Chapter 7 — full chapter
Chapter 7 — full chapter
7.2 Consumer Use, Care and Maintenance
Brands can reduce the environmental impact of the use phase by encouraging consumers to use garments for longer and care for them properly. Care labels should promote lower-impact practices such as washing only when necessary, using low-temperature cycles, line drying, and avoiding unnecessary ironing. Awareness campaigns can encourage responsible garment use by promoting durability, repair, and mindful consumption. Extending garment life also requires making maintenance easy. Brands can provide spare buttons, repair kits, replacement components, and clear repair instructions, while products should be designed so that common failures, such as broken zippers or worn buttons, can be easily repaired. Professional services such as sustainable cleaning, maintenance, alterations, and style refresh further extend product lifetimes. Digital Product Passports, QR codes, and online platforms can provide care guidance, repair tutorials, maintenance advice, spare part information, and links to authorised repair services. Together, these measures extend product lifetimes, reduce replacement rates, and lower textile waste.
Responsibility is shared. As Chapter 3 sets out, circular behaviour depends on product design, service access, price, convenience, communication and infrastructure — so care guidance and repair services should be framed as making the low-impact option the easy option, not as a condition that rests mainly on the user.
In luxury products, care and maintenance often becomes part of a product's value proposition. High-quality leather, fur and heritage garments are often designed to remain in use for decades and are frequently passed between generations. Brands therefore offer specialised cleaning, conditioning, recolouring, repairs, component replacement and alteration services that preserve both functionality and appearance. Rather than encouraging replacement, these services maintain product value, strengthen customer relationships, and support a slow-fashion model based on longevity.
VAUDE encourages customers to extend the lifetime of their garments through comprehensive care guidance, repair services, and awareness campaigns. Care labels and online resources promote lower-impact practices such as washing only when necessary, using low-temperature cycles, line drying, and avoiding unnecessary ironing. The company provides repair tutorials, spare parts, and maintenance advice through its website, helping customers keep products in use for longer. By combining durable product design with customer education and accessible repair services, VAUDE reduces the environmental impact of the use phase while strengthening consumer engagement with circular and responsible consumption.