Here are my working thoughts on United Repair Centre, one of the organisations I met at the Future Observatory event The New London Commons: Circular Hubs for Fashion and Construction.
This organisation does not just do repair.
They are building the infrastructure that makes repair possible — at scale — in the fashion industry.
A rich example of both an organisation aiming higher in the system, and the Living Systems Blueprint in action.
In my post earlier this week on steel reuse, I wrote about the emergence of a new ‘blue book’ on the operations shelf of the Systems Bookcase. This is about new operational systems:
- Recovery processes
- Coordination between demolition and construction
- Storage and logistics
- New roles and responsibilities
None of this is visible in the final building — it is the hidden infrastructure that enables reuse to happen.
It is very interesting to see how United Repair Centre is doing taking a similar approach in fashion.
What’s particularly striking about their work is clearly it reflects the Living Systems Blueprint in action, building:
- Interconnection
- Symbiosis
- Capacity to change
Interconnection
At a materials flow level, there is the connecting together of a waste stream with an input stream.
But that means connecting many more stakeholders:
- Customers
- Brands
- Repairers
- Logistics
And rather than disposable clothing from anywhere and thrown away to anywhere, their work reconnects people with the things they own and the people who repair them.
That is interconnection at many levels.
Symbiosis
Turning a waste stream into a value stream is only the beginning.
From this, positive feedback loops can start to build.
Repair creates demand for skills.
Skills create livelihoods.
As repair becomes visible and valued, the perceived value of repaired goods increases.
Each part begins to reinforce the others.
This is a fascinating collective reversal of entropy — materials becoming more valuable over time through how we organise ourselves to work with them.
Capacity to change
By running a repair skills academy, they are not just building a pipeline — they are increasing the system’s ability to evolve.
Repair skills are adaptable and transferable.
And there is a learning loop between repairers and designers, enabling garments to be designed for repair from the outset.
This is not just a system that produces outputs.
It is a system that builds its own capacity to change.
There is an interesting difference from the steel case. In steel reuse, the enabling infrastructure remains largely invisible. Here, repair is made visible — badges, stitching, signs that say ‘repaired’.
Making repair visible shifts it from stigma to pride. And at that point, we are no longer just working on operations.
We are working on mindsets.
