I think you can easily repair them as well or better than new but any insurance company more than likely would not protect the wearer if he did get hurt no matter if your work failed or not, OSHA wouldn't accept it either. Personally if an employee of mine brought in safety gear that was altered or rebuilt by anyone other than the manufacturer or people qualified to do repairs on their product it would be a get them out of here situation. That is why people sue the repairers because they get these things repaired without thought of laws, rules and insurance companies then when they get hurt they have no other options to cover their own personal negligence of not just buying a new pair. Yes we live in a world devoid of common sense.