UK-based tech firm Gomi set out a firm ethos right from its earliest days, foregrounding sustainable sourcing and the right to repair. The Brighton company’s range of Bluetooth speakers, powerbanks and wireless chargers all have a modular construction, so easy repair is prioritised. In addition to reusing e-bike batteries, Gomi’s products are easily discernible thanks to their swirling, polychromatic, unique casings, proudly formed from recycled plastics and resembling miniature canvases.
Now there’s another source of plastic in the mix. The company has launched a new 'Childhood Memories Collection’, with materials taken from recycled Barbie dolls and their myriad accessories. The plastic figures will now find a second life in Gomi’s limited-edition range of handmade speakers, power banks and tracker tags.
According to Gomi co-founder Tom Meades, the project emerged out of a desire to make waste material more meaningful and relatable. ‘We’re ending boring grey consumer tech, and instead creating colourful interesting objects made from waste materials that tell a story,’ Meades explains. ‘In making the latest Childhood Memories Collection, we’re asking the public to send us their Barbie dolls, to melt down, and recycle parts of these materials into Gomi power banks, tracker tags and speakers – all designed to last a lifetime.’
A campaign for new materials
Each month, Gomi plans to take the expected deluge of donated dolls and splice them with its plastic supply to create a series of unique and distinctive pieces of consumer electronics that are struck through with remnants of Barbie’s brightly coloured world – perhaps there’ll even be a Barbie phone or two?
Squeezing out new plastic from old
To accommodate Mattel’s favourite lady, Gomi had to make some adjustments to its production process. Barbie, Ken and friends will be blended with plastic-bag waste (not commonly accepted through the UK’s household recycling systems) and resurface as second-use, repairable products that will hopefully retain some spark and colour, whilst also demonstrating to a young audience ‘how familiar objects can be thoughtfully reimagined through circular design’.
According to Gomi, ‘this very deliberate combination of nostalgia, creativity and product innovation [will] encourage conversations about keeping materials in use for longer and considering what can come next for products at the end of their original life’.
Packaging for the Barbie x Gomi collaboration
More details of the Childhood Memories Collection at gomi.design, @gomidesign