A love letter to the Sugru community
Ever since we launched Sugru 10 years ago, I’ve seen the world’s first mouldable glue used in some pretty surprising and amazing ways. As we hit this big birthday, we decided to crunch some numbers and have a root through the archives to celebrate you awesome people.
You're an inspiring and incredibly diverse bunch. And you never fail to lift our spirits when we see the resourcefulness of your fixes, no matter how humble. The Sugru community is made up of geeks, crafters, tinkerers, families, cyclists, eco-warriors, assistive tech users, gardeners, photographers, musicians, campers and designers.
We’re now in 178 countries and territories across the world. Together, we've fixed around 20 million things. That number makes my eyes water! That’s a lot of stuff rescued and saved from landfill. And countless little everyday triumphs, fuelling a movement of creative problem-solving. You rock. A lot!
From so many fixes, it's crazy to choose favourites. Nonetheless, I had a go. Here are 10 fixes I fell in love with the first time I saw them, and I still think they're absolutely brilliant. Enjoy!
❤️ Jane.
THE FIX THAT HELPED...
Beekeepers in Madagascar keep parasites out of hives
I love Jack from SEED’s Madagascan beehive fix because it shows how big changes in the world come from lots of small grassroots efforts. SEED is an NGO committed to eradicating poverty, suffering and environmental damage in Madagascar. One of the ways they do this is by helping local communities build beehive businesses, and in this fix, they used Sugru to seal the beehives and protect against rain, drafts and parasitic mites. It’s so great seeing our mouldable glue being used in practical applications to invent, prototype, make and build effective low-tech solutions. Very proud that we can be part of the solution even in tiny ways.
THE FIX THAT HELPED...
Lauren – an aerobatic pilot – to film her stunts
I’ve loved Lauren's stunt plane fix because she put Sugru Mouldable Glue’s technical and material properties to the test in really extreme conditions. She needed to fix a GoPro camera to the strut between the two wings on the outside of her plane. Lauren had tried five other mountings without success. Sugru worked brilliantly to dampen vibration on the camera and helped her capture some extraordinary stunts. Heaps of science has gone into creating Sugru and hacks like these perfectly demonstrate just how cool its capabilities are even in extreme environments.
THE FIX THAT HELPED...
Helga to make a toothbrush holder from LEGO
Helga’s LEGO toothbrush fix put a huge smile on my face when I first saw it. To me, it shows how imaginative and resourceful people are, given the right materials. This clever toothbrush holder that Helga made for her kids is just one of lots of Sugru projects she has done. She's created a super playful home environment for her family by bringing a bit of magic to their everyday lives. Lovely!
THE FIX THAT HELPED...
A surgeon in Haiti to get a better night's sleep
When I was developing Sugru in the laboratory and building a production process, I often wondered how people would use mouldable glue in their lives. I love this mosquito net fix because it’s a really simple problem that was difficult to fix without Sugru, and it shows how a tiny, humble fix can make a huge difference. An anesthesiologist, who was working at the hospital in Haiti where Sugru-er Erik was visiting, was getting bitten every night due to torn mosquito screens in his room. With such an important job, broken sleep was a concern. Erik was able to patch it in minutes with Sugru Mouldable Glue, leading to a better night’s sleep for the medic and, potentially, better hospital treatment for everyone.
THE FIX THAT HELPED...
Snowy the chicken to walk again
This one really did melt our hearts! Jane and her Dad from Ireland (not me! there are many of us...) dropped us a line to share this picture. Snowy the hen was attacked by a fox and lost most of her right leg. She managed to live on without it, even continuing to lay an egg every day. But Snowy found walking difficult and slow. Jane's Dad, being an engineer, couldn't help but come up with a solution and made a prosthetic leg out of fiberglass, which he fit the shape of her remaining leg, and finished off with a Sugru foot. Hooray!
THE FIX THAT HELPED...
Inspire a whole new fixing organisation
One day a lovely teacher and Sugru-er Eimear got in touch to say she'd tried to use Sugru to fix the controller her student Foridha's wheelchair, but it didn't work. My co-founder (and now husband :-)) James noticed her school address was just down the road. He suggested he pop down to help, and what a great idea - as he's a maker and designer, the wheelchair was quite easy for him to fix. Not long after, he and Daniel Charny built on this insight and founded Fixperts, with the idea to encourage young designers and students to learn through fixing for individuals in their communities. It has gone on to become an amazing organisation and has been taught in more than 100 schools and universities around the world.
THE FIX THAT HELPED...
Donald & Jason to make a documentary in the Amazon rainforest
Donald and Jason's drone fix instantly captured my imagination because of how Sugru Mouldable Glue helped them overcome a potential disaster on their National Geographic documentary shoot. They were in the wilds of the Amazon jungle when their drone crashed. Luckily, they had some Sugru on hand to fix plastic components, which would otherwise have been impossible to repair. Once fixed, they were able to use the drone to capture some incredible footage with the Shipibo tribe.
THE FIX THAT HELPED...
Laura & Ciarán survive a puncture in the wilds of Mongolia
Some Sugru stories, like Laura and Ciarán’s Mongolian cycle trip fix, just stopped me in my tracks. Not only is it such an inspiring adventure, but also as a practical demonstration of the extraordinary strength and durability of Sugru. They were cycling from Japan to Ireland when they got a puncture in the wilds of Mongolia. Not the ideal place! Thankfully they had a pack of Sugru handy and repaired the damaged tyre. It held perfectly until they arrived at the next bike shop and salvation.
THE FIX THAT HELPED...
David to get back on the water
David Constantine MBE is a fixer, designer, inventor, photographer and founder of NGO Motivation. Announced as one of Britain’s most influential disabled people in the Shaw Trust’s Disability Power 100, he has achieved amazing things against the odds. Paralysed after a diving accident in his youth, David uses Sugru in his everyday life to customise things like remote controls, light switches, paintbrushes and cameras to make them easier to use. Then he used Sugru to make grips on oars to stop them rotating so that he could get back on the water for the first time since he was 21. His personal story and the extraordinary work he does through Motivation for the disabled community around the world are truly inspirational. We're so proud that he uses Sugru.
THE FIX THAT HELPED...
The inventors of BRCK to bring internet coverage to remote areas of Africa
I absolutely love the BRCK team’s African internet fix because they've used Sugru in their inventing process to help bring reliable internet coverage to remote areas of Africa. A team in Nairobi invented BRCK as a robust hub for all local devices. They used Sugru in the BRCK prototypes for little fixes to 3D prints that had arrived chipped, minor adjustments to mounts and for making whole buttons. What an amazing practical demonstration of Sugru’s flexibility and versatility. Check out BRCK’s incredible work.
Amazing, right? These are just 10 fixes of 1,000s you've shared over the last decade. On our 10th birthday, celebrating 20 million fixes as a community, I hope you feel proud. That's a whole lot of things saved from landfill – and as you can see from the stories here, the rescue of a broken thing is only the start of the story. The spirit of inventiveness of our community of fixers is not only focused on fixing broken things, but also on coming up with ideas and finding creative solutions when they're needed... sometimes to make the impossible, possible.
Fixing is still something most people don't do. We're only at the beginning of the repair movement. Spread the word, show your friends and family how to fix. Here's to the next 20 million fixes and beyond!
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