Leeds running brand EDRA has launched a guarantee, repair and take back scheme, offering customers 20% of the original purchase price towards a future full price buy when kit is genuinely worn out.
The scheme sits inside The EDRA Product Standard, which covers function, quality, material choice and how long a product should last. Repair and end of life are meant to be designed in from the start. EDRA, which launched in Leeds on 29 June with its DROP 1 collection, says the move is also about standing behind what it sells.
Founder Nathan Edmondson, a former professional cyclist who has represented Great Britain in mountain running, said the promise starts before a product is made. “If we’re asking somebody to spend their money on an EDRA product, we should be prepared to stand behind the quality of it,” he said. “We think about its whole life at the design stage, i.e., what it needs to do, how long it should last, whether we can remove unnecessary material complexity, and whether it can be repaired.”
Faults in materials or manufacture are covered for a product’s reasonable useful life, on top of customers’ existing statutory rights. Where kit is damaged through use, EDRA will assess whether a durable repair is practical. Depending on the product and the damage, that may be a repair carried out by EDRA, a home repair solution, or guidance on the most appropriate option.
When a product has genuinely reached the end of its useful life, customers can return it. EDRA will first consider whether it can stay in use. Where that is no longer practical, the company will use the most appropriate recycling or recovery route for the materials involved. Customers then receive credit worth 20% of the price they originally paid, towards a future full price EDRA purchase. A product bought for £50 would be worth £10 of credit.
The same credit is available if a customer can provide suitable evidence that an end of life EDRA product has been responsibly recycled through an appropriate textile recycling route. Kit does not have to be sent back to EDRA where a suitable local option already exists.
EDRA says it is designing with the end in mind, rather than treating circularity as something to deal with only after a garment has been made. It intends to keep using mono material construction where that can deliver the required performance without unnecessary fibre blends. Where a material such as elastane has a real functional job, the brand says it will not remove it simply to make a stronger environmental claim.
Edmondson, who designs every EDRA product himself, said decades of training and competing in outdoor sport in all sorts of weather feed those choices. “Where we can make a product mono-material without compromising it, we will. If a blend is needed for performance, we’ll use it,” he said. A running T-shirt is his example. If the fabric is right, a mono fibre technical material can perform better than a blend, so there is no reason to add another fibre. Shorts and tights are different, because stretch matters and elastane currently earns its place.
The company says the point is not to treat environmental impact as a question of which material appears on the label. Quality, useful life, repairability and end of life options have to be part of the picture too. Repair and continued use take priority where practical. The 20% credit is for products that have genuinely reached the end of their useful life, not an incentive to replace kit sooner.
Here is what the scheme includes:
- Product guarantee: Faults in materials or manufacture are covered for the reasonable useful life of the product, alongside customers’ statutory rights.
- Repair support: Products damaged through use can be assessed by EDRA, with a repair or a suitable home repair solution offered where a durable result is practical.
- End of life take back: Customers can return an EDRA product when it has genuinely reached the end of its useful life.
- Repair and continued use first: Where practical, keeping the existing product in use takes priority over recycling or replacement.
- Recycling or recovery: Where continued use is no longer realistic, EDRA will use the most appropriate recycling or recovery option available for the materials involved.
- External recycling option: Customers who responsibly recycle an end of life EDRA product through an appropriate textile recycling route can still qualify for the credit, where suitable evidence is provided.
- 20% credit: An end of life product earns credit worth 20% of the price originally paid, towards a future full price EDRA purchase.
Edmondson said returned products also create a feedback loop. “If products come back to us because they’ve failed, worn out or are difficult to deal with at the end of their life, we get to see that first-hand,” he said. “That keeps us accountable, but it also gives us information we can take back into the design of the next product. Over time, that should help us make better kit.”
Details of The EDRA Product Standard are on the EDRA website.
