United Repair Centre London

United Repair Centre London (URC London) is a social enterprise that provides high-quality clothing repair services to leading apparel brands in Europe, while creating employment and training opportunities for people who face challenges in finding work, such as refugees, young adults, and other job seekers with a distance to the labour market.

What URC London does

URC London is a collaboration between United Repair Centre, an Amsterdam-based circular textile manufacturing solutions provider, Fashion-Enter, a British non-profit apparel manufacturing training academy, and Patagonia, an outdoor clothing brand that is committed to environmental and social responsibility.

URC London operates as a one-stop shop for circular solutions, offering multiple services such as repair, recommerce, and upcycling. URC London also leverages data to provide valuable insights into product development, sustainability metrics, and compliance with upcoming reporting standards.

URC London works with brands and customers to extend the life cycle of clothing items and reduce textile waste, which is one of the major environmental challenges of the fashion industry. URC London follows a simple process to facilitate the repair service:

• Customer buys a clothing item from a trusted brand or company.
• Product is used and needs repair.
• Customer contacts the brand and sends the clothing item to URC London.
• URC London receives the clothing item and makes the repair.
• URC London sends the clothing item back to the customer.

How URC London is sustainable

URC London is sustainable in both environmental and social aspects. By repairing clothing items, URC London helps to prevent them from ending up in landfills or incinerators, where they would emit greenhouse gases and contribute to climate change. Repairing also saves resources such as water, energy, and raw materials that would otherwise be used to produce new clothing items.

URC London also creates social impact by addressing the issues of social exclusion and unemployment that affect many people in the UK, especially those who have migrated from other countries or have faced barriers in accessing education or work opportunities. URC London provides training and employment opportunities to these people, giving them the skills and confidence to work in the textile industry and beyond.

URC London's motto is "Repair is the new cool", which reflects its vision of creating a world where everyone and everything can thrive and co-exist in unity. URC London believes in the power of circularity and inclusion, and strives to make it easy for brands and customers to achieve their circularity goals.