Two Repair Companies
Nov 29, 2023
This week I wanted to share about two repair vendors, Tersus Solutions and Old Flame Mending. They have very different businesses and approaches, all the better for highlighting them together.
As you may have noticed from my posts, I believe there’s tremendous opportunity for repair to become a normal, often-used service in our society, both from an individual consumer perspective, but also from a brand perspective. I think people should either fix or have fixed their favorite items, and I believe that brands should offer their customers the ability to repair items when needed as a value-added service.
Tersus Solutions - Business-To-Business
Tersus Solutions is a well-established player in the business-to-business repair space, and I caught up with their CEO, Peter Whitcomb, this week to hear how things are going in their home base of Denver, CO. They offer many services beyond repair, like their proprietary waterless cleaning which is how I first met them 5 years ago, but I’m focused on their repair service for today. They partner with outdoor companies and fashion companies to refurbish and repair post-consumer items that have been taken back from customers with the intention of reselling them. Their repairs are usually invisible, but they do some visible repair on high-quality outerwear as well. They partner with many resale-software companies including Trove and Archive and do repairs for brands like The North Face and Patagonia.
They have really scaled their circular services business over the years, offering sortation, cleaning, repair, single sku fulfillment and recycling/downcycling. They are one of the few full-service players in the circular services space and can help brands (especially) with a multitude of offerings. They have been around for 10 years now with many twists and turns along the way. I think every business offering circular solutions has to be flexible and nimble because the landscape is evolving quickly, so it’s worth noting that they are still here and growing, which is what every start up has to do in order to become a large, successful company.
Old Flame Mending - Business-To-Consumer and B2B
Old Flame Mending is a very different repair company based out of Pittsburgh, PA. They offer custom, visible and invisible repairs to individual consumers (business-to-consumer), and soon to brands as well. They are part of a growing movement encouraging people to shop and alter their own closets before buying something new. Old Flame Mending is the perfect partner to mend any of your favorite items to extend their useful lives as your material companions. That jacket that makes me smile and feel great when I put it on? That’s my material companion and heck yes I would pay to have it mended if it gets a hole or a stain. To be honest, I would mend it myself, but I know most people don’t feel comfortable doing that.
Currently 90% of their business comes from local drop offs (I’m really impressed by this because it means people will take advantage of services like this if they learn about them!) and they also accept mail-in items. When I spoke with Rebecca Harrison, the owner, she said that most people either know exactly what kind of mend they want or they trust Old Flame to do what’s best. Either way, they have a high percentage of satisfied customers.
Rebecca has expanded her businesses by hiring part-time home “sewists”. Each sewist picks up a weekly batch of repairs and get’s paid a commission on the repair fees for those items. Rebecca said that it averages out to a competitive hourly wage for the Pittsburgh area, and they have a good retention record which makes her feel proud. Rebecca shared that she’s been inspired by Alabama Chanin, an incredible local manufacturing business run by Natalie Chanin. Definitely check them out if you don’t know about them already.
I was really interested to learn how people become trained to do these types of repairs. Rebecca shared that the first few months on the job is a steep learning curve, but after that they really start to get an intuition for what’s needed on each repair. Once they are at a high enough level they usually specialize on one type of fabric (denim, knit sweaters, etc) and become true repair experts for those materials. I love this because we are talking about upskilling people with valuable knowledge that they can leverage for future work in the ever-growing domestic circular economy.
“Every damage is different.” -Rebecca Harrison, Old Flame Mending
I was so excited to learn about Old Flame Mending because they are providing a real service to individuals that not many companies are. Yes, you can take your goods to your local dry-cleaner, but in my experience they can only do basic repairs and they will always be ‘invisible’. Whereas Old Flame Mending has made visible repair their reason for existing and their main service (and they do still offer regular old invisible repair if that’s what you want). No need to hide the repair, just fix it and make it look thoughtfully and artfully cared for, my favorite kind of repair.
If you need help finding or deciding on a repair vendor, feel free to reach out to me to understand the landscape and who might make sense for your needs.
Podcast Drop: Remanufacturing with Carmen Gama
Listen to our new podcast with the one and only Carmen Gama discussing her business, Make Aneew, and the process of remanufacturing. You can also find it on Apple Podcasts if that’s where you listen.
Also, our podcast just got fancy with an intro, outro and music. Enjoy!
Last Minute Resource Share: Beni Resale Puzzle
I just discovered this great trove of resale information from Beni, a company that helps consumers ‘find anything secondhand’. More on them soon, but in the meantime, a great resource for learning more about resale and all the ways it shows up in the world.
I’m working on a good topic for next week- excited to share with you all.
Cynthia
