Denim Deal Adds New Partner to Advance Denim Repair

by · WWD
Inside the United Repair Center in Amsterdam.Courtesy

Denim Deal aims to strengthen the role of garment repair in advancing its circular mission.

On Wednesday, the international, multi-stakeholder initiative announced a new partnership with United Repair Centre (URC), a social impact company providing high quality apparel repair services to brands like Patagonia, The North Face, Arc’teryx, Lululemon, Levi’s and Decathlon.

The partnership gives Denim Deal members direct access to URC’s Europe-wide repair expertise and services and a dedicated member discount.

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Denim Deal is a global platform that brings together the denim value chain to scale post-consumer recycled cotton and build circular denim operations. Through its regional hubs across EMEA, North America, Latin America, Sub-India and APAC, the initiative empowers local ecosystems to close the loop in denim.

Denim Deal’s goal is to see the production of 1 billion pairs of jeans containing at least 20 percent post-consumer recycled cotton by 2030, but its efforts also focus on transparency, durability, and extending the life of garments, in general.

The partnership with URC reinforces this message. “Post-consumer recycled cotton becomes more credible when brands can see it, feel it and understand how to use it,” said Laura Vicaria, Denim Deal’s program director. “Durability connects the full product journey, from material choice and design to repair and future recycling.”

It also highlights the economic value of repair. A study by Circular Fashion Federation found the KPMG value of the“reinvent” segment for “European first-hand apparel” is expected to reach 71 billion euros ($80.9 billion) by 2030.

Thami Schweichler, the founder of URC, said investment in repair drives positive social change and helps brands to achieve their circularity goals. “None of this would work without the highest-quality repairs, every time, exceptional service, and industry-leading technology,” he said.

Since launching in Amsterdam in 2022, URC has handled over 100,000 repairs for more than 35 brands, and the B Corp says partnerships continue to increase. URC employs over 50 repair technicians across its hubs in Amsterdam, London and Paris. The organization notes that many of its employees have been refugees and tailors in their previous countries.

Denim Deal announced the URC collaboration at Denim Deal Days Paris on Wednesday. The one-day event was organized with URC and the Circular Fashion Federation and hosted at URC’s central Paris hub. The product-led working event invited brands to connect directly with Denim Deal members DNM, Indigo Textile, Kipas Denim, Soorty, Demco, Artlab, Thirty2, World Collective and PLNTmatter. The program also included an eco-design session and a hands-on Sashiko denim repair workshop.

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