Circularity in Outdoor Gear, Explained
Everything you need to know about resale, recycling, and repurposing
ByMultiple Authors
Updated:
Apr 08, 2025Updated:
Apr 08, 2025Table of contents
Circularity means creating a closed-loop system in which a material can be used over and over through resale, repurposing, and recycling, thus cutting down on waste and decreasing the need to extract new raw materials. The rise of the term “circularity” can be traced back to the 1970s, when the concept of a circular economy was proposed to reduce consumption in industrial production. The idea was broadly popularized by the book “Cradle to Cradle,” written by Michael Braungart and William McDonough and published in 2002. Patagonia credits it as a source of inspiration for its own circularity initiatives. In outdoor gear, embracing circularity requires considering both a product’s manufacturing process and its end-of-life destination. If brands design products with circularity in mind, the gear should be able to be repaired, repurposed, or recycled.
Compared to other sustainability practices in the outdoor industry, such as using recycled materials or eliminating PFAS, achieving circularity is a slower and more nuanced process because it fully transforms a brand’s supply chain, material use, and business model. Although the outdoor apparel industry has taken a more progressive approach to circularity than the textile industry as a whole, there is still plenty of room for improvement. Below, we’ll explore the major components of circularity initiatives within the outdoor industry, with a focus on resale programs, product recycling, and material repurposing. (Repair services are also an essential component of circularity initiatives, but we cover those in a separate article.)
While many people are familiar with independent consignment shops that sell used outdoor gear, individual brand resale programs are less well known. However, resale initiatives have become an increasingly common part of outdoor brands’ circularity programs. Most of the brand-run resale programs allow you to trade in your gently used gear for store credit. That extends the lifespan of a product by making it available to others when you’re finished using it, thus keeping it in circulation longer.
Although the concept is widely popular and generally thought of as positive, brand-run resale programs have faced criticism, as some people argue that offering store credit in exchange for used gear perpetuates a linear consumption model of buying more new gear rather than participating in circularity. Through these programs, brands incentivize you to buy more of their products—though you could of course use your store credit to buy used gear from the company’s resale program. How to use your credit depends on your needs, but no matter how you use it, sending your gear in for resale can extend its life and prevent it from ending up in a landfill prematurely. This said, to participate in a more circular economic model, we recommend first looking for the new, used gear you need on a brand’s resale website.
It will come as little surprise to learn that Patagonia is a leader among brands with outdoor gear resale programs. The company’s robust Worn Wear initiative came from humble beginnings— the idea was born out of a blog started by Patagonia ambassador Keith Malloy and his wife Lauren that allowed customers to share stories about their favorite Patagonia products and the visible signs of wear and tear that accompanied them. Story swaps turned into a desire for gear swaps. The Worn Wear was first launched on eBay and as a mobile repair truck that traveled the country. Its current website went live in 2017, and, in 2023, sales from Worn Wear accounted for $5 million of Patagonia’s $1.5 billion annual revenue.
REI launched Re/Supply in 2018 to create “a more sustainable and affordable way for members to purchase gear and apparel.” (Re/Supply grew out of REI’s Garage Sale program, which was more limited in scope.) The brand claims that buying used gear cuts carbon emissions by 50% or more compared to buying new gear. You can shop the Re/Supply program online, in store at REI in the used gear section, and at REI’s dedicated Re/Supply store located in Clackamas, Oregon. The program carries various products from REI’s many partner brands, with stock ranging from tents to ski boots to fanny packs. REI offers an in-house gift card in exchange for trading in used gear.
Arc’teryx launched ReGear in 2021 as part of its ReBird circularity initiatives, which include gear care, repair, and upcycling programs. The brand attributes 65% of its products' environmental impact to their production, so it launched the resale program to keep resource-intensive garments in use longer. ReGear accepts used Arc’terx gear in good condition for resale, though it can repair and renew gear sent to the program as needed. If you send in your gear, you’ll get a credit for 20% of the product’s original price that can be used for used or new Arc’teryx gear.
Brands and brick-and-mortar consignment stores are not the only ones offering resale programs for outdoor gear. Third-party online services such as Geartrade, Rerouted, and Out&Back also provide similar services. For example, Geartrade will provide a free shipping label for you to send in your gear, its employees will assess its value, and you’ll get paid once the item sells on the Geartrade website. While not exclusive to outdoor gear and apparel, resale platforms such as eBay, Poshmark, or Vinted work in much the same way.
