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The rise and fall of Sugru
- 1123581321 8y agoAnecdotally, I bought a pack a few years ago and didn’t replace it when used. I was only partially successful at the mends I used it for, and for the cost, simple electrical tape would have been better. And of course regular sticky-tack is still better at hanging photos, etc, and cheaper, and the same goes for multi-surface glue. I am sure there are specialized use cases in which Sugru excels, but I didn’t think it worked as a general repair product and I think that hindered its growth if early adopters like me didn’t enthusiastically recommend it to others or buy more.
- woliveirajr 8y agoI think the problem is the product itself. I bought it online, wasn't that cheap, and wasn't that useful. And, by that, I don't mean that the product isn't good (it is), doesn't fulfill the purpose (it does), but it just will not be used in that many situations. Sometimes you'll fix the broken thing with commodity glue, sometimes with duct tape, and all those cost less than Sugru.
- forcer 8y agoI suprised and sad that they failed. I guess the product may still be available from the acquiring company ? Having kids who damage toys all the time, Sugru was really universal repair tool for us.
- adrianN 8y agoI repaired a tablet case with Sugru and replaced the worn feet at the bottom of my Macbook with it. I also reinforced several cables with Sugru to prevent breaks. Overall I'm pretty happy with the product, but I don't have many problems where Sugru is useful. It's too expensive to make bigger things out of it and small repairs just don't happen too often.
- cptskippy 8y agoMy biggest complaint about it is that it expires! I bought a 5 pack because I had an immediate use and it worked amazingly well. 6 months later I again had a need for it and I went to grab one of the 4 remaining packs and they were all dried out and hard. I flipped them over and there was an expiration date that had passed! This is the type of product I want to keep on the shelf for when I need it, not something I want to purchase on demand. Also it's expensive.
- iamben 8y agoDidn't realise it expires [sigh]. The rest of my packets are probably useless then. That said, I happily repaired a macbook charger at both ends, so the 10 or so quid I spent on it works out far cheaper than a £60 charger.
- daveFNbuck 8y agoI actually have a bunch of unopened sugru and recently needed to repair my macbook charger. I ended up using electrical tape because the sugru packets are huge and I couldn't think of anything to do with the rest of it after repairing the charger. I guess that didn't matter so much if it's expiring anyway, but I also didn't want to leave it for 24 hours to cure.
- mmjaa 8y agoI use this stuff from 3M that is absolutely vile-smelling but delivers the same results as Sugur, for about 1/5th the cost. It comes in these little rolls, with an inner core material and an outer material, which somehow manage to co-exist on the shelf without curing, until you remove the end-caps which expose both layers to oxygen, somehow setting off the curing process .. you then smoosh it together, so it becomes this ultra-disgusting smelling blob, then apply it where necessary. Within a few hours, its like, rock-solid. I've fixed countless things with the batch I bought a year ago, and its still good after living in the fridge ...
- wlesieutre 8y agoSounds like epoxy putty. If it cures “rock-solid” it’s not the same results as Sugru, which is a flexible rubber.
- JetSetWilly 8y agoI fixed my washing machine with it. There was a tear in the rubber round the door causing it to leak. Put some sugru on, carefully flush with the door lining, it is still there a year later. Saved quite an expensive repair.
- jonhendry18 8y agoFYI: Sugru doesn't stick to plastic wrap/cling film. So if you want to get some sugru to mold to a surface without sticking, just wrap it in plastic. When the sugru has cured, remove the plastic.
- jonhendry18 8y agoI recently used 2 packets of sugru to adapt my Hoverbar gooseneck iPad stand to fit my iPad Air. (The company used to sell adapters for newer iPads but I waited too long and my Air is too old now.) Worked great. The sugru is about two years old, having been stored in the fridge all along.
- nepotism2018 8y agoI was minutes away from investing £5k to sugru back in 2014...I was convienced the product would be popular like sellotape or superglue :(
- maxxxxx 8y agoI put Sugru on the buttons of my camera to make it easier to feel them at night. I was always surprised how well it works and how long the buttons would last. It makes me a little sad that a company with a good and useful product doesn't survive while others who sell only junk do.
- iakopa79 8y agoThe cost was too high. At $12 USD for a package, it passed my threshold of spontaneous purchase. Silicon tape, which is amazing stuff, is about half that price. Silicon tape is water tight, flexible, bonds to itself, and very versatile. Ultimately I never tried Sugru because more affordable alternatives could do the same job.
