Patagonia offering free wader and gear repairs at The Fly Fishing Show

Gear your broken down gear, of any brand, back in action—for nothing
patagonia worn wear
Photo: Patagonia.

Patagonia's Worn Wear program, a multi-faceted initiative that aims to reduce consumer purchasing and the need for new goods to be manufactured by keeping old gear in action, will be visiting The Fly Fishing Show to offer anglers and other visitors free repairs on leaky waders, broken jacket zippers, torn seams and much more.

The Worn Wear crew will be at the The Fly Fishing Show at the Denver Mart in Denver, Colorado, which begins today and continues through Sunday, January 5. According to a release sent out by the company, all styles and sizes of waders and clothes are welcome as long as they’re dry. In addition to all repairs being free, Patagonia isn't restricting free repairs to Patagonia-made equipment. All brands of outdoor gear, as well as non-anglers, are welcome.

“What’s most important to us is that you are able to get out and fish. We know that we only act to save the things we love, so the more we spend time in the places fishing takes us, the more likely we are to rally when they are threatened,” said Ted Manning, Patagonia’s director of Fish. “And we know that no matter whose gear you use, if you are lucky enough to get and use it a lot, it will wear out. This Worn Wear tour is the convergence of those two ideas: get people back on the water and keep the gear they’ve loved going with them.”

Patagonia's Worn Wear program was created in 2013. In addition to offering free repair clinics and services like the one this weekend in Denver, the company offers Patagonia customers trade-in value for their used gear, which is then repaired or reduced to parts that are then re-assembled into "new" Worn Wear garments that Patagonia sells through an online marketplace.

As part of the Worn Wear program, Patagonia has also partnered with online repair experts iFixIt to provide free online instructions and other resources—from fixing drawstrings to sewing tutorials to reapplying waterproof finishes to garments—to help consumers repair their own gear.

Repairs at the Denver show are on a first-come-first-serve basis, with a limit of one item per person per day.

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