A REPAIR CASE STUDY
We want you to hold on to your frames for as long as possible, whilst all of ours are designed with repairability in mind, accidents can happen that put your favourite frames out of action. That’s why we wanted to go beyond just repairable design, and create a robust repair programme that challenges the industry status quo, takes its insights from real research and offers a service that values the skills behind it. So, we built a custom Repair Cart, fitted with solar panels and all the tools you can think of, to conduct eyewear repairs and engage in conversations and research surrounding repairs in the industry.
We’ve had the cart outside of our Chiltern Street store for a few weeks now, where our designer and head of repairs has been taking in and shaping up battered frames, free of charge for anyone who takes our survey.
These frames came to Alice with a twisted front hinge after being sat on, all too easily done. When the aptly named Knuckles; little plates in the centre of a hinge, get bent they can become fragile, so the best way forward is to replace that whole hinge. Alice starts by removing the temples and lenses, filing down the ends of the rivets, until there is small, flat layer of metal left.
Next the frame front is placed on the rivet press, and a small straight needle pushes the rivets back through the front of the frame. Then a new hinge is placed in the cavity and these rivets are pushed back through the opposite way. Alice then presses the hinge tightly onto the frame.
She then turns on the polishing wheel, much less intimidating than it looks and with very satisfying results, the wheel polishes out any wear and tear to tidy up the frame. After a bit of dusting, the temples are attached and screwed on.
Alice makes this process look easy, but she’s highly skilled and working with frames that are designed to be repaired. If you want to support our repairs program and learn more about this process, visit the link in our bio or stop by in-store to take our survey.
