Last Friday when benching, a few seams popped on my Metal Ace shirt. There's three rows of stitching and only a few came loose on one. I guess I could have just hoped for the best and not had it repaired, but that's not me.
A friend gave me a number of someone who worked on his shirt, but that was 30 minutes away. Plus, there's a few places you can mail your shirt to. But because this was just a simple restitch, I figured I could find someone local.
I jumped on the ol' interweb and looked up a few versions of upholstery on Google. I searched boat upholstery, auto upholstery, and upholstery shop. I forgot which one it was, but I found someone less than ten miles away. I called him and said I had a couple layers of heavy-duty polyester that needed a few stitches. He told me to come down so he could check it out.
Tip: Try not to say bench shirt or squat suit because they'll try to send you to just a regular tailor. Most tailors don't have the machines and needles that can handle the job.
When I got to the shop, I told him I was the guy that called about getting the heavy-duty poly stitched up. I showed him the seam and he actually stopped the job he was working on so he could help me out. Of course he asked what the shirt was. I told him it's a compression shirt used to bench in powerlifting meets. His second questions was, "Does it keep you safe?" I said that was the original idea, but now it's pretty much used to bench a lot of weight. Interestingly not another word was said. He just went on stitching the shirt up. He actually went over all three seams.
As he handed the me the shirt, I went to reach for my cash and he said it was not necessary.
The stitching came out great. To pay the guy back I put a nice review up on Google. So if you need an equipment repair or alteration, an option is to think creatively and find someone local through the Internet.