The Nike Refurbished Program Helps Solve One Of Their Biggest Problems: Returns

Updated October 2023: Nike Refurbished has officially launched online as a beta site. You can visit and shop here.

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Considering the sheer amount of pairs the Nike sells on an annual basis, there are bound to be a few that either don’t meet its consumers needs, or don’t come out cooked to perfection. Statistically speaking, it’s impossible to either please everyone or fit everyone, and on top of that there are occasions when product manufacturing isn’t up to par. It’s just the nature of the business of mass production as well as the outcome of the brand’s 60-day return policy, and the result is a unignorable amount of perfectly fine footwear that the brand is left to sit on; it’s an issue that affects many industries, one that directly affects the carbon footprint of consumer goods.

Through the newly unveiled Nike Refurbished program, Nike is solving this problem by offering its consumers to opportunity to snatch up these pairs at a discount. Here’s how it works. Nike categorizes this leftover product in three tiers: Like New (worn for a day or two), Gently Worn (worn for a little longer), and Cosmetically Flawed (small error during manufacturing). The like new/gently worn goods are refurbished in-house by the Nike Refurbished team using a number of professional tools and then given a grade. The pricing is based on the type of product and the grade condition. The Cosmetically Flawed product is something many sneakerheads and regular outlet shoppers might already be familiar with. These are products that are not deemed fit for retail due to a minor error. In our experience, that could be a slightly off-centered logo, glue stains, a stitch gone awry, stuff like that. If you have a B-Grade sneaker (or even the rare C-grade), then you’re already familiar. Returned product that are deemed too used for Nike Refurbished are fully recycled into Nike Regrind and used for later use.

Nike has plans of offering Nike Refurbished product at 15 stores, with plans to scale the program to more locations. Nike Refurbished will be offered Factory Outlets, Clearance Stores, and Community Stores, although this does not rule out Nike’s flagship locations in the future. Products purchased from Nike Refurbished also have a 60-day return policy, which means even Nike Refurbished product itself could be Refurbished or recycled into Regrind. Read more about Nike Refurbished on Nike News, or check the store list for Nike Refurbished here.