By: randosteve|Posted on: June 24, 2009|Posted in: DIY - Modification, Gear | 22 comments

Sounds catchy…eh? I’ve been thinking about starting a skin re-gluing business. I have done it for a bunch of years at the store (and had pretty good results), but we stopped offering the service a couple years ago and I think it’s pretty hard to find anyone who provides it anymore…in any state. I thought it might be a good opportunity to help people out, make a few extra bucks and fry some brain cells at the same time.  🙂

Dog hair, pine needles, kick wax and even paint on the glue
can make regluing climbing skins a nasty job.

The thing about regluing climbing skins it that it is a messy job, potentially toxic and can be rather time consuming. I’ve been trying to figure out how much the service would be worth to someone and at the same time, be worth my time and effort. For now, I think the price for a skin reglue would be around $80-100/pair…including ground shipping back to the customer. We used to charge $50-75 at the shop to reglue a pair of skins a few years ago…but that didn’t include any shipping charges…AND was back in the day when skins were rarely over 80mm wide and didn’t have those non-stick nylon strips running down the middle of the skins which can really complicate things when regluing. Skin repairs like replacing rivets and tips and tail assemblies would be additional charges.

Near finished product using Black Diamond Glue Renew Sheets.

163505_gold_labelThere are two options for materials, Black Diamond Gold Label which cost $15 a can or Black Diamond Glue Renew Sheets at $30 for two sheets. Each skin reglue job would most likely use two Glue Transfer Sheets or one full can of Gold Label. I figure shipping and handling would be worth $10-20. There is no home mail delivery 163553_glue_renewhere in Jackson, so going to the post office to pick-up and mail the skins back to the customer could eat up a bit of time. Jacksonites can attest to this. UPS could be an option since they make home shipments. Depending on the regluing method used it would take between 1-2 hours of labor to get the job done. At a minimum ski-bum rate of $20/hour…you can see how things add up.

Anyway, I’m thinking about pulling the trigger on this venture this summer and was wondering if you all think you would ever use the service and if you would pay $80-100 for it? Bear in mind that new climbing skins cost anywhere from $120-$190 these days (and I’m sure they will get more expensive next year), depending on width and quality of the skin. Your comments are greatly appreciated.