KORE Re-Hub To Attend Revy Re-Fest
Every year, 39,000 tonnes of unwanted clothing from around the world are dumped into the arid Atacama Desert in Chile. That’s enough fabric to fill over 30 Olympic-sized swimming pools and that number only takes into consideration clothes; who knows how many used ski boots, tents, and other gear are thrown into landfills annually.
The goal of the Revy Re-Fest is to help curb this waste. Launched in May 2023 by Leah Evans, the founder of Girls Do Ski, the two-day festival in Revelstoke is “all about repairing gear and keeping it going,” she says. Inspired by the global-movement of repair cafés, Evans pitched the idea about a local repair and reuse event to Patagonia and the company came on board as the primary sponsor. It sent it’s repair truck to be on site and Evans says about 6,500 people attended over the two days.
Patagonia is unable to support the second-annual event May 25-26, 2024 and so KORE is stepping in and hosting a Re-Hub Repair Pop-Up on both days. The pop-up will feature the sewing and repair expertise of Hannah DeBoer-Smith from OG Repairs in Nelson and Jasmine Loh of Kimberley. Both women have experience repairing technical clothing as well as packs, bags, tents, sleeping bags and shoes. They work with nylon, polyester, neoprene, leather, wool, fleece, webbing and PVC among other materials and have repaired gear used for paddling, camping, hunting, running, hiking, forestry, winter and ski activities.
Aside from the KORE Re-Hub Repair Pop-Up, the following other events and experiences will be offered at the 2024 Revy Re-Fest:
“It’s so great that KORE and the Re-Hub will be onsite for this year’s event,” Evans says. “It’s my goal to make the 2024 Re-Fest more interactive, more tangible. Especially given our economy right now, I think it’s important that people interact, trade and get inspired to think about quality and about local initiatives and businesses.”
For more about the Revy Re-Fest, visit re-fest.com.
The KORE Re-Hub initiative is made possible by the provincial government’s REDIP grant that supports projects promoting economic diversification, resilience, clean growth opportunities, and infrastructure development throughout rural BC. For more about the grant and the other KORE initiatives it will help support, read our “Kore Awarded REDIP Funding” story.