Review of Bedale repair and reproofing by Green Mountain Reproofing

OK, I understand that some of you may be sick of me talking about reproofing my Barbour jackets. If so, you may want to check back for an update tomorrow. If you're not, here is the review of my experience with Green Mountain Reproofing that I first mentioned a little less than a month ago. I'm providing a time line to give you an idea about my experience with the turn-around time.

I mailed my jacket off on Saturday, November 14th and got a call from Ken Bissonette at Green Mountain the following Friday. Ken went over everything that he saw on my jacket, gave me prices, and asked what I would like to have done. I had a hole on the front, a hole on the left sleeve, and several holes and a tear on the right sleeve. Ken quoted me $8 per for the holes on the front and left sleeve, and then $15 to fix the whole right sleeve. I thought this sounded pretty reasonable, and was not nearly as bad as I had thought that it might be. I also had them reproof the jacket as it sorely needed it. Ken said that it would probably take around two weeks and that I could go ahead and send a check.

With the following week being Thanksgiving week, things got pretty crazy and I never got a chance to mail the check. Ken followed-up with an email on the 29th and said that my jacket was ready and that as soon as he received a check, he would ship it to me. The total, with repairs, reproofing, and return shipping, came out to $72.90. I finally got a check mailed that Monday, and received the jacket the following Monday, December 7th. All-in-all, it took about 25 days from the time I shipped the jacket to the time it arrived at my house. This could have probably been shortened by at least a few days (if not a week) if I had mailed the check when Ken initially called so that the jacket could have been shipped as soon as it was done, so that's on me. Overall, though, I'm pretty pleased with the turn-around time, especially after hearing horror stories about people shipping their jackets to Barbour in the fall and not getting them back til December or after the New Year.

Below are some pictures of the jacket after about a week of wear. I've got to say, when I first pulled it out of the box, I was blown away by the reproofing job as it looked like a brand-new jacket (much better than my DIY job).

I then looked to see how the holes were repaired.

You can see how the holes on the front and left sleeve were stitched up. I had no idea what they would look like when they were repaired, but I'm pretty pleased and they are fairly unnoticeable unless someone is really looking.

Now when it comes to the repair of the tear and multiple holes on the right sleeve, when I first looked, I wasn't sure how they were repaired as there was no trace of them and I was a little dumbfounded. Then, upon closer inspection, I realized that they actually sewed a patch onto the sleeve to cover all of the holes and the tear. The matching was pretty impressive, and really, this is something that is hard to notice, and the patch-up job gives the jacket a bit more character and history.

So what is the final verdict? I am most certainly pleased, and definitely feel like it was money well-spent. One can always reproof their jacket themselves, but repairs are best left to the professionals, and the folks at Green Mountain clearly know what they're doing. Even still, the reproofing costs $32.95, and combined with return shipping of $8.95, your jacket comes back looking brand new for just over $40. If you're on the fence, it is my suggestion to go for it. Ken was great to work with and I think that they're doing a great job up there in Vermont. I would really love to see how the process is done and how the professionals get are able to do that perfect reproofing job.

On a bit of side note, while my Bedale was in the "shop," I wore my Beaufort on pretty much a daily basis. After about four weeks of this, though, I realized that I really prefer my Bedale over my Beaufort. While the Beaufort is certainly a good jacket, especially if you are actually out hunting birds, since I am on the shorter side, the Bedale is really a much easier jacket for day-to-day wear for me.