DeepSummary
Katie Wellan interviews Tom Leenders, co-founder of Gerrard Street - a company that makes modular, high-end headphones designed for easy repair and reuse. Tom explains how their headphones are fully modular, allowing customers to replace components themselves and send back broken parts for refurbishing or recycling.
Initially, Gerrard Street operated on a subscription model, but they changed to also offer a 'buy' option with free repairs for life due to customer demand and scalability challenges. Tom discusses the design process, considering repairability, modularity, and logistics for easy shipping and returns.
Tom shares insights on their customer base, the increasing demand from businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the challenges faced due to supply chain disruptions, such as securing compatible components for future repairs.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Gerrard Street produces modular, high-end headphones designed for easy repair and component replacement, aligning with circular economy principles.
- The company evolved from a subscription model to also offering a 'buy' option with free repairs for life, based on customer demand and scalability challenges.
- Gerrard Street's design process focuses on modularity, repairability, and logistics considerations for easy shipping and returns of components.
- The company experienced increased demand from businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the need for noise-canceling headphones while working from home.
- One of the major challenges faced by Gerrard Street is securing compatible components for future repairs and maintaining product compatibility while managing costs and risks.
- Gerrard Street involves customers in the repair process by allowing them to easily replace components themselves, fostering a sense of ownership and understanding of the circular approach.
- The company's customer base is primarily in the Netherlands, with plans to expand to Germany next due to market size and cultural alignment with sustainable thinking.
- Gerrard Street's approach challenges the misconception that customers are willing to pay a premium for more sustainable products, emphasizing the need to focus on quality and scalability first.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “We started from the bottom, so we didn't have a product and we didn't have a client. So our vision was, we just want to propel the circular economy. We thought, okay, nobody's doing this. So we need to make circular consume electronics.“ by Tom Lenders
- “Yeah. So sometimes we need to code a bit ourselves, but it's really lean. And how we handle it is that the user replaced the components themselves. So, for instance, if we send you an ear cushion, then we send you a new ear cushion together with that return envelope.“ by Tom Lenders
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Episode Information
Getting In the Loop: Circular Economy | Sustainability | Closing the Loop
Katherine Whalen
1/17/22
Kicking off the new Getting in the Loop podcast season is entrepreneur Tom Leenders of Gerrard Street. Gerrard Street is a modular, high-end headphone company proving how circular products can be brought to market. In today's episode, you’ll discover how Gerrard Street distributes their headphones, the new type of customer they’ve added since the COVID19 pandemic, and the biggest design challenge they’ve faced so far.
ABOUT TODAY'S GUEST
Tom Leenders co-founded Gerrard Street after graduating with an MSc in Integrated Product Design from Delft University of Technology. Now over six years later, Tom joins us on the Getting in the Loop podcast to share what he’s learned and how Gerrard Street has evolved.
Resources and links discussed in this episode are available at gettinginthelooppodcast.com. Don't forget to check out our free circular economy resources including: