Team Repair and iFixit partner to take repair learning global
Team Repair, the UK start-up founded by engineers from Imperial College London, has joined forces with iFixit, the world’s largest online repair community, to help young people around the world gain confidence in repairing technology.
The collaboration, which launched on 14 October, made Team Repair’s educational kits available through iFixit’s global store for the first time. The response was immediate: the initial batch sold out within three hours in the US and overnight in the EU, with hundreds joining the waiting list for future releases.
Megan Hale, Co-Founder and Chief Executive of Team Repair, said the partnership felt like “a full-circle moment”, recalling how she first learned to fix a phone using an iFixit toolkit. The two organisations first met at the International FixFest in 2022 and reconnected late last year to explore shared goals. “From their point of view, they wanted to get more people confident with repair,” Megan said. “Our aims are very much aligned; we both want to make repair an everyday skill.”
Team Repair’s kits are designed to bridge a gap in practical learning. Each box contains a real, broken device – such as a retro games console – and guides children through diagnosing and fixing it. Around 40% of the 14,000 young people who have used the kits in the UK say it was their first experience of repair.
Team Repair’s wider mission is to prove that circular business models can be both environmentally and commercially sustainable. Its subscription-based “Fixers Club” already operates across the UK, giving children new repair challenges each quarter and encouraging them to return kits for reuse. The partnership with iFixit marks the first step in extending that approach internationally.
Liz Chamberlain, Director Of Sustainability at iFixit, said the collaboration aligned closely with the company’s mission to “help the world fix everything”. She added: “We hear all the time from our international community that they’d love a kit to help teach their kids repair. Team Repair’s kits are best in class.”
With global electronic waste exceeding 60 million tonnes a year and the European Union’s Right to Repair Directive set to take effect next year, the need to normalise repair is pressing. Team Repair’s model – rooted in education, reuse, and accessibility – aims to make repair as natural to the next generation as coding or digital literacy.
Following the strong response to the pilot launch, Team Repair and iFixit are now discussing how to scale availability across the US, EU, and beyond.
“Encouraging repair from an early age isn’t just about sustainability,” Megan concluded. “It’s about confidence, curiosity, and giving young people the practical skills the world actually needs.”
