Repair, Resell, Upcycle How to go circular with your gear
Sustainability
Our goal is to make gear that offers game changing performance with as little impact to the planet as possible.
This process begins by designing gear that’s built to last, using as many recycled raw materials as we can, and by minimizing our energy demands at every step of our production and distribution. By focusing on these critical early stages of a product’s life cycle, it allows us to deliver boards, outerwear and accessories to our dealers and your doorstep that we can all feel good about.
But the impact your gear has on the planet is not just defined by how responsibly we manufacture it or ship it to you. What happens to gear once it’s in your hands, and especially when the gear is ready to retire, also plays an important role in determining the overall impact of a board, jacket or binding throughout its life cycle. The environmental costs of dumping a broken board in the landfill versus turning it into a bench are quite different.
The impact of our gear’s “end-of-life” is an important target in our quest to reduce our carbon footprint because unlike many unavoidable impacts of our manufacturing process, “end-of-life” impacts could be significantly reduced by making the snowboard industry more circular. In a perfectly circular industry, all retired products are turned into other products or resources, and no energy is lost or waste is created. The snowboard industry is still a long way off from being a perfectly circular industry, but we’re doing everything we can to push it in that direction as soon as possible.
This is where we need your help. The only way we can improve the circularity of the gear we sell is if our customers make responsible choices with how they treat and dispose of it. So are you ready to be a part of the solution? Here’s how you can go circular with your Jones gear.
Don't be afraid to wash or repair
The first thing you should question when you're starting to feel like you need a new board or a new jacket is whether or not your gear is really ready for retirement?
If your snowboard’s base is scratched or the edges are dull, get it repaired instead. You’d be surprised how much edge and base damage can be repaired by a professional ski/snowboard tune shop. With a base grind and some TLC, many seemingly dead snowboards can be brought back to life. The best place to get your board tuned is at your local Jones dealer.
Dirty or damaged outerwear can be washed and repaired. If your outerwear is just looking a little dinghy, don’t be afraid to wash it yourself in a standard washing machine. Washing your technical outerwear will actually improve its breathability and waterproofing if done right. Learn how to wash your outerwear by giving our Gear 101 outerwear washing guide a read.
If your outerwear is severely torn or a zipper is broken you’ll want to send it in for repair at a professional apparel repair center.
USA and Canada customers can send their damaged outerwear to Gear re-Store, a GORE-TEX approved repair center with locations in Colorado and Alberta. Check out a Gear re-Store price list for repairs here.
European customers can get their technical outerwear repaired at Green Wolf, a GORE-TEX approved repair center located in Servoz, France at the foot of Mont Blanc.
Customers in other countries should contact their local Jones distributor to find out where the nearest approved repair center is located. This list of worldwide GORE-TEX approved repair centers may also help you track down a repair center.
DIY Repairs: small tears in outerwear can be fixed at home with a waterproof patch. Technical outerwear patches can often be found at your local Jones dealer or you can order patches online from Gear Aid or Noso Patches. Find How to's, instructions and help here.
Give your gear a second life
So what if your gear is not totally dead, but you’re no longer satisfied with its performance and you're ready for something new?
We get it and encourage you to resell any used, but still functional gear that you no longer want on Craigslist, eBay, The RealReal or at a local consignment store.
The USA retailer REI also accepts certain used Jones gear for trade-in. If you’re an REI member and your used Jones gear is in good working condition, you can trade it in for an REI gift card of varying value.
There are also many options for donating your used gear to non-profits. Outside Magazine’s Gear Up, Give Back program accepts donations of all kinds of outdoor gear in the USA.
Snapped the tail off your board or blew apart an edge? Don’t throw that board away! Get creative and upcycle your retired board into something else that’s useful or artistic.
Jones employees have upcycled retired boards to build tables, benches, truck camper shells and even high ropes course obstacles. Upcycling your dead boards and keeping them out of the landfill is one of the best ways to make snowboarding a more circular industry.
How we go circular
It’s inevitable that not every board that starts the manufacturing process is a keeper. Boards with strictly cosmetic flaws are called ‘Blem Boards’. These still perfectly capable boards are sold through specific Jones dealers at a discount. Rejected boards that have a flaw that affects performance are called ‘Factory Thirds’. These boards do not ever see the snow. They do get to rip on the cement though!
We send all of our European warranty boards and factory third boards to NoK, an upcycling company in Grenoble, France that specializes in making skateboards out of reject boards. NoK cuts skateboards out of the middle of a snowboard and then installs new trucks, wheels and griptape. You can find out more about NoK in our Jones Journal story.
We also donate some used and unsold new gear that we get back to ZOM CONNECTION, a Chamonix based organization that brings winter gear to remote Himalayan communities in Pakistan. Jones team rider Julien ‘Pica’ Herry is one of the co-founders of ZOM CONNECTION and he shared how the organization was created in a story on the Jones Journal.
In the future we hope to improve the circularity of the snowboard industry by collecting retired boards and recycling them into new snowboards. Splitting a broken snowboard into its individual components and recycling them is not currently possible at scale, but with advancements in resin and recycling technology it will hopefully be a reality soon. If we could harvest steel edges and p-tex bases from an unrideable snowboard and use them for a new snowboard this would amount to a substantial carbon emissions reduction.
In 2020 we completed a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) that calculated the approximate carbon footprint of every snowboard and splitboard model we sell. This in-depth sustainability analysis covered the complete life cycle of a Jones board, including every stage of its production, distribution and end-of-life. You can learn more about how specific materials or shipping methods affect a snowboard’s footprint in our four-part How Green Is Your Board? report that details the results of our LCA.
How green is your board?
A scientific analysis of a snowboard's carbon footprint
Learn about the environmental impact of a snowboard. We share a life cycle assessment of every production step from raw materials to a board's end-of-life.
Leave a comment if you have any other suggestions for how to go circular with your used Jones gear, and don’t hesitate to contact our Jones Gear Gurus if you have any questions about our warranty program or authorized repair centers.
We’re counting on you to help us improve the circularity of the snowboard industry so please do your best to do your part. Repairing, reselling or upcycling your retired gear is a trick anyone can stick with just a little motivation and creativity.
