Ever get sick of buying new gear? Does your gear get torn up as much as mine does? I know you street hockey guys especially know what I’m talking about. So far I’ve been fortunate enough to only go through two pairs of shin guards, one pair of gloves, and a pair of elbow pads in the past three years of playing once a week. Although my gear is incredibly smelly by now, it is still hanging in there. As far as the shin guards, all it took was a little bit of duct tape to mend them up after they cracked. However, my gloves took a little more TLC to last this long.
I noticed that my gloves kept getting small holes after 3 -4 weeks of play. The holes eventually got big enough for me to feel the tape on the top of my stick. As weeks went on, my finger started poking through small (dime- to quater-sized) holes which was really annoying. If you’ve read any of my other posts, you probably get that I am kind of cheap when it comes to gear that I know I’m going to be thrashing up anyway, so I needed a cheap fix. I didn’t want to use hockey tape because that only lasts a few games, plus I didn’t like the sticky feeling on my hands while gripping my hockey stick. After a couple months of trying different things, I finally came up with a solution. Patches. 
One problem with this quick fix: I couldn’t find any patches (similar to the suede-style material) meant for hockey gloves. When I finally came across something that was similar it had a weak adhesive on the back that wasn’t worth wasting the $2.00 to have it come off the next time I played. So… I manned up and went to the local craft store. I found a material in their Vinyl section called “Spradling”. The material said it has 100% PVC face with 100% mesh backing. The color I chose was “White Whisper”… go figure. I purchased a foot or two of the material for $22.00/yard. I know this may seem expensive, but you will get a TON of patches from a small amount of material. I also purchased some black “Outdoor Strength” thread for around $3.00 to sew the patches on.
Go to the craft store? SEW?? I know what you’re thinking…how can I be as cool as you? It’s OK, just because I’m an Eagle Scout and I earned my sewing merit badge many years ago doesn’t mean you can’t do this too. Don’t worry, it is VERY easy to sew the patches on. The last thing I needed was a bottle of super glue that I found at the local dollar store for, you guessed it, a dollar (for a 2 pack).
As you can see below, all you will need is the material previously mentioned, a pair of scissors, a sewing needle, and thread.
Step 1: Making a Patch
- Eyeball the size (and shape) of patch you will need to cover the hole. It is important to add an additional 1/8th of an inch -or so- to each side to make sure you have enough room around the hole for the thread to attach.
Step 2: Needle and Thread
- Cut a rather long piece of thread from the spool. Loop it through the needle and tie the ends together.
Step 3: Sew the Patch
- Align the patch so it is centered over the hole. Stick the needle through the patch first then stick the needle through the glove.
- Make sure to only poke the needle through the area around the hole. You will also be going around the hole (rather than looping the thread from the outside then back into the hole and up.
- Continue this until you have completely bordered the patch.
- You will want to end with the needle pointing toward you (rather than inside the glove). This will make it a lot easier to tie off the thread.
Step 4: Finishing the Patch
- Once everything has been sewn together, you will have two ends of thread poking up.
- Take the super glue and put one drop over each of the knots where you tied of the thread (for your first and last stitch). This is done so that the thread will not fray or come undone.
- Let the glue dry and you are ready to play.
- Below, I provided a picture of the gloves I’ve been using for the past three years so you can see how many patches I’ve put on over the years. This should give you a good idea of what the finished patch should look like.
If you want to go even more extreme you can replace the whole entire palm of the glove. I would suggest against that though. I have been working on a pair of gloves for a year or so that both need the palms replaced. This not only takes a lot of time, but takes a great deal of patience. I would HIGHLY suggest just maintaining your gloves and have 5 or 10 patches on the palm rather than having to replace the whole palm or even a finger or two.
I will try to make an update if ever I eventually get those gloves done so you guys can see how they look. Let me know how it goes for you and if it was worth your time or money. I figure a $10.00 investment now could prevent you from having to spend $100s on gloves in the future.
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Tags: gloves
Any hints for what to do when the otherside of the gloves rip enough that the “foam” inserts in the fingers start coming out?
its called, a new pair of gloves.
There are patches (cloth, denim, etc) that you can probably find at any craft store. There are usually two (iron-on) patches per pack. They usually cost around $3 per pack. You can do one -or both- of two things. First you’ll want to cut the patch into the size you need it. Second you can either just iron on the patch OR you can sew the patch on. If you want to make sure it sticks even better do both things mentioned in the second step.
If you still have all the cloth around the foam, simply use super glue. It will adhere just about any surface on your gloves to any other surface on you gloves. The stuff that works best -for me- is the stuff I’ve found at a dollar store. It is a yellow and white bottle with a red top. You may want to rough up each surface before you glue them together.
I use Shoe Goo to fix small holes in the palm. It works pretty well and there is not a lot of labor involved. If the thread has come out of a seam, I use Tear Mender. It is a little bit thinner than the Shoe Goo, and holds well.
Dude, thanks for the article. I didnt even think of using patches, or getting material from craft store. Thanks!
Thanks for the tips! I ended up using a patch of soft leather because I couldn\\\\\\\’t find the Spralding vinyl at my local craft store.
I started stitching my palm holes and thumb holes last night. They held up great!
Regarding the foam inserts and rips on the other side: what I did was bought a foam hand and cut the pieces into similar shapes as the foam inserts that came out over the last few months then just directly stitched the gloves with no extra material with the outdoor strength (100% polyester) thread. The areas where I need more material I will just add a patch like I did on the palm but this will take
More time and patience. Perhaps vinyl will be best in this area.
You can buy small sheets of craft leather at most craft stores (Michael’s, for example). I’ve fixed several palm and finger holes by cutting a patch and gluing it around the edges. I use gel-type superglue, and have never had a patch come off or wear through. I recommend gluing patches to the palms of gloves even before they wear through.
I tried to buy a nice Suede Leather patch, but they are very expensive at Amazon.com. Mostly about $20. So I went to Walmart and bought a pair of Suede Leather garden gloves (e.g. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Premium-Suede-Leather-Palm-Work-Glove/38236324) for about $3 which has plenty of very strong Suede Leather. Much cheaper ;-))
Hi guys!
I have some leather scrap that I plan to use for patching my gloves as described here. I have an issue, that I cannot push my needle through the leather patch. I tried different size needles, but no luck.. A leather specific needle is on the other hand too thick so it would tear apart my gloves.. What is an ideal thickness of the patching material? Any tricks for sewing technique? Thanks in advance!