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 “buy better”
• We discuss how care and repair can become part of the core customer experience
• Barry and Nancy explore the role of technology in enabling, not replacing, human expertise
• We look at how data from repairs can inform better product design
• Nancy shares her vision for making care and repair aspirational and mainstream

👤 About our guest:

Nancy Rhodes is CEO of Alternew, a platform embedding tailoring and repair into the fashion shopping experience.

After nearly two decades as a footwear designer working with brands ranging from Costco and Target to Beyoncé, Nancy shifted her focus to sustainability, driven by a growing awareness of the waste created by the fashion industry.

Alternew combines AI-powered guidance with a network of repair specialists to help brands support customers beyond the point of purchase, reducing returns, increasing retention, and extending the life of products.

🌍 About HappyPorch

HappyPorch is a purpose-driven software engineering consultancy focused on the circular economy.

Learn more: https://www.happyporch.com

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