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Patagonia Apparel Partners with Ebay

Fashion brands that pride themselves on high quality products could take a page out of Patagonia’s book and get more involved in the second hand sales of goods. Not only is this good for the environment and the brand image, but also good for a company’s wallet.

Patagonia has recently dedicated a section of its website to selling used Patagonia clothing from a direct link to EBay. Customers can visit http://www.patagonia.com/us/ebay/used-gear to see Patagonia products currently on sale. When you click on a particular item, you are then directed to the EBay site and the vendor selling that item.

By partaking in the second hand exchange of its own products, Patagonia effectively maintains control over its brand beyond the first owner of a garment. By associating itself with the second hand trade of these goods, the company gains cultural capital from the longevity of products that the company works so hard to create. Therefore, it makes a lot of sense that Patagonia linked up with eBay to make it easy for customers to find and sell second hand Patagonia clothing.

In the midst of economic worries, used clothing retailers have posted increased profits and customers are looking for better deals and well as utilizing surplus clothing that would otherwise end in downgraded disposal chains. Patagonia does not directly profit from its new eBay shop, but the groundwork is being laid to potentially make monetary gains from the used clothing trade.  

The partnership between EBay and Patagonia is hugely important for the fashion industry, especially when brands encourage quick turnover of style, resulting in clothing that is less desirable the longer it stays in one’s closet. Patagonia apparel does not follow this pattern. The design team creates gear that is sport oriented, timeless in design, with high quality materials and sturdy construction. Patagonia clothing is meant to last. Patagonia is the ultimate “Eco” fashion brand because so few clothing items from this company end up in the landfill and are actually desired as a second hand product.

The use phase and disposal phase of fashion cause the most environmental damage, which is why it is fantastic and revolutionary that outdoor clothing company Patagonia has started to curate its second hand clothing sales on EBay.

Fashion brands are venturing into the territory of sustainable or ‘Eco’ fashion as many consumers are demanding clothing that has less negative impact on the earth and society.

-Katie Bennett

Photo Credits: Clarisse Kambire, 13, a child laborer, center, holds a sack she uses for collecting fair-trade organic cotton, while other laborers work during the day’s harvest in a field near Benvar, Burkina Faso, on Friday, Nov. 11, 2011. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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“In Burkina Faso, where child labor is endemic to the production of its chief crop export, paying lucrative premiums for organic and fair-trade cotton has — perversely — created fresh incentives for exploitation. The program has attracted subsistence farmers who say they don’t have the resources to grow fair-trade cotton without forcing other people’s children into their fields — violating a key principle of the movement.”- Cam Simpson for Bloomberg Market Magazine

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NEWS: House of Holland and Augmented Reality.

Source: Knowyourmobile.com. Author: Ben Griffin

Augmented reality hasn’t quite hit the mainstream, but companies like Aurasma are showing it definitely has an interesting future

Augmented reality has been kicking around in various forms for some time, but it’s a technology that’s only begininning to be fully realised by companies.

Aurasma, which specialises in bringing the technology to life, has teamed up with fashion designer Henry Holland of House of Holland fame to advertise his Spring/Summer 2012 collection in a rather unusual way.

If you happen to have a copy of fashion magazine InStyle UK on hand, you can download the free House of Holland app and then point your smartphone’s camera over the cover of the December issue. After a second or so, the still front cover becomes a video showcasing the brand’s latest clothing, which you can then access via a click of the screen.

Henry Holland, Designer and Creator of House of Holland, said: ‘Aurasma lets me bring a whole new dimension to my print designs. I can see a future where people stop each other on the street and Aurasma each other’s clothes, watching multimedia content that seems to be embedded right in the fabric itself.

‘We need to start thinking about what this new technology means for the way we work with print and the way we as designers communicate our ideas beyond the physical collections themselves.’

Martina King, Managing Director of Aurasma, added: ‘Henry was the first fashion designer to live stream from the runway and also the first to enable viewers to shop the look from the shows. So it is no surprise that he is the first fashion designer to embed Aurasma into his own app and use it to change the way people interact with one of his iconic Spring/Summer 2012 prints.’

We’re sceptical of the engagement you get from reading e-magazines - nothing beats the physical version purely because you will read it cover to cover, nine times out of ten - so the future isn’t necessarily all about apps, but perhaps some sort of hybrid between paper and digital. Aurasma is obviously looking to bridge that gap.

Of course, the problem with using the technology is a bit like that of QR codes: you need to make some level of effort. In the case of QR, you need to hold your phone up to a poster, which isn’t exactly normal practice. Aurasma requires you to do a similar task and also download an app. Both require work on your part as the consumer.

However, unlike QR and other forms of augmented reality, Aurasma is trying to make the whole process as simple as possible. As Holland points out, the idea is one day you could just point your smartphone towards an object and automatically get the information you need - or perhaps don’t need, all thanks to clever image and pattern recognition.

As consumers are becoming more and more tech-savvy, the advertising and marketing behind brands also needs to evolve to hold attention and standout from the crowd. It’s here where companies like Aurasma andMetaio are trying to step-in.

The free House of Holland app can be downloaded now for the iPhone 4, 4S and iPad 2. We assume InStyle UK’s December edition will go on sale very soon, if it’s not already out now.