One way of improving the load capacity of bolted joints in composite components is to use metal inserts locally at the holes in order to reduce the bearing stress. In this paper an innovative local reinforcement concept is introduced where metal inserts are implemented in the form of stacked patches at the holes in order to improve the bearing strength of the composite. After doing some initial tests and a parameter study, some specimens with optimized stacked patch inserts were designed and tested. The specimens with optimized inserts show 50-60% improved bearing strength in pin-loaded tests which corresponds to a potential weight reduction of about 30%. These very promising results indicates that the efficiency of joints in composites can be improved significantly.