In early June we received an email from a KiteFix customer in the Boston area wondering whether our products could fix his 2007 Cabrinha Switchblade that he had trashed the season before.  We knew we could fix it, but we thought it might be an interesting project to compare the cost and downtime you would experience given the various options out there. 

Here are a couple of the pictures of the kite before it was fixed:

For more pictures of the damaged kite check out our Picasa web album.

We sent the above pictures to the most popular sewing based kite repair shops in the country.  We received estimates on how much it would cost and how long it would take.  We then estimated shipping charges using Boston, Mass as our “From” shipping address.  You can see the results below.

As you can see, a KiteFix solution is at least 3.5x times less expensive and 20x faster than sending your kite away to get fixed!

To repair this kite, we used 2 Ripstop Refill Kits, 1 GluFix, and one roll of Dacron.  Total time working on the kite, including drying time, was about 1/2 day.

Here are a couple pictures of the kite after it was repaired:

To see all the pictures of this repaired kite, check out our Picasa web album.

We decided to write this post not to bash other companies, but rather to hit home the point that if you have “Do it yourself” tendencies, want to save money, and don’t want to miss sessions, than KiteFix is a fantastic solution for permanent, aesthetic kite repairs, even on the most damaged of kites.

Mark Rivers

Sales and Marketing Manager