A small tear, a sticky zip or a frayed cuff feels like the beginning of the end for a jacket. Usually it’s nothing of the sort. Most outerwear fails one component at a time, and most of those components can be fixed for a fraction of the price of a new jacket.
What can you fix yourself?
- Small tears and holes. Clean the area, round the corners of the patch and use an iron-free repair tape or patch made for technical fabrics, on the outside and ideally the inside too. Do it early, before the tear spreads.
- Sticky zips. Clean the teeth with a soft brush and warm water, then use a zip lubricant. A slider that won’t close the teeth is often worn, not broken, and can sometimes be replaced on its own.
- Frayed cuffs and hems. Trim loose threads and seal them before they run. A tired hook-and-loop tab can often be replaced.
- Lost toggles, cord locks and pullers. Cheap, easy and often available from the brand.
When should you use a professional repairer?
If the job involves the main zip, seam tape, the membrane, or anything that needs re-stitching through a waterproof layer, hand it to someone with the right kit. A badly done home repair on a seam can let in more water than the original damage. Many brands now run their own repair services or work with specialist outdoor repairers, and it’s worth asking before you assume a jacket can’t be saved. Patagonia’s Worn Wear and Rab’s own repairs service are two examples of brands that will fix their kit rather than replace it.
Brand spotlight
Dope Snow: fix the small things first
Most ski jackets do not fail all at once.
More often it starts with something small. A cuff begins to fray, a zip gets temperamental, a popper loosens or a tiny tear appears after an encounter with a ski edge, tree branch or chairlift.
None of those things necessarily means the jacket is finished.
That distinction matters, because technical outerwear is made up of a lot of individual parts and one worn component can make an otherwise perfectly good garment feel far older than it really is. If the fabric is still sound, the seams are holding and the jacket is still keeping the weather out, there is every reason to look at repair before replacement.
Dope Snow has been taking that approach with free repair guidance and access to spare parts for some of the more common problems owners are likely to encounter.
The Swedish brand began in 2008 and officially launched in 2009, building its name around colourful, relaxed ski and snowboard outerwear aimed particularly at resort and park riders.
That kind of clothing gets used hard. It is pulled on for repeated chairlift laps, park sessions, snowy walks through resort and long travel days, then stuffed into bags, lockers and car boots before doing it all again.
After enough use, wear is inevitable.
The important thing is working out what sort of wear you are looking at.
A scuff may be purely cosmetic. A zip pull can fail while the rest of the zip remains perfectly usable. A small tear can often be dealt with before it becomes a larger one. Even when a job is beyond a straightforward home repair, it may still be far easier to fix than to replace the whole garment.
That is where having access to proper repair information and the right spare part can make a real difference.
Skiers already think this way about much of their equipment. We repair bases, sharpen edges, replace worn buckles and have boots adjusted rather than throwing them away at the first sign of a problem. Outerwear deserves much the same treatment.
There is also something quite satisfying about keeping a favourite jacket going.
A neatly patched tear or a replaced component may mean it no longer looks box-fresh, but ski clothing is supposed to acquire a bit of history. If it still fits, still works and still does the job in bad weather, a small repair can be a much better outcome than starting again.
The bigger change is simply learning not to confuse visible wear with the end of useful life.
Before retiring a jacket, it is worth looking closely at what has actually gone wrong. Quite often, the answer is less dramatic than it first appears.
FIND OUT MORE:
How to repair waterproof garments at home
Brand spotlight
Patagonia Worn Wear: before you buy another jacket
Most skiers know the moment when a favourite jacket starts to look as though it has seen better days. A zip no longer runs quite as smoothly, a cuff is beginning to fray or there is a small tear where a ski edge, backpack buckle or tree branch has finally taken its toll. The fabric is still doing its job, though, the jacket still feels right and there are clearly plenty more days on the mountain left in it.
For years, that would often have been the point when thoughts turned to replacing it.
Patagonia has spent a long time arguing for a different approach through its Worn Wear programme, encouraging people to look after what they already own, repair it when something goes wrong and keep it in use for as long as possible.
It sounds obvious, but ski clothing rarely gets an easy life. Jackets are dragged through airports, stuffed into lockers, scraped against chairlifts, worn under packs and exposed to everything from dry powder to wet snow, sleet, sweat and spring sunshine. Then, at the end of the day, they are often hung over a radiator or bundled into the back of a hire car before the whole process begins again.
After enough winters, even very good outerwear will start to show it.
The first thing worth remembering is that tired-looking and worn out are not the same thing. Technical fabrics can lose some of their surface water repellency while the waterproof membrane beneath is still perfectly sound, and a jacket that looks rather flat after several trips may simply need a proper wash and dry rather than replacing.
Patagonia’s Worn Wear advice covers that sort of routine care alongside the more obvious repairs, from torn fabric and damaged components to more involved jobs that are better handled by a specialist.
Some fixes are surprisingly straightforward. A small tear can often be patched before it spreads. A worn component can sometimes be replaced. Cosmetic marks may say more about where the jacket has been than how well it still works.
More often than not, it is one small part that begins to fail long before the rest of the garment is ready to give up.
That is why repair matters.
There is also the question of what happens when an owner simply no longer wants something. Ski clothing is often moved on because the fit has changed, the colour no longer appeals or another jacket has taken its place, rather than because the original garment has genuinely reached the end of its useful life.
Patagonia has pushed that same thinking into resale and reuse, giving older clothing the chance to carry on with someone else rather than being left hanging at the back of a wardrobe.
None of this feels particularly revolutionary, which is probably part of its appeal. Skiers have always repaired things. Edges get sharpened, bases get patched, bindings get serviced and boots get worked on until they fit properly. Treating clothing in much the same way makes a great deal of sense.
A good jacket should be expected to survive the life we give it.
Increasingly, the real measure of technical outerwear is not only how impressive it feels when new, but how well it can be cared for, how easily it can be repaired and how many winters it can keep going before replacement genuinely becomes necessary.
Before buying another one, it is worth taking a proper look at the jacket already hanging in the cupboard. It may be faded around the shoulders and carrying a few stories in the fabric, but there could still be a lot of skiing left in it.
FIND OUT MORE:
Patagonia Worn Wear
The takeaway
Fix a zip or a tear rather than binning the jacket. As Dope Snow puts it, visible wear is not the end of useful life, and one worn part rarely means the whole jacket is done.
Frequently asked questions
Can you repair a ripped ski jacket?
Yes. Small tears and holes can be patched at home with a repair patch made for technical fabrics. Bigger tears, or anything involving the seam tape or the membrane, are better left to a professional repairer or the brand.
How do you fix a sticky ski jacket zip?
Often it just needs the teeth cleaning with a soft brush and warm water. If the slider has worn and the zip splits open behind it, the slider can usually be replaced. A broken main zip is a job for a repairer.
Do ski clothing brands repair jackets?
Many do. Dope Snow, Patagonia and Rab all offer repair support, and plenty of other brands run repair services or sell spare parts. Check the brand’s website before paying for an independent repair.
Keep reading in Buy Less, Ski More