- _dan 8y agoI don't understand why they don't sell it for a few bucks a sachet in a simple point-of-sale display or via the internet. I'm waaaay more willing to buy one when I need it than have to shell out for a big multipack of stuff that has a limited shelf life..
- sago 8y agoPerhaps because a small part of the cost of the product comes from the sticky stuff itself. Selling a quarter of the quantity may have 90% of the cost of sale. So it might have to be $12 for a pack or, $11 for a small sachet, to be worthwhile.
- nerfhammer 8y agoselling it in stores has the same problem: they don't necessarily want to deal with stock that goes bad relatively quickly either.
- rootusrootus 8y agoI was wondering if anybody was going to mention silicone tape. I hadn't even heard of it until a few years ago, now I always make sure I keep a roll handy. Fixing cables, random things around the house, the stuff is super handy.
- m0nty 8y ago> “I’m very disappointed as the funding literature indicated high growth plans,” says a Crowdcube backer who wishes to remain anonymous I'm not surprised they want to remain anonymous if they failed to perceive a downside in investing in a new product. What would you exepct - "our plans for growth are unambitious and we expect only mediocre performance in the market"?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- jVinc 8y agoHonestly I would too be disappointed if a company planning high growth goes out and says "whoops we lost a backer, now we're selling" It definitely makes it seem like the company is knowingly misledning investors in an attempt to pull in funding for an urealisabel plan. If you're at the verge of having to sell the entire company at a loss, the least you can do is try to restructure, reduce costs and plan for moderate growth which doesn't depend on you pulling in huge amounts of funding.
- gommm 8y agoI bought some sugru thinking it'd be useful but by the time I wanted to repair with it, it had been too long and it had hardened... If you have kids it might make more sense but otherwise, I think it's a difficult sell given the cost
- mmjaa 8y agoI wish they'd pushed harder to become a key part of the Maker scene .. I really wonder what a 3D-printer that used Sugru as its base material would be like. Probably prohibitively expensive in comparison with the ABS materials, but then again .. maybe they could have carved a niche in that segment that pushed their value higher. One thing is for sure, after seeing it adorning various devices and appliances around the scene for a few years, I've come to associate it with "ghetto hackers" who don't have the druthers to just 3d-print replacement parts themselves. It always amuses me to have this thought - its a bloody expensive material, all things considering. The one thing I consider it really excels at, also, is preserving peoples fingerprints...
- gwbas1c 8y agoI think this exposes the problem with crowdfunding investments. Most people aren't savvy enough to perform proper due diligence, or don't have the risk tolerance. (Edit) Or don't have the time needed to do the kind of due diligence needed to invest in this kind of a company. On the other hand, crowdfunding products, which essentially is a pre-order, is something I love. It's well within my risk tolerance and due diligence.
- bencollier49 8y agoIndeed. I'm rather dumbfounded that crowdfunded securities were greenlit by the FCA - it opens the door to exactly this situation. Kickstarter-style project crowdfunding makes loads more sense, though.
- IshKebab 8y agoIt was useful for a few things, but much too expensive. £7 for three sachets. For comparison an epoxy sachet is less than a pound and lasts forever. I think Sugru might have even put the price down - I remember them being even more expensive.
- anilakar 8y agoYup. “The challenge of explaining the vast potential of mouldable glue and how it can be relevant to any given consumer has proved to be a lot harder than anyone imagined,” said ni Dhulchaointigh. That was never their problem. Most of my tech-savvy friends knew the product by name and had multiple uses in mind. Literally everyone also agreed that the price just was not worth it.
- DiabloD3 8y agoIt wasn't the price. It was the fact that it expires. I have a packet that lives in my fridge forever, as a reminder, behind my many mustards. The mustards may live forever, the Sugru won't.
- jonhendry18 8y agoIf it's in your fridge it's probably still good. Might need to warm up a little first.
- oldcynic 8y agoBloody hell Wired. Blu Tack was invented in Leicester, and Bostik still make it there. It's reusable and doesn't set or cure, though it deteriorates a bit after a decade in a drawer. Can repair pretty much nothing, but handy for sticking posters to walls. :) Sugru is/was a silicone putty that cures after a few minutes in air, and expires in a few months in the packet. Seemed terrible value for money based on the tiny packet I bought so I'd never buy again. At least with two part putties you can keep plenty in a drawer, for years, they don't cure until you've mixed them and cost a fraction of Sugru. Edit: Well this provoked quite the discussion. If you're looking for repair putty the two main UK brands I know are: Araldite (Now a US brand, mainly DIY and automotive, also epoxy adhesives), and Milliput.com (Epoxy modelling clay, perfect for repairs to plastics, steel etc. Comes in a few grades and colours), with shelf life in decades. Milliput are Welsh. :)
- Djvacto 8y agoIt expires after a few months in the packet? RIP my spare Sugru.
