What this tool is, and who it is for
Cost per wear is the most useful single number in gear economics and the one most people never calculate. This tool accepts up to three products and projects the lifetime cost per use, including purchase price, expected maintenance and resale value. It also flags when a planned repair is more expensive than its replacement, which is the threshold consumer behaviour research identifies as the point at which most people stop repairing. Use it before the next big-ticket purchase, not after.
Repairs, re-proofing, parts.
Repairs, re-proofing, parts.
Repairs, re-proofing, parts.
For the single most likely failure, usually the zipper.
Mid-range shell across 240 wears.
Step-by-step user guide
How to operate the calculator in your browser, what to enter, and what to do with the result.
- 01
Enter up to three products with purchase price, expected service life in years and annual use in days or wears.
- 02
Add expected annual maintenance — re-proofing, drying, professional cleaning — and any one-off repair costs you anticipate.
- 03
Enter an estimated resale value at the end of the ownership period. Use a conservative figure: auction results, not the price you hope for.
- 04
Read the cost-per-wear and annual cost columns. The product with the lowest per-wear figure wins on raw economics.
- 05
Use the break-even field to plan the time horizon at which a more expensive product becomes cheaper, and decide whether that horizon matches your likely use.
What the calculator actually does with the numbers you enter
- 01
Cost per wear is total ownership cost divided by the number of times the item is actually used, which requires an honest estimate of annual use.
- 02
Total ownership cost is purchase price plus cumulative maintenance and repair, minus resale value at the end of the period.
- 03
A repair is flagged as economically irrational when its cost exceeds roughly 40 percent of replacement price, the threshold at which consumer behaviour research shows people replace rather than repair.
- 04
Break-even analysis compares two products by solving for the number of wears at which their cost-per-wear curves intersect.
Published sources behind the formulas
- [1]Repairability index framework and repair economicsMinistère de la Transition écologique (France) · 2025
- [2]Product lifetime, repair behaviour and consumer decision makingEuropean Environment Agency · 2025
- [3]Second-hand resale market data for apparelThredUp Annual Resale Report · 2025
Frequently asked questions
Short, sourced answers to the questions readers send us most often about this calculator.
What counts as wear?
A wear is a single use in the conditions the item is designed for. For a shell, that is a wet-weather outing; for a sleeping bag, a single overnight. Using a shell at a festival once is still a wear, but its wear-cost is misleadingly low relative to a synthetic jacket worn weekly.
How do I value gifts?
Use the price you would have paid for an equivalent item. The cost-per-wear calculation is about your opportunity cost, not the recipient's generosity. If the gift replaced a planned purchase, the answer is the price of the item you would otherwise have bought.
Should repairs count?
Yes, when they are realistic. Routine maintenance — re-proofing a shell, replacing zipper pulls, resoling boots — counts. Catastrophic repairs after unusual damage — a hole from a fall — should be treated as a separate incident, not as a baseline cost.
How accurate is the formula?
It is accurate in proportion to the quality of your inputs. Honest annual use and resale values produce honest outputs. Round numbers produce round numbers back. The tool is honest about being only as good as the figures you enter.