The Big Question…Do leather repair kits really work?
This opinion is based on our 40+ years of experience of restoring and repairing leather.
The old adage…”you get what you pay for” is certainly true when it comes to leather repair. The quick answer to that question is, some products do work, most don’t. Yep, that’s the truth. There are really only a few companies on the Internet that sell genuine “professional” leather repair kits and restoration products. The rest are just making a quick buck, selling cheap, inferior products and making claims that simply are not true. Unsuspecting customers wind up wasting money on this junk. We hear this same story over and over again from customers.
You’ll find no shortage of quick-fix repair kits on Amazon, Ebay, Etsy or Facebook. Facebook is littered with videos of many of these types of products, misleading you into thinking that you can professionally repair just about any kind of damage with a tiny tube of colored gel . Again, that’s simply not true. It would be nice if it were. Most of these products are manufactured in China and are essentially the same, if not the exact same product, they’re just packaged differently and sold under a variety of different names.
Then there are “balms” that claim that they “Recolor, Renew, Repair & Restore Aged, Faded, Cracked, Peeling”. They DO NOT. At best, they condition leather. We’ve heard several complaints that if the area treated with these types of balms gets wet, the color comes off. Not good.
Unfortunately, the Internet is so saturated with leather repair kits, how are you to know which one to choose? Well that really depends on your expectations. Do you want a long lasting, invisible repair or will you be satisfied with a mediocre repair that’s temporary and may look just as bad, if not worse, than what you started with?
Examples of a few types of repair products saturating the Internet
(No specific brand or seller)
Photoshopped photos like this one are all over the Internet. We actually were the first to ever show the comparison like this over 20 years ago. Here’s the original and it’s not photoshopped, it’s the real deal. These fly-by-night companies need to stoop to photoshopping images to try to claim that their products will do the same. This photo is a classic example of false advertising. They couldn’t even fake it very well, the two sides don’t even line up.
There is no way that a 20 ml (less than 1 oz) of any product much less a gel or balm would achieve this result.
By all means, if you don’t expect much from a repair product and don’t care how it looks when complete, then one of these may be fine for your project. We suggest that you look at our reviews page to see the kind of damage you can repair using our products. Our photos are real customer photos and not photoshopped.
Magic Mender products:
- Developed for the professional leather repair trade so you can always count on a achieving professional results
- Permanent not temporary so you can count on long lasting repairs
- Will not rub off even if wet
- The latest technology of professional leather repair products available. Our Color Flex is the same polyurethane coating used on new furniture and autos. Please don’t be misled, NONE of the products found on the Internet, other than for aniline leather, are “dye”. They are all coatings.
We are the most experienced and trusted, for 40+ years — 25 years on the Internet.
- Leather repair is our specialty
- Manufactured in the United States
- You won’t be disappointed