- fredley 8y agoThis is what bummed me out about it most when I tried it. I had to buy a pack of 6 (maybe smaller sizes are available now), when I wanted to use half of one. The rest was all waste.
- Someone1234 8y agoThis might sound a little melodramatic, but it ruins the product for me. Sugru is the type if product I want to throw in my toolbox for when I need it, because when I need it I NEED it. But instead I have to buy it online, takes 3 days to arrive, and by that time I've already used duct tape and moved on. It is a good idea and a great product, but the short shelf life is a huge problem.
- fredley 8y agoI agree entirely. It's the achilles heel of an otherwise brilliant product. Sugru is something I would occasionally need and benefit from, however keeping some on hand is not possible.
- beojan 8y agoSince they've been acquired, hopefully it'll get considerably cheaper now.
- darkstar999 8y agoSugru is just overpriced thermoplastic. Search Instamorph, Polymorph, Moldable Plastic for cheaper options. It comes in dry pellets that don't dry out like sugru.
- implements 8y agoWell, technically it's an air-curing silicone rubber ... but you're right, actual thermoplastics like Polymorph are cheaper, don't expire and can be re-melted if you're not happy with a first attempt at something, or you want to reuse the material in a different project.
- darkstar999 8y agoYou're right. The end result is very similar though.
- phyzome 8y agoI bought some many years ago, entranced by its promises, but then somehow never managed to find a concrete use for it. This does not say good things about the product's viability.
- djrogers 8y agoThe ridiculously high cost and short shelf life put me off sugru, but looking in to it did lead me to a handy and cheap DIY alternative - clear silicone mixed with corn starch. I don't know how the 'rubbery' property compares to sugru after it sets up, but it worked nicely for my needs.
- eythian 8y agoIts shelf life is advertised as something like 1.5 years if you keep it in the fridge. Just the other day I used some that must be about three years old and it worked fine.
- iffycan 8y agoYes, the short shelf life is what turned me off, too. For my quick repairs I found myself using only a fraction of the smallest packets they sell, leaving the rest to dry out unused. And after needing it a few months later and finding it unusable I never bought anymore. I'm going to try your recipe.
- optimuspaul 8y agoI love Sugru, it works great. I don't care that it expires because I only buy it when I need. I know people that buy it in bulk because they use it very often. The loan out audio/video equipment and use it to reinforce cables and fix things. I've also found that it lasts well past the expiry, it is definitely a conservative date.
- krallja 8y agoBad headline. Crowdfunding isn’t what killed it, the failure to meet bank loan requirements was.
- jmkd 8y agoWatched from the sidelines as Jane invented an early version of Sugru at college in 2003/4. Everyone I knew (and me) thought she was completely bonkers, developing a weird substance that didn't seem to do anything but make a horrid mess of well-designed objects. Saw how doggedly she persisted for years to get it off the ground, eventually winning me over (in theory) for the main use cases. But still, as a hard-won fan with 15 years of anecdotal observation turned admiration, and as an accomplished DIYer and general proponent of fixing things, I couldn't find a use for Sugru in my life. The real story here is a major life effort, not a crowdfunding over reach.
- DenisM 8y agoFixing frayed cables is one use case I found.
- rootusrootus 8y agoAs an alternative, I've had great luck using silicone tape for fixing frayed cable ends.
- dotancohen 8y agoI use Sugru on almost everything I own. It's on my steering wheel and gear shift, it is on my telephone protecting the camera lens, it's on my stylus, fountain pen, keys, and wallet. Pretty much any time I think "that could have been designed better" I use Sugru. I agree that it's expensive, but it had saved me more money than it costs. I would actually love a subscription, where one gets a single packet in the mail once a month, to address the expiration issue.
- samch 8y agoI make my own Sugru: simple silicone caulk and corn starch. I have no idea how well it compares to the real thing, but a repair to the rack inside my dishwasher has lasted for several years without any noticeable degradation. The benefit of this is that the caulk and corn starch last for a while and don’t cost as much as Sugru per unit volume. Source: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Make-Your-Own-Sugru-Substitute/ http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Make-Your-Own-Sugru-S...
- poizan42 8y agoSugru seems to be mostly silicone caulk and talcum powder, so probably not that different. A lot more R&D has probably been put into the optimal mixture ratio and choice of solvents.
