Gear patch kits round up, for wear and tear repairs

Having spent all your pocket money on some nice outdoor gear, it can be pretty annoying to put a hole in it. Whether it’s a barbed wire fence, a brush with a rough rock, a crash, or just good ol’ wear and tear, a hole can put a big… er… hole in the functionality of your gear. These days, more and more companies are offering some sort of repair scheme – and you might be surprised at how little some of these can cost. But there are some things we can try and fix at home, so I’ve rounded up a selection of patch kits and damaged gear to see how well they work.

Patagonia Worn Wear Patch Kit

• Price:£23
• From:Patagonia

This is perhaps at the pricier end of the patch kits, but you do get a selection of sizes, including some novelty outdoor sport and animal shaped patches. They’re self adhesive, so you don’t need to iron them on, and they could be applied on the trail.

I had mixed success with these. A first attempt at using a small patch on a down jacket failed after the first wash.

I tried again with a bigger patch, with a second even bigger patch over the first one. This has survived both washing and tumble drying. I think it’s probably wise to use a bigger patch and make sure you’re giving plenty of surface area to stick to your garment’s fabric. Especially with a down jacket, it’s pretty hard to get a good amount of stick, with all that fluff escaping.

I was a little sceptical of the novelty shapes – all those edges seems like a recipe for coming unstuck. However, I used this hawk shaped one on a teenager’s synthetic quilted jacket and it survived a wash and tumble dry with only a slight lifting of edges. I can see that where someone (like a teenager) might feel a bit self conscious about having obvious patches and repairs, the novelty shapes can be useful. It looks more like a decal on the jacket than an actual patch.

Decathlon Repair Self Adhesive Patches

• Price: £5.99
• From: Decathlon

This collection of patches from Decathlon is nicely practical – a mix of sizes to suit a variety of holes, plus some really big pieces from which you can cut your own. Note that it recommends you give your patches rounded edges to avoid them peeling off.

These are a little thinner and stretchier feeling than the Patagonia ones, and I found they could be tricky to apply without getting a wrinkle in the fabric. The glue also seems to leach through a little, giving a slightly sticky finish to any repair that collects fluff. However, there’s so much in the packet and at a fair price that for budget fix-its I found these really useful. They also proved handy for no-sew projects, like attaching magnetic fasteners to fabric. In the wash they’ve stayed put pretty well, and have even done a decent job of holding on in this knee repair. It is peeling off a bit in one corner on the inside patch, but it’s not bad given the high friction and stress you put trouser knees under.

They’re, not as good as the Patagonia patches for subtle repairs thanks to the bright blue colour, but are large and cheap. I think their size and cheapness makes them particularly good for on the go repairs where you might want to limit the damage and do a proper repair later – although they’ll probably stay so well stuck you might never get round to that invisible repair!

Restrap Repair Kit

• Price: £3.99
• From: Restrap

These Restrap patches were not quite what I was expecting – I thought they would be the same stiff canvas material as the pouches they come in. Instead, these are made of quite a soft fabric, and need to be ironed on. For me, this made them tricky to use – many of the items I’d want to repair would melt or burn easily under an iron, or there are tricky seams and edges at play which would get in the way of a neat seal. These are definitely patches for use at home, when you’ve got time and patience. They’re also all quite small, so only suitable for pretty tiny holes. All in all, the wallets they come in are possibly more useful than the patches themselves.

Gear Aid Tenacious Tape

• Price: around £10 a roll
• From: A wide range of outdoor stores

This tape is actually the same stuff the Patagonia patches are made of, but comes in a strip to be cut down to size as needed. It’s easy to use, but the fact it comes in a roll means it’s not as easy to transport as the pre cut patches of others here. Squashing the roll puts creases into it, which at their worst causes the fabric to stick to itself in wrinkles. Of course, if you pre-cut a piece to fit nice and flat somewhere, it’s sods’ law the hole will be bigger than your patch, right? But the same applies to all the patches here. Hot tip: store your roll of tape in one of those containers that hydration drinks come in. You can also buy pre-cut Tenacious Tape patches, but a roll is probably the more efficient and versatile option. It’s available in a few different colours if you hunt around.

Patagonia Worn Wear Repair Roll

• Price:£55
• From:Patagonia

If you don’t already have a sewing kit at home, or you want one for your vanlife set up, then perhaps this is the roll for you. It’s very similar to the tool rolls you get with some riding packs, although this one has some lash points on it so you could strap it on to places for secure transportation, and lacks the tool-oriented spaces like pump storage. It’s also quite stiff and heavy fabric, so I doubt you’d be choosing it for your round-the-world tour. To my mind, it’s missing things like a felt for pins that you’d want from a sewing kit, but it’s not voluminous enough to double up as a bike repair or first aid kit with space for a pump, or bandages etc. With all its pockets and zip sections, I want it to be useful for something but haven’t quite figured out what it works best at. The small Field Repair Kit that’s included is the more useful thing – I’d be inclined to put it into one of the lighter weight tool rolls that come with backpacks, and skip the Repair Roll. You’ll want to top up the included patches too – the ones included are quite small and limited.

Overall, for precious items where you want a ‘nice’ finish, I think the pre-cut Patagonia version of Tenacious Tape is hard to beat. But the Decathlon kit has saved me so much sewing – and is so cheap that it’s allowed me to experiment with it – that I think every household should have one. Since I started this round up, Decathlon has introduced some more patch kits in different colours too, so they’re likely worth exploring. The difference between any of these purpose made patches and the old-school duct-tape solution is night and day. Quit procrastinating and get your gear fixed up!