ReCord Initiative Gives Body Cords a Second Life

For Joshua Au, a damaged body cord can represent something much more than a piece of equipment that has reached the end of its life. With the right repairs, it can become a valuable resource for another fencer, club or community program.

Through the ReCord Initiative, Joshua is collecting damaged fencing body cords, refurbishing them and redistributing them to nonprofit clubs, public schools and other programs at no cost for labor or replacement parts.

The initiative is helping give fencing equipment a second life while reducing one of the many barriers that can make participation in the sport more difficult.

Joshua launched the ReCord Initiative in October with an ambitious but straightforward goal: repair body cords that might otherwise be thrown away and make them available to programs that could put them back into use.

The response has exceeded his original expectations.

Since launching the initiative, Joshua has repaired and redistributed 334 body cords, surpassing his initial goals of 100 and then 250. His next milestone is 500 refurbished cords.

For Joshua, the idea began with recognizing that even relatively small equipment expenses can add up for clubs and organizations.

“Fencing equipment is expensive — a typical body cord repair can run up to $20. That’s one barrier for a lot of clubs. In order to grow the sport of fencing, I wanted to make a difference by fixing cords for fencing nonprofits, free of charge.”

While $20 may not seem significant on its own, the cost becomes much more meaningful when a club or program has multiple damaged cords and limited resources to replace or repair them.

By restoring equipment that still has useful life remaining, the ReCord Initiative helps programs direct their resources toward serving and developing more athletes.

Joshua receives damaged body cords from a variety of sources, including tournament collection bins, national events and members of the fencing community.

He completes most of the repairs himself and provides his labor free of charge to eligible nonprofit clubs, public schools and other programs. When cords are being shipped, recipients are generally responsible only for the cost of shipping.

“Whenever nonprofits send us cords, we refurbish them and ship them back, so that they can keep improving the sport of fencing for us all. The only cost is shipping, we cover all labor and parts.”

The process is simple, but the impact extends beyond the equipment itself.

For a program receiving refurbished body cords, those cords can help athletes continue practicing and competing without the organization having to absorb the cost of purchasing replacements or paying for repairs.

Each repaired cord represents equipment that can remain in the sport—and, more importantly, an opportunity for another athlete to continue participating.

The ReCord Initiative depends on the fencing community to keep usable equipment from being discarded.

Have broken body cords? Don't throw them away.

Fencers, clubs, tournament organizers and members of the fencing community can donate damaged cords to the initiative, where they can be repaired and returned to service.

The ReCord Initiative also partners with Absolute Fencing, which provides collection bins at tournaments and sends donated cords to the initiative for repair and redistribution.

Joshua encourages both potential recipients and potential donors to get involved.

“Nonprofits, you can reach out to me at my email: therecordinitative@gmail.com to find out more about our free repair services and what we can do for your club. And fencers who are interested in donating their damaged body cords, the ReCord Initiative has a partnership with Absolute Fencing where they have collection bins at tournaments and send them to us for repair and donation.”

As Joshua works toward his goal of refurbishing 500 body cords and beyond, there are opportunities for the fencing community to help the initiative continue growing.

Donating damaged cords, spreading the word and connecting nonprofit programs with the ReCord Initiative are all ways individuals and organizations can contribute.

The initiative is also a reminder that meaningful community impact does not always begin with a large program or a major investment. Sometimes it starts with identifying a problem, recognizing an opportunity and deciding to take action.

For Joshua, that action began with broken body cords.

Today, hundreds of those cords have been repaired and redistributed, helping programs reduce costs and giving more fencers access to the equipment they need.

Sometimes, growing fencing starts with giving a broken body cord a second chance.

Learn more about the ReCord Initiative and how to get involved at recordinitiative.org.