Somewhere between TikTok hauls and next-day delivery, we forgot how to fix things. We forgot how to cook without an app and a pre-made box, grow food without a kit, and sew a button back onto a shirt without throwing the whole garment away. Clothing, once stitched with intention (my mother made her own dresses!), has become fast fashion and disposable. And with it, a quiet loss of skill, patience, and care.

Levi’s is trying to reverse that. The brand has launched a new program in high schools that teaches students how to repair, reinforce, and customize their own clothes. It’s a small intervention with big implications.

“At Levi Strauss & Co., we’ve spent more than 170 years designing clothes to be worn and loved for as long as possible. The Levi’s® Wear Longer Project builds on that legacy by giving young people the confidence and tools to extend the life of what they already own,” said Michelle Gass, President and CEO, Levi Strauss & Co. “By building up repair skills within the next generation and emphasizing the idea of durability, we’re helping spark a culture of creativity, sustainability, and pride in taking care of the things we value.”

The idea isn’t new. Many of us remember clothing swaps, community repair nights, and the early sustainability movement that made secondhand feel rebellious and smart. It carried the same spirit as freecycle and the pop-ups that would help women repair their clothes — spaces where fashion stopped being about perfection and started being about longevity. We also love it when people in big cities put clothes out on park benches. Nothing like finding a haul of cosy clothes.

For years, knitting circles, stitch-and-bitch nights, and repair cafés were quietly led by women in their 30s, 40s, and beyond. They weren’t trying to start trends. They were trying to make things last and they enjoyed creating and being together. Now, that knowledge is finally being passed to a generation that understands waste instinctively, but often lacks the tools to act on it.

In the 2010s, greening your wardrobe was pretty easy. But Gen Z doesn’t just want sustainability slogans. They want agency. My daughter is a Gen Z and she can repair jeans with a sewing machine, she can crochet a hat and halter top and she make a bag. Learning how to patch denim, reinforce seams, and turn damage into design gives young people something rare: control over consumption.

“Every year, millions of wearable garments end up in landfills, many taking centuries to decompose. By teaching repair, customization, and sustainable care, the Wear Longer Project interrupts that cycle,” said Alexis Bechtol, director of Community Affairs at Levi Strauss & Co.

Created with Discovery Education, the Levi’s Wear Longer Project brings clothing repair back into the classroom — not as a hobby, but as a core life skill. Through free lesson plans, teacher toolkits, and hands-on workshops, students learn how to sew, hem, patch, and redesign their clothes. The materials are built to fit directly into existing high-school programs for grades nine to twelve, making repair part of everyday learning rather than an after-school afterthought.

New research commissioned by Levi’s found that 41% of Gen Z lack any clothing repair or customization skills — from altering a hem to sewing a custom patch —  compared to less than 25% of older generations who often learned these skills at home or in school. However, 35% of Gen Z say they would keep their clothing for longer if they knew how to alter or repair them. 

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Gen Z may lead the way in thrifting, swapping, and upcycling, but nearly half of those surveyed admitted they don’t know how to fix their clothes. Without repair skills, even the most circular fashion habits eventually collapse back into waste. The company argues that sustainability only works when durability is personal. Knowing how to extend the life of a garment is what turns environmental intention into real impact. Without that knowledge, circular fashion remains a theory instead of a practice.

In other words: you can love second-hand clothes all you want — but if you can’t repair them, they still end up in the bin.

The Levi’s Wear Longer Project is supported by a practical set of classroom-ready repair guides that make sustainability tangible, not theoretical. Students learn how to sew on buttons, hem clothing, patch holes, and fix tears through step-by-step facilitator and student guides designed for hands-on learning. Teachers can find the guides here –– with a version for students and one for teachers.

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A holiday trip to Southeast Asia introduced an American tourist to a rich culture, delectable cuisine, and spectacular architecture. It also gave her a window into a darker side of India. Others may sleepwalk past realities that – if consciously observed – would ruin a holiday buzz. Shannon Keith chose to take notice, and more critically – take action.

Green Prophet loves stories that demonstrate the upside to world travel, trips that reap remarkable results beyond a great tan, much-liked Instagram posts, and a few memorized words in an obscure language. This is one such story where worlds collided, benefiting all involved. 

Keith had heard story after story of women and girls who were sold into sex slavery by their families or picked up off the streets by local pimps. She learned that lack of education, scant resources, and underemployment were key factors in the women’s vulnerability. She returned home from that trip and formed a small team of family and friends. Named Sudara, they looked for groups in India that were working to have a positive impact giving women a way out of prostitution. They were keen to support any initiative that provided safe, steady and living-wage employment; a sustainable pathway to freedom for women and their families.

In 2006, Keith partnered with an Indian sewing center and taught six women how to sew a pattern for loungewear pants her team had jokingly named Punjammies®.  Variant skills made for an interesting first few pair of Punjammies®, which allowed teaching opportunities, and improved techniques. Soon more women were trained as seamstresses, creating an expanding line of Punjammies®, robes and “slouch” pants. Made in India with locally sourced materials, every style is named in honor and celebration of a woman at one of the centers. Every day, stitch by stitch, women are gaining confidence in themselves and in their newfound freedom.

You can support this project by shopping Sudara (website here) where you can buy reasonably priced clothes for kids, men, and women, as well as the original Punjammies®. Sudara also offers jewelry, handbags, and lovely hand-stitched toys.

If you lean less towards acquisition, and more towards philanthropy, consider a donation to the non-profit, Sudara Freedom Fund. This non-profit allows Sudara to have a greater impact on the lives of women and children in India by providing education and housing and micro-loans — tools needed to build and sustain a new life. Most recently, the organization opened the Sunetha Home, which supports long-term, systemic change by directly addressing issues that lead to generational sex work.

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