Australian Hiker

Rating

FabPatch Clothing Patches Review

As a large male I can be a bit rough on my hiking gear and clothing but surprisingly enough I tend not to put holes in any item. When do I put a hole in my hiking gear I will either just put up with it or if it’s bad enough (in my opinion) I will bin it and buy a new item. So when it came time to test out the FabPatch range I thought that I was going to struggle to find some clothing to test out this patches but surprisingly to me I found a black long sleeved merino top that was around 8 years old that had a large ladder just on and below my right elbow and when I really looked closely I found another small hole near the seem next to the left armpit. Both of these are stress points for any piece of clothing as mentioned in the past I would have normally thrown this top away particularly due to the size of the laddering on the arm. Now my wife is a skilled sewer but to repair this large hole it was either going to leave a ribbed seem or more likely going to need a material patch of some type. To replace this top would have cost me AUD $145 RRP and given I had 8 years of heavy use the garment it would usually be approaching its end of life.

Given my age I am familiar with the the old school ‘iron on’ patches that you can source from the fabric stores or online which do work well but that’s only going to help you out when you are at home and have access to an iron. But what happens when you need to do a repair on trail? A minor hole you’ll just ignore and deal with it when you get home but something as large at the laddering in my top (see below) needs to be dealt with.

FabPatch is a ‘no Iron patching system so if you are the middle of the bush you can quickly and easily repair holes of just about all shapes and sizes in your garments or gear is a relatively easy process (Think bandaid). You select the appropriate sized patch, clean the material off as best you can, peel the patch off the backing and press onto the hole you need to deal with. In my case I put a patch both inside and outside (which is what FabPatch recommends for large holes) because the damage to my garment was was so large that I could feel the stickiness of the glue coming through, particularly near my elbow. One thing to keep in mind is that you need to ‘not wash’ your garments for at least three days to allow the glue to fully set.

Colour wise the FabPatch range is limited. The darker colours will blend in but on the really light coloured garments this patches are likely to stand out. In the case of my black top the patches blended in easily. in addition I had to feel around to find where the patches were because I couldn’t feel the patches on my skin.

FabPatch say that their range is designed to last the life of the garment, but given I tend to get more life out of my hiking clothing than most people even if I get a year out of my repaired top I will still be happy

In addition FabPatch do also make their ‘Extreme Range’ which is aimed at tents, packs, boots, and rain gear and for me this is where I really see the benefit of this product. The Extreme Range is harder wearing but also waterproof. Put a hole in a tent fly on a rainy trip and you’d wish you were carrying this product.

FabPatch turns out to be the product you didn’t know you needed it; until you do and my stash sits in a zip lock bag in my first aid kit.

We Like

• An environmentally sustainable product that helps to extend the life of your clothing and hiking gear
• Very easy to use both on and off trail
• Comes in a range of colours

We Don't Like

• You are never going to match every piece of clothing or gear from a colour perspective and in some cases you need to be prepared to ‘stand out’

Best Uses

Great repair option for tents, packs, and clothing

Other options

FabPatch produce a large range of colours as well as. orange of different patches to do different jobs. Pricing ranges between AUD $29.90 and $39.90

Buy One

You can purchase the FabPatch Clothing Patches from Wild Earth

Disclosure: The above link is an affiliate link, meaning, at no additional cost to you, we may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. Please note that our affiliations do not influence, in any way, the independence of our reviews. If we don’t like a product, you’ll hear about it from us!

Investment

AUD $29.90 RRP

FabPatch in packet, Shadow Black colour

FabPatch Clothing Patches black, what’s in the pack?

• 2 x 11 cm X 7.5 cm
• 2 x 7 cm
• 2 x 4.5 cm

Laddered  8 year old merino top. The laddering has occurred just on and below the elbow which tends to be a stress point on any piece of clothing

Laddered arm with internal FabPatch in place

Laddered arm now patched both internally and externally with FabPatch. Please note that I had to enhance the image brightness so it was brighter because the patch disappeared into the black material

And another hole near the armpit seam before patching

Small hole now patched with FabPatch both internally and externally

FabPatch product video

Product video from Fabpatch providing video information

Disclaimer

This review was done by product provided by the Australian suppliers of Fabpatch

Published

3 June 2026

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