I thought those little gear repair patches were a waste of money until my tent ripped in Yosemite

I got a small tear in my rain fly from a branch during a trip last spring. My buddy had a pack of Tenacious Tape patches and made me use one. I figured it was a temporary fix, but that patch held strong through three more trips and some serious rain. It's been six months and you can barely see where the rip was. Has anyone else had a piece of gear saved by something they didn't think would work?

3 comments

3 Comments

anthonygarcia2mo ago

My sleeping bag has a duct tape patch from 2019 that looks like a fossil. It's outlasted the actual fabric around it. At this point, I'm afraid to remove it because it might be the only thing holding the whole bag together.

shah.matthew2mo ago

Man, I was the same way. I used a cheap roll of duct tape on a sleeping pad puncture as a joke, basically. That was two years ago. The pad still holds air, and the tape is this weird, petrified gray lump. I look like a real gearhead genius, but it was pure laziness.

umamoore2mo ago

That's the real pro move right there. My fancy repair kit is still sealed in plastic because a strip of gorilla tape fixed my pad in 2018. It's now a permanent part of the design, like some weird industrial art project. The best gear solutions are always born from not wanting to walk back to the car.