CleanTrek Newsletter - December 19, 2025

Happy holidays, Subscriber First Name!

Drumroll, please……..the design is now complete! After two months of back-and-forth with my manufacturer, it’s time to share the design we’ll be using for the first production run!

The Grabber

The Collector

The Trigger

Why the redesign?

All the CleanTrek prototypes you’ve seen so far have been 3D‑printed. For the product launch, I’m shifting to injection molding, which is far more economical at scale. This redesign is a necessary step to make these parts injection-moldable. And while I was at it, I snuck in some minor improvements, too.

Injection molding generally involves two sides: the mold and the cavity. Molten plastic enters the void, cools, and is ejected, creating your desired part.

This process involves complex physics, including the flow of the molten plastic, cooling, shrinkage, and more, hence why I need to work closely with my manufacturing partner to get it right.

You also have to make sure the mold can pull apart. Sharp 90 degree angles create friction that can damage the part and mold, so these surfaces usually have to be angled slightly, which is known as “drafting”.

In its simplest form, an injection mold slides along just one axis. But sometimes, there are features that require the mold to move in other directions. Take, for instance, this example below, where a side feature is created by using a “slide” mechanism, such that the orange mold component slides in from the side.

Side actions add complexity and cost; therefore, when it comes to CleanTrek’s design, we want to avoid side-action features.

Take, for instance, the Trigger design. In the previous design, the dowel nut was installed into a hole on top, and a snap ring was inserted into a groove to keep the dowel nut from sliding out.

3D-printing these features was no big deal, but molding them would have cost thousands of extra dollars, requiring complex side-action molds. Instead, my manufacturer suggested a new design:

In this new design, the dowel nut can slide in and “snap” into place (still able to rotate), eliminating the need for the snap ring and groove. Plus, since the features follow the main axis of the two molds, we get to avoid the need for side actions!

This example is one of many alterations in the design, most of which you probably won’t even notice. When the mold designs are done next year, I can revisit this to show you how the mold and cavity actually look!

What’s up with the new Grabber tip?

At the Yosemite Facelift event in September, we hosted a game where participants picked up as much litter as possible in 20 seconds with CleanTrek’s tools. My wife pointed out that it shouldn’t take that much skill to pick up some of those items, and she was right.

The problem was that the Grabber tip had a tendency to scoop under smaller objects without actually grabbing them.

The original single-tooth design was intended to make grabbing precise. While keeping this precision, I wanted some way to “catch” the litter instead of just scooping under it. Naturally, I added a second “tooth”, and this simple change made picking up smaller litter, like cigarette butts, so much easier!

But why stop there? I tried versions with 3, 4, and 5 teeth, and each time I added another tooth, it became even easier to pick up the litter.

After testing each version, I landed on the 5-tooth design, which worked wonderfully on every piece of litter I threw at it!

These updates may seem obvious; more surface area means better contact, right? But the single‑tooth design ensured consistent performance with all trekking poles, with or without rubber caps. Adding extra teeth could interfere and prevent proper contact with the pole tip, which is a reason I didn’t attempt a design like this before.

The solution was to slant the profile of the teeth just the right amount, such that the additional teeth are useful without getting in the way. This took a bit of trial and error, but eventually, I dialed it in. As a result, we still get that same precision from the first design, while also making it way more forgiving.

When you hit the trails with your CleanTrek gear this spring, you’ll be able to fully appreciate this redesign for yourself!

What’s up with the new Grabber tip? (Part 2)

Okay, maybe you noticed that the tip shape isn’t the only thing that’s new with the Grabber. Wasn’t there supposed to be a way to swap out the Grabber tip by removing the screw? Where’d the screw go?

Well, that original design had some challenges. The rubber tip didn’t always fit well, and the mold costs were going to be high.

Instead, I decided to overmold the Grabber tip (silicone) onto the aluminum extender piece, combining them into a single component.

To swap out your Grabber tip, you’ll actually swap out the entire tip + aluminum extender. To do this, you’ll just have to pry out the U-pin with something you can slide underneath, like a flathead screwdriver, pen tip, etc. Re-installation just takes a simple push. The only challenge is: don’t lose the pin!

What happens next?

My manufacturer is now making 3D-printed prototypes to validate this new design before starting the mold design process. It should take about a month to verify the design, but it could take longer depending on how prototyping goes.

Where does that leave the timeline?

December - January: Prototype validation; hopefully ready to make the molds by the end of January.

February: At this point, things will be in the hands of my manufacturer to design and make the molds. I was recently informed, though, that due to Chinese New Year, progress this month will be very limited.

Since there’s not much else I can do during this time, this happens to be the perfect time to take a long-awaited trip with my wife to celebrate her finishing her PhD, plus doubling as our honeymoon :) The current plan is to go backpacking in Uganda, Tanzania, and India! I’m a little stressed about the timing with this product launch if I’m being honest, but this trip has been our goal for the last 5 years, and I don’t think there will be a better time to do it — things will just keep getting busier as I scale this business!

March/April: Complete molds, produce samples, verify product quality, and manufacture first batch of products (I’ll likely be visiting the factory in China during this stage).

May: Ship from manufacturer to my apartment.

June: Ship to your door!

July and beyond: Transition to selling directly on CleanTrek’s website.

The timeline has slipped by another month, partly due to Chinese New Year delays in February (which was news to me) and partly because the redesign took longer than expected. I’ll do my best to make back some time, but this seems to be the most realistic schedule for now.

Ads & New Backers

Thanks to the ads I’ve been running, we’re up to 345 backers, bringing our total Kickstarter funding to $54,286! It’s awesome finding new backers who are excited about this project, but the cost of ads has been really high, meaning that I haven’t really been raising as much as it may seem. I’m optimistic though that ad performance will improve over time!

As always, the most effective way to raise new funds is to spread the word (which is free)! If you know anyone who may be interested in CleanTrek, please share this Kickstarter and/or our website!

Paying for molds, and their effect on retail price

My current plan is to purchase the Trigger and Grabber molds, while 3D-printing the Collector hardware. The Collector molds cost more than double the others combined, and with current funding, they’d break the bank, unfortunately.

The good news: even without Collector molds, I expect retail pricing to come out to $90. Once I purchase those molds, the price should drop to $75. As I get more sales, costs (and prices) can drop even more!

P.S. I may take on investors to help fund the Collector molds once costs are finalized in the next few weeks. If you’re interested, email me at john.mcshane@clean-trek.com to join the list!

Conclusion

My goal with this newsletter was to help you appreciate that even though the design might not look very different, lots of thought and hard work has gone into these alterations. Needless to say, I’m glad this process is done so I can focus on next steps. Thank you for reading, and enjoy your holiday season!

Sincerely,

John McShane
Inventor and Founder of CleanTrek
john.mcshane@clean-trek.com
clean-trek.com