I bought my first pair of Carharts 20 years ago. I was in high school. All the kids were wearing them back then. They unfold like a cardboard box the first day you try them on, but slowly they wear in, mold to your body, and wither away. I've worn them a couple thousand times, and busted holes through the knees and upper legs from work, camping, rucking around in the woods. As the years went on, I was convinced that one day I'd go to put them on, and brrrrrrrip, tear right through the leg like Kleenex. Sure, I could always buy another pair. But that's not the point, guy. So I made the sad choice of folding their now delicate fabric into a tiny rectangle, and sticking the bundle up on my closet shelf. They sat there about three years, until the other day when my wife said, "HEY, let's do some spring cleaning." Which in our house means, "HEY, how about you throw some of your stuff in a box, and I'll stick it out on the street for people to look at?" Sure enough she went for my closet, and eyed the Carharts. "You don't wear those anymore," she said and wrapped her thrifty little fingers around their throat. I begged her to let me try them on one last time. Please baby, please! Reluctantly she handed them over, and they unfurled to the ground. I stepped in, and they hugged my body like a cast. I was back in high school, and those memories came flooding in all over again. "Well we can't get rid of those!" she said with wide eyes. I just looked too damn good. So we desperately searched for options to keep them on life support. That's when we came across the Dritz 55245-9AC patches on the Amazon. The heavy canvas stone was a perfect fabric and color match for my Carharts, and the 5x5-inch cut was perfect to cover all my wears and tears. Now the patches don't come with any instructions, so I had to do some thinking of my own to make it work. This involved an iron, a needle and thread, and some scissors. Perhaps there was some whiskey involved as well. The point is, I was able to patch my Carharts up again, and reinforce not only a nostalgic pair of jeans (that were moments from being shipped off to the big pants farm up north), but patch together a wife's love for her husband (and his body). I'll be purchasing more patches to make these last another 20 years!