Gear can only be used or resold for so long—eventually, it reaches the end of its usable life. This is where recycling comes into the picture, and why it’s a vital component of the circularity equation. Broadly speaking, recycling involves breaking down products into parts or components that can be used again.
Designing gear to be recyclable is a complex undertaking. Generally, only a small portion of a given product is recyclable, and breaking it down can be energy-intensive (though, typically, the carbon footprint of chemical recycling is still lower than making gear with virgin materials). As discussed in our piece about recycled materials, it’s important to remember the distinction between recycled and recyclable materials. The former means turning waste into new materials; the latter means breaking a product down into materials that can be used again. One of the biggest hurdles the outdoor industry faces when it comes to recyclable products is that most blended fabrics—a nylon/elastane blend, for example—typically can’t be recycled. Additionally, product recycling is a complicated and expensive process, and brands need to ensure enough products will be returned to them for recycling to warrant such an investment.
To illustrate just how difficult the recycling component of circularity can be, take sustainability pioneer Patagonia as an example. Before the company launched its Worn Wear program, it managed the Common Threads Garment Recycling Program. Introduced in 2005, the program was created to collect used synthetic baselayers and recycle them into polyester that could be used again. The program faced a number of challenges, though. Customers weren’t returning their old baselayers, and without sufficient volume it was economically inefficient to pay for industrial recycling. Then, in 2014, Patagonia’s recycling partner Teijin relocated from Japan to China, where rules about waste are stricter.
In the end, Patagonia decided to shut down the program. In a blog detailing its efforts to achieve circularity, the company wrote: “Two decades later, even with savvy customers understanding upcycling, even with companies touting their eco-attributes, even with better infrastructure in place, circularity still doesn’t figure into most of the clothing industry—not even here at Patagonia.” The company still accepts old gear to be returned for recycling but does not provide details on how the recycling process works.
In 2020, Nemo began experimenting with engineering 100% recyclable gear. Over three years, Nemo simplified its Forte sleeping bag into a mono-polymer design (making it almost entirely out of one material), which is much easier to recycle than a product that contains blended materials. The Forte sleeping bag was released in 2023, the first product in Nemo’s fully recyclable (and mostly recycled) Endless Promise product line. Nemo realized that the recycling process needed to be straightforward to create a successful recyclable product, so it partnered with AmberCycle to make returns as simple as possible. “It’s been a pretty monumental shift on how to design and do business,” said Theresa McKenney, the director of sustainability and government affairs at Nemo. This year, the company added more sleeping bags and backpacks to its Endless Promise collection. So far, Nemo hasn’t received any gear back to be recycled, but representatives at the brand aren’t worried. Nemo expects it to take roughly seven years before products are returned for recycling.
To improve the circularity of its supply chain, Rab piloted an impressive down-recycling program in the United Kingdom. When most people think of recycling, they think of plastic or fabric, not feathers. But Rab realized that down can be used over and over again if the proper recycling systems are in place. Most used down ends up in landfills, and Rab is making efforts to change that. To do that, the brand created a down collection site at its headquarters and stores in the U.K., where it accepts old duvet covers, pillows, jackets, and more. (It also accepts down products for recycling by mail in Europe.) The used down is sorted, sterilized, cleaned, and treated with a hydrophobic treatment. Then, Rab integrates that recycled down into new products.
In a unique take on circularity, the Swiss company On debuted a subscription program for its Cyclon running shoes. Instead of buying the shoes outright, you pay for a shoe subscription—sort of like a music subscription. When your shoes wear out, you send them back to On to be recycled in exchange for a new pair. On reports that the Cyclon line is 90% recyclable, thanks to a bio-based upper partly made from castor beans. The brand is actively expanding its recycling program to other products, including the Cyclon tee-shirt.
Have you ever turned an old shirt into a pillowcase? Or made a grocery bag out of your ripped jeans? That’s called repurposing, and it’s another strategy for achieving circularity. Also called upcycling or reusing, repurposing historically puts the onus on the consumer, rather than the brand. However, a few brands are making creative efforts to reuse material that would otherwise end up in a landfill. While repurposing programs are less common than resale and recycling programs, they are becoming increasingly common in the industry.
Some brands repurpose fabric that would have otherwise gone to waste or take apart old products and make them into new ones. Most commonly, brands use deadstock—or leftover fabric—to make new gear. When brands order too much fabric or textile mills produce fabric with minor flaws or discoloration, they end up with deadstock that often gets thrown away. Fortunately, an increasing number of brands are finding ways to incorporate these fabrics into their products. Cotopaxi is leading the way on this front: Its Del Día collection features 100% repurposed fabrics from other companies’ production runs. Read more about Cotopaxi’s efforts below.
