London – James Carrigan, co-founder of hackable gum Sugru, has teamed up with curator and writer Daniel Charny to create the Fixperts initiative, which links designers with people looking for low-cost solutions to product-related problems.
The platform is still in the development phase, but to date has helped people with design grievances to hack products to make them more suitable. The initiative so far seems to be particularly useful to vulnerable people and the elderly.
This is a great way for a brand originally associated with a product to expand its offer to a service, network and community. This is an early sign of the era of Symbiogenesis that LS:N Global forecast in its Symbiotic Branding macrotrend.