Sugru make do and mend

This weekend the FT's magazine featured Jane ni Dhulchaointigh's mouldable hack and repair compound, Sugru. It's a clever idea, in tune with the times, and has had lots of PR, partly because of its eminently quotable inventor: "...a lot of design is about serving a consumerist culture, which I'm not particularly interested in." According to Sugru's web site the first commercially available batch sold out rapidly.

My only (slight) beef is the bright colours Sugru comes in, reflecting the rhetoric of pride in adapting and repairing, rather than disposing. When I think of some of the people who might benefit from hacks (a walking stick grip made more comfortable, a switch made more graspable, a treasured dish repaired), an option for neutral colours might just be more acceptable than playground oranges, reds or blues.