Mending isbetter than endinG 7,122 REPAIRS IN 2022!

Clothing, sleeping bags, tents, packs, equipment – our repairs are famous across the industry.

Meet Viri! She’s one of our Repair Heroes in our Keswick store. She’s been hacking, patching and sewing your kit for 4.5 years. Viri’s awesome.

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Back when we opened our store in Keswick, I joined as store staff. As soon as our Repair Station opened, I jumped at the chance to join. I was always a crafty kid. I love doing stuff with my hands, being creative, recycling, upcycling, repairing and thinking sustainably. Repairing kit means we can keep it going for longer and keep it out of landfill.

What do you repair the most?

Keswick is famously dog friendly. And thanks to all those dogs hunting around for treats in their owners’ pockets and chewing up their gear, we get a lot of kit sent in for repair. Living in the Lake District means we get plenty of wetsuits sent in too. If you’ve got nails and a wetsuit, you’ll know the struggle.

What’s the most difficult thing to repair?

Some repairs seem easy until you start sewing! Like rucksacks – they’re too three-dimensional to alpkit.com/pages/returns fit easily under a sewing machine. Another tricky thing is that not everything is going to look seamless. Some of our favourite repairs are the visible ones, where they’re a real feature. It makes for a better story to tell, anyway.

What’s the best thing you’ve repaired?

Oh, we’ve had so many great ones! Last year, we had a customer come in who’s an amputee. He was about to embark on a two-month cycling and swimming adventure. But he needed neoprene stump socks for cycling and swimming. He has no feeling in his stump and kept getting injured. We made everything from recycled materials, including a Cordura panel on the inside of his cycling sock to prevent damage from the chain.

Bring in your gear to any Alpkit store to get it repaired. From the big fixes to the small wins, our Repair Heroes keep gear going, going, going…

We now offer reproofing and relofting in all our stores, so breathing life back into your favourite gear has never been easier. But if the time has come to part company, for whatever reason we can help. We’ll always reuse products where possible. But when we can’t we will recycle them. We’re working with Re:Down to turn your old down products into something new. The down gets graded and reused in jackets, sleeping bags and duvets. It’s incredibly hard to recycle down duvets in the UK. Hardly anyone accepts them – we didn't used to do duvets but now, yes we do do duvets. Bring your gear for reproofing or relofting, or donate your old down-filled gear for recycling into an Alpkit store or send it by post, free through the Alpkit Return Process.