Now that there are more and more of us saving and improving stuff with sugru (yay), it feels like a good time to reconnect here on the blog with the reasons why we do it.

At the heart of why we invented sugru is to give us a way to stand up to and beat the throwaway mindset, the attitude that assumes we should be replacing and ‘updating’ our stuff even when it’s working well or even perfectly. Clearly, the damage to the environment is shocking, but the other thing that’s not so often spoken about that is damaged by this mindset is more fundamental, and goes deep too. It might sound silly but I think the level of respect and appreciation we have for our things, and what they allow us to do, plays an important role in the richness of our experience of the world and how we connect with it.
It’s the ride on the bike you’ve owned for years, that you’ve maintained and improved when it needed it. It’s the 70’s handbag you found at the back of your Mum’s wardrobe, that whenever you use it you imagine her using it when she was your age. It’s the baby chair that’s been passed round the cousins, and is now into it’s second generation of the family, that you sat in when you were a kid and now you’re feeding your own in it.
Our lives are somehow punctuated by the things we live with, and they live longer than we do in the end. They help tell the stories of who we were, and who we are now… to others but even more so to ourselves.

Old thermos repurposed as an awesome vase by Sander in Estonia.

As any maker and hacker knows, the connection you feel to something you’ve made or modified goes deep. There’s the thrill of the idea, and the achievement in having made it work, but on top of that there’s a bloody great satisfaction in having done it yourself. The more things in the world with this quality of connection, the better.

I know I’m preaching to the converted here and of course sugru is only a tiny part of achieving this but I’m betting we’ll see a direct correlation between the number of people making, hacking and DIYing, and the eventual marginalisation of the consumerist throwaway mindset. Of course it’s a long long term thing, but seeing the attitude and energy that the sugru users have already to extending the life of their things and making them better for them, I’m feeling positive.