GEAR AID Wetsuit Repair Kit with Neoprene Patch, Fix Seams and Tears, Black, 6” x 10"

The girth of my thighs always causes the inseams near the crotch of my pants to wear out before any other wear begins to show. When this area of my neoprene workout pants started to wear thin and make it too embarrassing for me to do floor work when anyone else was around to see my pasty skin or underpants through the ever-widening thin spots, I finally got this patch kit and fixed my pants. It took a little creative maneuvering to get the most out of this patch and get sufficient coverage over the worn spots on account of the contours of the crotchular region I was needing to patch. Here's how I did it: 1. Assess the damage 2. Create a paper template that sufficiently covers the area to be patched 3. Cut pieces from patch material. I used 2 patches for the worn spots in the crotch on both sides (inside & outside) on both the front and back of the pants then used another little piece to cover a small rip on the waistband (not shown here) 4. I don't have a tailor's ham or a mini iron, so I used a piece of scrap fabric and glass-head pins over an old oven mitt to use my own hand to manipulate and hold the material while pressing small areas of the patch with the tip of my large iron 5. Position patch and use glass-head pins on seams to hold in place while ironing 6. Spot iron patch a little bit at a time, covering less contoured areas first then spot iron areas on either side of a pucker (being mindful not to iron a pucker or fold into the pants) 7. Carefully use scissors to snip the patch over the places where the pants are puckering (sorry for the blurry image - it was difficult to hold both the pants and scissors while taking a picture) 8. Spot iron both sides of the snip on either side of the pucker I did this in on both sides of the pants (inside and out) on the worn spots on both the front and back of the pants. It was probably overkill, but I had enough of the patch material for this amount of coverage and I didn't want to risk further wear on either side. The patches held up so well, they outlasted the whole rest of the pants. I would totally use this product in the future if/when I ever again have worn or torn neoprene to fix.

The glue works great, though be careful because it's way thinner and runnier than you expect. Read the instructions and make sure to do both layers, but it was a secure adhesion in modifying my wetsuit. I had to shorten by several inches, cut a wedge to narrow the opening, and then glue the cuff back on. It's a noticeable mend, but no one will be looking that closely at my wrists and ankles. The patching was much harder to work with, it requires much higher heat than they recommend using, and still peels off some. I wanted the patches to cover where the glue was so it wouldn't rub against my skin, which it did ok once I managed to get it to stick onto the neoprene.

Works as advertised. But I have learned a few things that I think are important. 1- Use as small of a patch as possible. This patch is not as stretchy as thin neoprene and caused more tears on my suit around the patch 2- You must wash the area or it will not stick. I thought I could get by with a lil water wash and was wrong, (any wetsuit wash will do)

The neck gasket on my wetsuit had come apart so I had planned on using the cement to glue it back together and use it as a spare. I wanted the patches for the seam points on a new wetsuit I was hemming. Both were great but required a bit of effort. For the iron-on patches, make sure you're using a hard surface (I used a cookie sheet) and if you're working around any seams have some metal tools with rounded or flat surfaces that you can manipulate under the wetsuit to get good contact and pressure with the iron. The cement was fairly easy to use, if not messy. I just needed to set aside time to do it because you have to apply it twice and wait 5-10 minutes in between. I had a few tears to fix so this took a while. The cement worked well for rejoining the tears but it wasn't great for trying to glue the neoprene to the lining that it had separated from. I decided to use the iron on patches instead, which worked like a charm. Ironing took a bit of effort around the seams because they're raised which makes it tough to get the right pressure in all the spots. I used a cookie sheet under the main parts and some metal tools (screwdriver and wrench) under the wetsuit to get good contact. You'll see from the photo that I ended up patching in a few places and if I were to do over again, I would've cut the piece much bigger to go OVER the seams instead of trying to butt up against them. Still would've needed the tools to get good adhesion on both sides of the seam but at least if one side wasn't adhering well, it was also still attached on the other side. On my new wetsuit, I used small pieces to seal the seams after hemming the legs. Since these went over the seam, they also took a bit of doing with the iron but had enough practice with the neck gasket repair that I got the hang of it

I love GEAR AID's products. I'm into many outdoorsy activities and their products have rehabilitated tons of my most loved gear. This product is not appropriate for neoprene wetsuits, and is therefore a dud for my use case. The problem is that the material is not stretchy. I surf daily and wetsuit seam failure is a common occurrence. The seams that fail are always the ones that get stretched and strained the most. If you apply this tape to those places, it will eventually start peeling off no matter how thoroughly you iron it. The neoprene tries to stretch, the patch material won't, and the adhesive will start to fail within a couple uses. There are other iron-on neoprene patches on Amazon made from stretchy material. Try those instead.

I bought this to repair an old wetsuit with a torn seam. I was a little trepidatious after reading the reviews, which had conflicting instructions. In the end, I pretty much followed the instructions that came with the repair kit exactly, with a few tweaks. Here's what I did: -- Cleaned area with rubbing alcohol beforehand and let it dry completely -- Made sure wetsuit was on a flat surface with NO WRINKLES (this is more important than people emphasize - if your wetsuit is not completely flat, the patch will not totally adhere to wrinkles and I have a feeling it could mess up the whole patch) -- Cut material with rounded corners and plenty with plenty of room to spare -- Turned iron up to Wool setting (not Synthetic/Delicate like the instructions say - I did Synthetic first and the material didn't seem to quite be adhering. I changed it to Wool and then I started seeing the extra glue glistening around the edges (shown in pic) and it seemed much more secure) -- Used the ironing paper that came with the kit. I didn't use a towel as others suggested. I thought that would reduce the heat too much, especially if you used the Synthetic/Delicate setting! -- Held it down as hard as I could for 10 seconds at a time, then repositioned the paper and iron. -- There were several wrinkles in my wetsuit and this is where I would caution you. If you have a section that doesn't quite lay flat, I would recommend cutting separate pieces of the patch material, as many as you need for each piece to lay flat. I ended up snipping little gaps in the patch to allow each piece to lie flat, since the material was stretched over a wrinkle in my wetsuit and I'm worried it could become a new hole. All in all, this was pretty quick, easy to use and the patch seemed to be adhered well. If you're reading this, assume I'm surfing toastily ever after. I'll update this review if not!

Works great on leggings, especially on the inseam. Also works great on thin stretchy material and stretch jeans. I have washed the clothing multiple times and dried them in the dryer, and I haven't had any issues.

When I first used this to mend two pairs of bikes shorts, the first application failed. After the first ride, the edges peeled up. Using a smaller patch on the second pair, they've withstood several rides and one washing. I re-ironed the patch on the original pair and the patch seems to be holding. We'll see when I wash them. Would have given this a one star, but I stuck with it and have had some success.