The Best Places To Buy Used Outdoor Gear For Long Distance Hiking

It used to be the case that if you wanted to buy used outdoor gear you would need to head over to eBay and start bidding on a tatty down jacket being sold by WonderSteve65. The jacket would arrive in a bin bag wrapped up in copious amounts of tape and a barely legible address label leaving you scratching your head how it managed to reach you.

Yes, we have all received one of those before. But what if you don’t want to buy from eBay? Sure, it’s a great website for buying used gear, but there are other options out there. 

Lets take a look at your alternatives. 

Facebook Marketplace

I’ll be surprised if you don’t know what the Facebook Marketplace is. But did you know, if you look in the right place you can get used outdoor gear? 

One group, with endless buy and sell listings for outdoor gear is Outdoor Gear Exchange.

Now be warned, if you join this group, you are likely to want to mute it until you need to rummage through and look for something as your feed will be full of endless used items for sale. 

Also, the bargains go very quickly, especially with big ticket branded items such as Patagonia jackets.

That being said, its definately worth looking at for buying used outdoor gear.  

Sportpursuit

Sportpursuit is an excellent place to go for gear bargains. They don’t sell second hand, but they do sell cheap.

How do they do this? Well, it’s quite simple. Sportpursuit buys big quantities of clearance items from outdoor brands. I’m talking boxes and boxes of goods which the brands cannot sell elsewhere due to the issue of diluting new in-season styles with a flood of discounted items.

Sportspursit does an excellent job of then selling those onto their ‘members’. 

Expect half price of RRP deals on all sorts of goods. Shipping can be slow though but the price is often worth it.

Revivo

Revivo is probably my new favourite website. 

I’ve raved about Vivobarefoot shoes for a while now after owning 3 pairs, which have outlasted any big brand shoes i’ve ever owned. As somebody who can burn through a pair of vans in 4 months, this is quite an achievement. 

Vivobarefoot have recently released a new store, selling refurbished shoes. 

Customers can send back their shoes, which will be repaired, refurbished and sold on again via revivo. It’s a wonderful idea, and allows you to pickup some hiking boots at a good discount. 

 

Asos Marketplace

With ASOS Marketplace you are more likely to find fashionable bargains, over functional ones. By this I mean, expect a lot of lightweight down jackets, stylised outdoor fleeces and generally more stuff designed for looking good, over being functional. However ASOS marketplace should certainly be on your radar when looking for used outdoor it, as the prices are often competitive, and you have the security of buying through a reputable outdoor store. It’s also popular for ‘vintage’ outdoor items, such as Patagonia classics.

USA!

If you are lucky (or unlucky??) enough to live in the States, you are in for a treat, but much of the above won’t apply to you. Many big brands now have their own stores where they sell their own used/returned gear. Arc’teryx, Patagonia and even REI are examples of these stores.

The price is still high with many of these refurbished items, but compared to the full RRP, it knocks a good amount of money off the total and outfits you with quality kit for a fraction of the price. 

 

Vinted

Unlike Gumtree, which I have not included here as I feel its days are numbered (Facebook Marketplace), Vinted focus on used clothes rather than everything under the sun. 

After searching it, its noticeable that people selling on there do price higher than what you may find on other marketplaces, but the quality of descriptions, and photos are good. What I like about Vinted is that you get to buy goods with ‘buyer protection’, paying Vinted, who then pay the seller. 

It makes it more like a shop, reducing the risk.