Bare Boulder Design & Repair — Local services in Lafayette

Very Nice Guy. Not a Professional.

I came in with a Mystery Ranch bag I use as a cross-body. I wanted to replace the existing webbing with something that adjusted quickly, with one hand and connected with an AustriAlpin Cobra buckle.

For clarity and simplification, I had opened the stitches, measured the webbing, ran it through the 3-bar belt slide, through the buckle, and pinned everything. I pinned EVERYTHING. READY TO GO. I specifically requested bar tack stitches to bind the webbing and additionally to close BOTH points of the bag where the webbing married the bag (and re-sew the nice binding Mystery Ranch uses on all their seams). No time limit. No rush on the job.

The webbing was bound with a standard straight stitch. It's functionally fine, but it looks sloppy and homemade, what I was trying to avoid. And technically it's not as strong a stitch as a bar tack. Worse though, one end of the bag where the strap is married to the bag looks great. The other is literally still pinned, exactly as I left it with him. I had a 50% chance of checking the wrong side of the bag and I ended up looking at the closed end before leaving the shop. (－‸ლ)

He's a very nice guy. I had a loop of cord I wanted sewn into a seam (also pinned) that I hadn't mentioned when we went through the project, point for point... That's right, we walked through what I had requested and he was taking notes! You'd think it would've been noticed in the course of the project, but you'd be wrong. He sewed it in and closed the binding over it in the 10 minutes I was there. I offered to pay, but he didn't charge me. Sincerely very nice of him. But my bag remains unusable.

He would probably marry the webbing with the bag and close the binding for, well, not free, as I've already paid for it, but do it while I waited? But he's 20 minutes away and I don't have an hour I'd rather spend driving and waiting. I have a 4 year old (you know what that means if you know what that means). And I have a sewing machine, and I know how to use it... BUT it CANNOT do a bar tack in the space I needed it and he said he could do that. Verbatim. ¯(ツ)/¯

If it won't be seen and you're not terribly concerned about it's structural integrity, he's your guy. If you need it to look like it came off a factory floor (which, when it comes to "sewing" non-fashion garments, is not a big ask), and you ARE concerned with it's structural integrity, lemme know who you'd recommend because this is NOT your guy.

Very Nice Guy. Not a...

This place is the real deal.

I went in with a dream about taking a hood that would fit a helmet off an old Volcom snowboard jacket that was otherwise falling apart and putting it on my Airblaster 2L Beast jacket(air blaster jackets notoriously does not fit a helmet.) For a long time, I just didn’t have a usable hood on the AB jacket and it just lay there, useless. I kind of just thought it would be crazy to try and put another jacket’s hood on this jacket but when I saw that Bare does everything from alterations to prototypes, I had to at least bring the jackets in and ask. Eli, one of the owners, is so pleasant and helpful and no sooner had I showed him my vision did he have a price and a date when I could come pick it up. As you can see from the pics, Eli definitely understood the assignment. Phenomenal place; fair prices. If you’re an outdoor enthusiast or gear nerd with an idea, bring it in and Eli will work to make it a reality. He also does leather repair and alteration and gear repair. 10/10 experience. Thank you Eli....

I bought my wife a ski jacket at a great sale but even though it was the smallest size available the arms were still too long. I sent in the jacket and some size instructions and Bare Boulder did a wonderful job in making the alterations. The jacket fits perfectly and looks like it came from the factory that way. Couldn't be happier with the work.

On top of that, I completely complicated the return shipping process for them by having the completed jacket sent to an address in Colorado that it turns out the post office doesn't deliver to. Bare Boulder worked with me as we waited for the jacket to get returned to them, giving me a status every day until it showed back up. Once that happened, and I was back home in Virginia, they got it shipped back to my home address with no problem at all. Long story short, they gave some really exceptional customer service through that process and really went over and above what I would have expected.

I will DEFINITELY be going back the next time I need this sort...