Do not bend a hoop pole for a Nanook XT. If I lived 200 miles closer to Minneapolis, it would have been cheaper for me to drive and pick one up. Customer Service? 24 hours, three phone calls it took me to get the expedited shipping price. After an e-mail threatening to talk to a supervisor, I got a call back amazingly quickly. As warned, shipping was amazingly expensive (about 8 times what a pole cost).
None of the local dealers had any poles-apparently Clam does not send them to dealers.Don’t know why they wouldn’t.
Also, hoop poles are not available on the Clam website. Nanook XTs don’t come with a travel cover or a runner kit (which is supposed to be installed prior to assembly).