What Does It Mean When Something is Marked as "Refurbished" on Our Site?

Note: The sale of our trekking poles has moved over to our new brand Diorite Gear. 

If you’ve spent any amount of time perusing this blog, you’ve probably noticed sustainability is important to Cnoc. As a B-Corp, we think about our environmental impact constantly - especially when it comes to the materials we use. One of the ways we mitigate our material waste is by selling discounted but entirely functional products that have something going on that might cause another company to throw them out. In comes our refurbished and blemished items discount page.

And if you spent any amount of time perusing the Cnoc online shop, you’ve probably also noticed our discounts page is full of items marked as “refurbished”. While you likely know what the word refurbished means, what exactly goes into refurbishing each product you can find there? In the interest of helping all our customers make the right, educated purchase for them, this blog will break down every refurbished and blemished product we sell - and what exactly the product you receive might look like.

Refurbished trekking poles

We often find ourselves in possession of trekking poles that have an issue with one section and two other entirely functional sections. Whether the carbon fiber has snapped in one area or a bonding failure happened in another, refurbished trekking poles consist of a combination of new and used sections to make a new, fully functional - if somewhat scuffed up - pole. Our fabricator Adrian inspects each piece carefully before deciding to use it - most often we decide the section is too used to be resold and it gets recycled. The refurbished trekking pole you receive could be any combination of new and used carbon fiber sections, but the grip, the tip, and the hardware (the screws and fasteners that hold each section together) are always brand new. These are a good option for folks on a budget or folks that would like to lower their consumer carbon footprint.

Blemished trekking poles

Unlike refurbished trekking poles, blemished trekking poles are rarely used - in fact, most are brand new. Because all our poles are hand made, occasionally stuff happens in the manufacturing process. It’s a shame and a waste to throw away a perfectly good set of poles that has some visible drops of bonding agent or a slightly smeared label so when that happens, we sell them on our site at a discounted price.  Due to the nature of their creation - obviously, we try to prevent errors in the creation of our poles - we don’t always have them in stock but when we do, they’re a great option for folks on a budget that don’t care about the aesthetics of their poles.

Refurbished Vecto

A refurbished Vecto means that during the quality control process, we found and patched a thin weld or a pinhole in brand new and unused Vecto. We use superglue and Tear-Aid Type A patches on our refurbished Vectos. You can read a step by step guide here, as you can duplicate this process with your own Vecto! We test the Vecto once it’s done and sell it at a discounted rate. We often bring a big bucket of refurbished Vectos to PCT Days for NOBO thru-hikers with a tightening budget that would like a Vecto that will get them through the state of Washington. 

Next time you’re shopping with us, consider checking out our discounted section! You’ll save money while lowering both your carbon footprint and ours.