How many times have we heard that “it costs more to repair the coffee maker than to buy a new one”? For decades, the culture of using and pulling has marked our way of consuming, leaving behind mountains of waste. But something is changing: more and more companies and consumers bet on repairing instead of replacing, thus extending the life of the products and promoting a more circular and sustainable model. According to the study of sustainability and consumption 2025 of Cetelem, eight out of 10 Spaniards value that the products include repair and durability rates, and 66% would even pay more for this information. Companies know that joining this trend loyalty customers, but, even so, many do so cautiously: «The costs of maintaining a stock of spare parts or extending the quality guarantee brakes them,» says a source in the sector.
Iron guarantee
Patagonia is one of the clearest examples of how repair can be integrated into the philosophy and business of a company. Founded in 1973, the American brand has achieved that its Reno Center (Nevada) is the largest clothing workshop in North America, in addition to having more than 110 worldwide. Only in 2024 repaired more than 100,000 articles, 30,000 of them in Europe. Under their «unbreakable guarantee», they encourage repairing that this trend will be imposed. «It’s great to see that more and more brands offer these services,» they highlight from the company. The benefits are clear: prolonging a garment just nine months reduces CO₂ emissions by 27%, water consumption and in 22% waste is 33%. More informationndeCathlon, which has its second market for billing with 178 stores in Spain, it was also a pioneer. His first center in Badalona, opened in 1992, already had a workshop. Today its international network exceeds 1,700 worldwide, 143 of them in our country. Only in 2024 repaired more than three million articles, 439,000 in Spain. The company insists that the workshops are not an expense, but the key to developing circular business models. Since 2002 he has professionalized the service: rapid store arrangements, and the most complicated – a career of skis – in urban workshops or specialized services in regional centers, in León or Barcelona. Sometimes, that things last is a sign of identity. As they explain from Tous, «jewelry is the opposite of the model of wearing and throwing: a jewel guards, preserves, repairs and inheriting from generation to generation.» Tradition began in 1965, when Rosa Oriol, co -founder, opened a small workshop in Manresa in Manresa where she «traced» jewels. Today they manage more than 700,000 services a year in 51 workshops from 25 countries with 340 artisan jewels, and form young people in the Tous School in Manresa, open in 2018 to preserve the trade.
Bet on the local
A more recent example with great reception is Zara Pre-Owned, launched in 2022 in the United Kingdom and extended in 2023 to 16 European markets-including Spanish-as well as the United States last year. It allows to sell or donate garments, and also arrangements of any zara garment – from buttons and zippers to seams – with prices between 2 and 6.5 euros (in Spain). «The repairs requested through our stores are made by more than one hundred local workshops, which collect the garments twice per week and return them within an average period of two or three days,» they explain from Inditex. More information about the sector of the small appliance, Jata has made the durability and use of local materials their sign of identity. The Navarra company guarantees spare parts for 10 years and combines 13 external technical services with a center in Tudela, where in 2024 it managed 15,168 repairs – less than other years despite the increase in sales – thanks to more agile processes. In addition, it manufactures in Spain key products such as roasting plates, barbecues and paelleros, and works with local suppliers for essential parts. «Betting on local production allows us to maintain greater quality control, boosting the national industrial fabric and reinforcing the value of closeness that characterizes our brand,» they explain. These examples show that repair begins to consolidate as a business and cultural trend, and although there is a long way to go, the turn towards a more circular and sustainable consumption has no turning back.
Against obsolescence and waste
Until recently, product repair was just an option; It will soon be an obligation. According to the European Commission, discarding still useful goods are 261 million tons of CO2 in the atmosphere, consume 30 million tons of resources, and generates 35 million tons of waste per year, in addition to consumers lose about 12,000 million euros when replacing instead of repairing.
The EU is promoting rules for products to be more durable and easy to fix, such as the ecodesign regulations – which requires durability, spare parts and ease of disassembly, and includes a repair index on the energy label – and the directive of the right to repair. This last directive guarantees access to authorized parts, manuals and services. Spain will transfer these obligations through the Law of Sustainable Consumption, now in processing and pending approval in the Council of Ministers.
At the moment, the OCU recalls that «there are only partial directories» to locate authorized reparators. On the other hand, Applia Spain (National Association of Manufacturers and Importers of White Line Apparatus) has proposed a series of measures to promote repair: consumer bonds (as is done in Austria, through NextGeneration funds); VAT reduction in repairs (Portugal has gone from 23% to 6%); Training of specialized technicians and control of irregular workshops without accreditation, guaranteeing security and quality in the service.
