Restart Podcast Ep. 82: No need for new toys, we have Team Repair

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We’re officially in the holiday season now and like many, we have presents and toys on the mind. For our December episode, we spoke to Anaïs Engelmann and Megan Hale from Team Repair. They run a 12-month fixing programme that could be a perfect gift for any young person in your life.

Starting fixers young

The team of Team Repair is composed of five design engineering graduates who are linked by their passion for reducing e-waste. Their company aims to introduce and teach children about repair and sustainability, each month sending them a new gadget to fix. These gadgets include hand-held game consoles and remote controlled cars – its such a fresh and engaging approach to capturing children’s minds.

Anaïs and Megan explain to us how they came to repair at different stages of their lives, proving that it is never the wrong time to learn these crucial skills. They believe that getting children interested in repair early is integral to inspiring our next generation of fixers and repair-friendly designers.

Another lovely aspect of the Team Repair model is encouraging generational skill sharing. Whether it is parents helping their children with the repair kits, or Team Repair themselves going into schools. At Restart, we recognise how important this skill sharing is in teaching younger people and also not letting this knowledge be lost to time.

Building in circularity

They tell us how a key feature of their project is building circularity into their work. It is not necessarily a popular approach with investors but Team Repair recognise the importance of this aspect of their work. In an effort to solve the issue of e-waste, it only makes sense to reuse the gadgets that they send out.

Their hope is that by educating children on repair and waste reduction, these skills will come in handy when Right to Repair legislation also moves forwards in the coming years. It’s a hope that we definitely share and are working towards making a reality all the time.

Team Repair’s fixing programme is such a cool concept and we cannot wait to see how it develops and what other toys there are to fix!

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