DIY: How to Patch a Burton Down Jacket

December 07, 2019

If you’ve got a hole in your jacket, don’t throw it out – patch it! Follow these easy steps to extend the life of your gear.

But first, a few facts: Most of our outerwear and apparel comes with a limited lifetime warranty. This means that your Burton outerwear is covered under our warranty for the lifetime of its intended use. If you'd like to submit a warranty claim, all you need to do is contact our Burton Guides team via phone, email, text or chat and we can start the warranty process for you.

That said, you may find yourself in a situation where you'd rather patch your jacket yourself than have the Burton team handle it for you. An in-home fix can be beneficial for many reasons:

Environmentally friendly: You will cut down on carbon emissions sending your item to and from Burlington, VT.
Quicker repair: Once we receive your item, we guarantee we'll assess it within 48 hours and let you know if it's covered and what the plan is. Repairs typically take 3-4 weeks but can be longer during the peak winter season.
Personal Accomplishment: Show off that patch with pride - you did it!

In all, less than 1% of our goods come are sent back to our warranty team, so we do hope you never have to use this guide. But if you do, we're here for you.

You could have snagged your jacket on a tree, chairlift, fence, wild dog, anything really! No matter how it happened, we are going to get it fixed.

Step 1: Clean up the area you’re going to patch with isopropyl alcohol. Make sure it dries.

Rubbing alcohol, masking tape, and Tenacious Tape.

Lightly dab the tear with rubbing alcohol - just enough to make sure the area is clean of any debris or dirt.

Step 2: Pat with a bit of masking tape to clean up loose feathers/material.

Pull out any loose feathers to give yourself a clean workspace.

Step 3: Cut a patch shape of technical jacket repair tape and make sure there is a 1/2" overlap with undamaged material on all sides.

Stick it on with pressure from the center outward to eliminate air bubbles. We’ve used Tenacious Tape.

Determine how much tape you need to use - save the rest of it for another repair.

Cut the tape to match the shape of the tear in your jacket.

Double check the size and positioning of the tape before you stick it on.

The end of step 3 should look something like this. Note: you could stop here if you're traveling or don't have access to a sewing machine - or continue on for a full patch.

Step 4: Cut a piece of technical fabric down to size, turn under 3/8” seam allowance on all sides and pin it into place.

You can generally find ripstop nylon or Cordura at a fabric store, or look online for specialty waterproof fabrics, including GORE-TEX®. We recommend you go for a fun pattern or mismatch, but you may be able to find a color close to your original jacket.

Measure out the amount of fabric you need.

Track down some pins - they should be in your desk drawer or a random tin box somewhere.

Step 5: Sew by hand with a running backstitch or straight stitch by machine.

Line everything up and pin it into place.

At this point your jacket pretty much looks like a voodoo doll of a jacket you don't really like.

If you have access to a sewing machine, this is the quickest and most effective way to keep your patch in place.

Use a straight stitch if you use a sewing machine, if you're hand stitching, use a running backstitch.

That’s it! Congrats, you’ve just extended the life of your gear.

Why would you ever throw out a jacket when you could fix it so easily?

For more information about repairing your gear and our warranty policy, check in at your nearest Burton flagship store or give our Burton Guides a call at 1-800-881-3138 (US & Canada).

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