Other brands make unique gear out of used products that have been returned for upcycling. As mentioned above, some fabrics, especially blended ones, cannot be recycled but can be taken apart and made into new products. This makes repurposing an essential component of circularity until more effective and comprehensive recycling programs are developed. Trew Gear takes this concept to the next level, offering an entire collection of upcycled products made from used Trew ski pants, bibs, and shells (detailed below). Other brands like Big Agnes and Sea to Summit take back worn-out tents, disassemble them, and utilize them for parts to fix products in their repair programs. Programs like this walk the line between recycling and repurposing but are nonetheless excellent circularity initiatives.
One of the most prominent examples of repurposing materials at the brand level is Cotopaxi’s use of deadstock, which is leftover fabric from a manufacturer or retailer destined for the landfill. Cotopaxi estimates that products made with deadstock have a 30% smaller carbon footprint than products made with new fabric. Cotopaxi uses deadstock to make unique and colorful bags and products in its Del Día and Teca collections. (Keep in mind that specific colors are not guaranteed when you order a bag made of deadstock since Cotopaxi makes these products out of whatever color fabrics are left over.)
Trew has made a serious effort toward upcycling since 2021. The brand’s Afterlife program offers used Trew gear and upcycled products made from pieces of Trew bibs, pants, and jackets that have been returned for repurposing. Upcycled items range from dog bandanas to bucket hats to tote bags. Each item is cleaned, taken apart, and sewed into a one-of-a-kind piece of gear by a partner “maker.” Trew offers store credit when you return your gear, and the brand decides whether to resell, donate, or recycle your outerwear, depending on its condition.
Deuter’s Infiniti product line uses leftover fabric from its production line to create unique bags and packs. The brand tests each fabric for functionality to ensure that the products in the Infiniti collection meet Deuter’s standards. Products in this collection range from the recycled Infiniti Backpack to the Infiniti Dirtbag, a reusable trash bag. Deuter also donates 10% of the sales from the Infiniti collection to the environmental organization One Earth-One Ocean.
A handful of other brands offer similar repurposing initiatives, though they’re primarily smaller in scale. For example, the Swedish company Fjallraven offers a line of products made from leftover fabrics called the Samlaren Collection. Additionally, Patagonia’s Worn Wear makes ReCrafted down vests made in California from various deconstructed and repurposed materials.
In addition to resale, recycling, and reuse, there are several other “R” words that play a role in circularity. Though they may not be touted as often as other sustainability initiatives, rental programs also improve circularity. Renting gear is a great way to lower your environmental footprint, particularly if you’re just trying out a new sport or will only use a product once or twice. Instead of buying a new, resource-intensive piece of gear that only gets used a few times before getting retired, you can use an item for the trip or expedition you need it for and then return it to the rental service. This prevents unnecessarily purchasing infrequently used gear, decreasing waste and carbon emissions associated with buying a new product. Rental services typically maintain and repair the gear they rent, meaning that gear can be kept in use for long periods of time across multiple users.
Besides the typical ski or bike rental you might find at your local gear shop, some brands offer rental programs for other types of gear. For example, Gore-Tex offers a rental program called Outerwear On Demand for ski jackets and pants. This winter, the company added 15 new locations to the program, so people can now rent their gear at over 20 ski areas across the U.S. and British Columbia. Rab Equipment also offers a rental service. Since 2022, the company has provided rentals to customers who aren’t quite ready to invest in owning all the gear. Through Rab Rental, you can book a kit from its product list, and the gear will be delivered via reusable packaging. Once you reach the end of your rental period, you return the gear to Rab. The company’s service center washes and inspects the gear between each rental.
Repair programs are also a key component of circularity. Keeping your gear in use longer depends on your ability to repair issues throughout its lifetime, preventing you from throwing it away when damage occurs. Keeping gear in use longer decreases a product’s carbon intensity over time with the added bonus of reducing waste. To learn more about repair programs, read Better Trail’s in-depth analysis of outdoor gear repair programs. Also, keep an eye out for our full repair services directory.
Now that you’ve gotten the rundown on circularity, you have the tools to participate in a more sustainable and circular economy. Supporting and utilizing resale, repair, recycling, and rental programs is a key component of being a more sustainable consumer. To find products from brands offering resale, recycling, and repair services, use Better Trail's sustainability hub to help you search for gear with a lighter footprint.
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