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Sidewall tears are an inevitable part of cycling, with a knack for showing up at just the wrong time. Brand new tires far from home seem to be most prone to sidewall tears in my experience, leading to a not only inconvenient but expensive problem. Errant screws, sharp rocks and broken glass can all slice or puncture a tire sidewall, rendering the tire useless until fixed as the tube will inevitably bulge out of the breached sidewall casing. There are two basic repairs for a sidewall tear—the field-fix tire boot and the more permanent needle and thread method of stitching it closed. Conventional tire patches will bond to the inside of most tires and are admittedly a tempting fix, but they don’t work to hold anything but the smallest of sidewall tears in place, and even then not for long.
Great idea.
I’ve also had good luck with Tyvek- which I have an abundance of from race bib numbers. I cut it into smaller pieces and keep some in my repair kits for tire booting.