Repair, Retention and Rethinking Fashion with Nancy Rhodes - Exploring Circular Tech: Technology isn't magic

About this episode

Barry O'Kane speaks with Nancy Rhodes about integrating repair into the fashion industry to enhance customer relationships and sustainability.

What if repair wasn’t an afterthought, but a core part of how fashion works? In this episode of HappyPorch Radio, Barry O’Kane speaks with Nancy Rhodes, CEO of Alternew, a platform embedding tailoring and repair into the shopping experience. Nancy shares how her experience in the fashion industry led her to rethink the role of care and repair, not just as a sustainability initiative, but as a way to improve customer relationships and business performance. Alternew’s approach is to make repair easy and accessible, combining AI-powered guidance with a network of local service providers. The result is a system where brands can support customers beyond the point of purchase, while also gaining valuable insights into how their products are used, worn, and sometimes fail. The conversation also explores the broader implications of this shift, from reducing returns to rethinking how products are designed in the first place. ✨ In this episode: Nancy shares the story behind Alternew and the “invisible pitchfork” that pushed her to build it We explore how repair can reduce returns and increase customer retention Nancy explains why “buy smarter, wear longer” is a more useful framing than…

People in this episode

Host: Barry O'Kane

Guest: Nancy Rhodes

Topics covered

• circular economy
• fashion industry
• repair
• customer retention
• technology

Keywords

• repair
• fashion
• sustainability
• customer experience
• technology

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Alternew

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