Abandoning planned obsolescence
With increasing consumer awareness of the impact their consumption has on the planet, a number of brands are tackling the culture of planned obsolescence – where products are designed to be thrown away after a certain usage period.
Luxury British department store Harvey Nichols provides luxury aftercare services through its in-store service The Restory. Customers can drop off their worn or broken shoes and accessories in-store and have them delivered to their home fully restored. Alternatively, customers can arrange for their shoes and accessories to be picked up from a location to be restored and returned within a few days. The Restory caters to the growing consumer interest in aftercare services. Rather than throwing out a product when worn or broken, aftercare services extend the life of products, recycling products that may have previously added to the piles of waste resulting from planned redundancy.
Another interesting example that addresses used products is Save Your Wardrobe, an app that provides users with information of how they can reuse or revive their clothes. The app synchronises with the user’s online fashion purchases and calendar to provide outfit recommendations. Considering that the average woman uses only 44% of her wardrobe regularly,1 the app provides a range of recommendations that increases the number of uses per garment. In addition to providing recommendations, the app also provides information about garment re-sell value or encourages unwanted clothes to be donated to charity.
Beyond the fashion industry, Whirli is a subscription-based toy brand that considers the often short attention spans children have toward their toys. Rather than purchase toys that children grow bored of, Whirli sends boxes of toys to parents that children can play with as long as they like. Once the child grows bored of the toy, the parents can return the toy to Whirli where it will be completely sanitised and provided to another child. Additionally, when a child plays with a toy for more than nine months, Whirli transfers ownership of the toy to the child. Through the subscription model, old toys can be given a new story, reducing the environmental impact of toys and the clutter in households.
- Oxfam. (2016). Source.