- aurizon 8y agoI would like to see what the cost of all the chemicals needed to make it. I have seen a few companies fail because the vastly overpriced the product they made, thus killing their market. Would sugru have met with success at a lower price? I for one(of many I see) put off by the huge cost.
- ConceptJunkie 8y agoI agree. I wasn't even aware of the expiration issue. I was too put off by the price to ever try it.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- samstave 8y agoSugru anecdote. I had read about Sugru in~2011/12 or so -- I wrote to her (inventor of it) and she sent me a packet for free. Then the Fukushima meltdown happened and a few days later San Francisco experienced one of the most wicked rainstorms ever - and the wind was driving the water against my glass-door flooding my apartment (twin peaks)... there was a hole where the sliding glass door lock should have been on the bottom of the door and the water was flowing in through there - I grabbed a pack of Sugru and molded it into the opening and plugged the leak. When I discovered the leak at 1AM - I had thought my dg had peed in the dining room... My dog thanks you, Sugru, for not being blamed for peeing....
- dhunzike 8y agoI'd be interested to know whether they qualified for EIS (https://www.crowdcube.com/pg/eis-seis-tax-relief-overview-43 https://www.crowdcube.com/pg/eis-seis-tax-relief-overview-43) or not. It'll allow to deduct parts of the losses made against your taxable income and therefore the overall amount lost could be much less than the 90% quoted in the article.
- zafka 8y agoI heard about Sugru when it first came out. I bought a few 6 packs and gave some to my engineer friends. I think I was the only one who got pretty exited about the possibilities. Since then, I have lost several packets to age, and learned to keep any I bought in the fridge. As several people have said, I would love to know a place to get the raw materials. It is much nicer to work with than silicone caulk.
- Theodores 8y agoWhen Sugru was a new gimmick it made a gift idea for that nephew you have no shared interests with. I suspect that a lot of the initial sales were clueless gift purchases, the packaging looked legit, the product was theoretically useful and what else do you buy someone when everyone has everything (including Blu-Tak)? Was there any need to get tens of millions in funding? If you have a deal with Target stores or John Lewis in the UK then you can order from your suppliers what they need, do a back of the envelope calculation as to what you can fund on the basis of those sales and stock accordingly. Greed and hubris gets the better of people though. We have seen it before with boo.com and in plenty of other examples. Much is said in the article about the 90% lost by investors, I think there is another 90% - I doubt that 90% of this stuff was ever opened or used. It was gifted by well meaning mums and aunties. Then those recipients didn't rate or use the product enough for it to become 'as exciting as cellotape'. £2 million buys you a posh house in London, so the bank loan wasn't that big in the scheme of things, but a lot of money if your product is neither 'fast moving' or 'big ticket'.
- jonhendry18 8y ago"Was there any need to get tens of millions in funding?" They probably pitched it with plans of expanding into floor waxes and dessert toppings. Or, you know, more than just little sachets of goo.
- rconti 8y agoWow, I had no idea it was still around. I checked my GMail, and I ordered 2 "Smart Hacks Super Packs"(multi-color multipack of sugru) on 21 October 2010. I'm pretty sure most of it is still in my freezer. Well, by that I mean, it survived 2 moves and is now living in its 3rd freezer. I guess, ultimately, I just don't have to mend that much stuff.
- cjlars 8y agoA lot of people are pointing to weaknesses in the product, but it's a highly convenient little product that applies to a lot of small problems. It was never going to be a huge business, just like 2 part repair epoxy is never going to be a huge business. But that doesn't preclude it from being a successful small company -- Sugru has plenty of benefits over 2 part mixtures. One can sell in Walgreens and the other in Home Depot. I would propose a different mistake: they simply got too ambitious. If they had raised a little money and grown organically, they could have eventually been a tidy little $5-10M a year business, netting the founder a healthy 6 or 7 figure income. Nothing says you need to follow the start-up venture funded playbook, in fact, most consumer packaged goods businesses do not.
- userbinator 8y agojust like 2 part repair epoxy is never going to be a huge business I disagree, just look at companies like 3M or DuPont.
- biswaroop 8y agoI'm pretty sure 3M and DuPont sell more than 2 part repair epoxy.
- NegativeLatency 8y agoAnd their core business isn’t a specific type of glue. They’re chemical companies.
- mmjaa 8y agoWhat part about Sugru, Inc., isn't a chemical company?
- tinus_hn 8y agoAt least the article doesn’t say how much the founder made. It may well be just the investors that got shafted.