialing textile repairs through workshops in their stores. By providing tutorials on traditional craft techniques—such as Japanese sashiko stitching and knitwear darning—for garments in need of mending, the team quickly realized there would be strong consumer interest in a quality repair service. By 2019, Toast Repair was launched as a pilot program in the company’s Notting Hill shop. Customers could bring in worn-out pieces and the shop would repair them for free, with no proof of purchase required.
