VAUDE CSR-Report – Real outdoor adventures leave traces behind...

We’ve all been through it. Your favorite jacket gets a tear or the zipper jams, a buckle breaks on your pack, a wheel gets worn out on your suitcase or your shirt loses a button. Real outdoor adventures leave traces behind and even the best gear can occasionally break down or eventually wear out.

The question is, what comes next? We at VAUDE say: repair it – and do it yourself!

Just because a product has a problem doesn’t mean its life is doomed. For years, VAUDE’s own repair shop has been fixing minor and major damage, exchanging defective parts and prolonging the life of your beloved products. With a little craftsmanship, many repairs can often be easily made yourself. So if you enjoy sewing or fixing things and would like to avoid the hassle of sending your gear in and waiting around for it to come back again, our new do-it-yourself repair instructions will give you the help you need.

And if you need replacement parts, they can be purchased from your local retailer or ordered directly through our new cooperation partner iFixit online from home.

Clever „Do-it-yourself“-Links

VAUDE Care and Repair Instructions available here

VAUDE Repair Instructions at iFixit here

And here to order spare parts at iFixit

Keeping your VAUDE products in use as long as possible

At VAUDE, sustainability is a common green theme that runs through the entire company. VAUDE products are manufactured with maximum environmentally friendliness and fairness. During the phases of material selection and processing technologies, a great deal of emphasis is placed on highest quality and product longevity. This means that early on – when the product is just being developed – they need to be designed so that those parts subject to wear will be easily replaceable and any possible defects will be easily repairable. The longer a jacket or a tent stays in use, the better it is for the planet.

As a consumer, you have a significant amount of influence on a product’s longevity. Taking good care of the product is the most important thing you can do. Maintaining high quality, functional products is challenging. In order to retain their specialized properties, for example, during washing or follow-up waterproofing, you should know what they like and what they don’t like. Sometimes small repairs will be needed. And if you can do it yourself, all the better! VAUDE will help you do it.

Collaboration with iFixit

In many areas of everyday life, fixing things is a lost art. But these days, more and more people are developing a greater awareness of sustainable living; they’re thinking about wasted resources in our throwaway society and reflecting on the value of their products. To keep their favorite gear going as long as possible, they’re actively looking for good instructions regarding maintenance and repair. This is the reason behind the creation of the online platform iFixit; it features simple instructions and provides spare parts for a wide array of products.

Hilke Patzwall, CSR Manager at VAUDE:

»We think this do-it-yourself idea is fantastic – which is why we are collaborating with iFixit to create repair manuals for many VAUDE products and have made the necessary spare parts available. We would be delighted if this helps our products be used even longer.«

Matthias Mayer, Managing Director of iFixit Europe:

»Ideally, manufacturers should already be thinking about the repairability of their products during the design stage and promoting this by providing repair manuals and spare parts. VAUDE is one of those producers, which is why we at iFixit are very pleased about this collaboration.«

About iFixit

Many people want to repair their broken gear but they often lack the means to do so. Using special tools and free step-by-step instructions, iFixit lowers the hurdle for repairs - even for beginners. It offers instructions for repairs ranging from cars to electronics and clothing to tents, so that people can access the instructions necessary for repairing their devices instead of throwing them away - from anywhere in the world.

Corporate Facts

iFixit was founded in 2003 by Luke Soules and Kyle Wiens in California. In 2013, the European branch opened which supports the German community and fans in other EU countries from its headquarters in Stuttgart.

From here, spare parts and tools are sent out to 30 European countries. Currently about 2 million registered users worldwide use iFixit. About 200,000 users visit the iFixit website in Germany each month. Currently there are over 20,000 repair manuals for nearly 7,000 individual products available. iFixit writes and publishes repair instructions for items ranging from computers to cars, so people all over the world can repair their belongings instead of throwing them away. Historically, the focus has been on computers and mobile electronics, but with the help of the online community of repairers and DIYers, the range of guides has been extended to many other categories such as bicycles, household appliances, clothing and musical instruments. Any tools required are specified in the instructions and, in most cases, can be purchased directly at iFixit.

Many spare parts are also listed and can be ordered at iFixit

Of course, if you still need help with your repair, you’re welcome to continue using the VAUDE Repair Shop services. Find out more