Everything Old is New Again

When I was growing up, my grandfather owned an appliance repair and housewares store in our small New Jersey town. I vividly remember him at his workbench, breathing new life into toasters, blenders and other appliances; and even replacing broken slats in window blinds. In those days, we had relationships with our stuff. We purchased things with the intention of keeping them. If something broke we fixed it.

Then things changed. Just about everything became a short-term purchase. If the jar to the blender broke, we bought a whole new one. Never mind that the motor still worked just fine, or that the cost of replacing it was many times more than that of just buying a new jar. If one of the slots in our toaster no longer toasted our bagels to perfection, we bought a new one.  No matter that the other slots still worked just fine.

The current economic climate has changed things again and we’re seeing Americans embrace attitudes of thrift and frugality. People are keeping and repairing the things they have rather than simply replacing them.  Old habits like repairing shoes are back in fashion.  The Shoe Service Institute of America reports that shoe repair shops are experiencing 25 – 30% increases in their business over the prior year.

I recently came across one new business that is capturing a piece of this new repair-not-replace mentality: Denim Therapy. You know that favorite pair of jeans that ripped in the wrong place?  Denim Therapy will make them almost-new again! Just send them your jeans and they’ll analyze the indigo saturation, weight and wear, select from their wide-range of threads, and reconstruct the original denim material. Voila! Good-as-new jeans. And all for a fraction of the cost of a new pair!

According to Denim Therapy, “we not only fix jeans, we rebuild relationships.” How’s that for helping Americans reconnect with their stuff?