The 5 R’s

What are the 5 R's?

In addition to "Ride & Share", Picture's brand values also stand for "Protect". The 5 R's form the core of "Protect" and the basis for their sustainability initiatives. With each project, they get closer to their goal: "make sobriety the new cool"

Let's see, what's behind them in detail.

Reduce

Picture's Reduce

There are two sides to this story - on the one hand consumers need to reduce their consumption and on the other hand companies need to reduce their production. These two are closely interconnected and feed back into each other. On Picture's side, the starting points are the following questions:

1. How to make a product that is of the highest quality and durability?
2. How many products do they need to make?

They are not here to sell you a product. Trends don't fit into Picture's concept either. So, they have made it their mission to be exactly the opposite of "all the gear, no idea". What Picture wants to promote is the care and maintenance of your product so that it lasts forever and you can experience many adventures with it.

Need examples? Picture constantly ensures thehigh quality of their products while sizing down on their collection width. In addition, they offer a lifetime repair guarantee and are always open to experiment with new business models

Reuse

Picture's Reuse

Imagine being given an item and being asked to think about "how many uses can this item have? " You have to get creative, right? That's how Picture likes to think about their products. There are multiple ways to use their products. You can wear this jacket while cycling home from work, when walking around a lake, on an intense alpine tour, or even wrapped around freshly baked goods to protect them from the rain. And when someone else receives it from a retailer or as a donation, it can be used again. Think of all the memories that one piece of clothing can hold because of all the reuses.

Reuse isn't just about wearing it again and again... and again. It's also about reusing potentially wasted scraps of fabric to create a collection. As Picture needed to get creative, they created their patchwork collection, a great example for reusing.

They want you to get creative too, and try to give you the space to do so by hosting upcycling workshops. They bring in a bunch of old Picture gear, lots of them still having their best days ahead of them. Then, with partners like Good Loop, they cut and sew it into a new product, like a toiletry bag.

Repair

Picture's Repair

Copy & paste from another article, but that doesn't make it any less important or true! Broke your zip? Had a small tear? It happens to the best of us, as long as you repair it. It doesn't matter if the incident happened 2, 20 or 60 years ago, they really do mean lifetime repair guarantee. "Wearing a garment twice as long would reduce greenhouse gas emissions from clothing by 44%". This is crucial to slowing down the loop and reducing consumption. When something breaks, the logical answer isn't to buy a new one - it's to get it repaired. Since winter 2019, they have made over ~1000 repairs worldwide. Picture has its own after-sales service and is connected to repair centres across Europe and North America.

Find out more about this R here.

Rent

Picture's Rent

Rental is an important and fun R! Skiing, snowboarding, surfing, etc. are fun activities... but they seem to require a lot of equipment to do them. If you would follow the ownership model, you would fill your cupboards, garages and basements with hard and soft equipment. And unless you are a complete addict, you won't get the full use out of every single equipment. Buying a jacket for a week of skiing a year is neither good for your wallet nor the planet. But renting is.

Picture has a lot to say on the subject, as it is one of their favourites. Read more about it on their rental website.

Recycle

Picture's Recycle

If there is no more rescue for the product, the fifth and final R comes into play. If Picture can't reduce, reuse, repair and/or rent and has tried their best, then Picture recycles. Why? Recycling is generally considered to be the least effective, and it doesn't necessarily reduce the amount of stuff in the world.

But it's still vital. It has been on Picture's agenda since day one. Plastic bottles in jackets, that's almost old news to them. They believe in it because it reduces the use of fossil fuels. Picture has developed and expanded what it means to recycle in the textile world. Now they turn pre- and post-consumer (in common language, scraps of fabric and used clothing) into jackets. This is the whole practice behind their Circular Programme.

These 5 R's will continue to grow and flow as Picture continues to innovate on what their three core values (Ride, Protect, Share) mean to them. Both Picture and Blue Tomato can't wait to see what comes next!