2023 Repair Hero of the Year Winners!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the 2023 Repair Hero of the Year Contest!

This was our first time running a year-long contest that also allowed for unlimited participant entries. The turnout was more than we could have expected and by mid-year, we had to revise how to make a submission. 

RHOTY was inspired by all of the Community members who take time out of their lives to help share their repair knowledge.

We recognize the effort it takes to meaningfully contribute to the repair movement. 

It’s not easy to take clear, quality, accurate photos that help guide the fixer through a repair. 

It’s also not easy to think about all of the cautions that need to be listed in order to keep people safe. There’s also the task of remembering to properly mark-up images and to make sure that each step can be universally understood. 

This level of care also goes into our Answers Forum (we had a separate contest for that), where you can go and ask/answer repair questions about anything!

These things, among others, aren’t easy to do when we are leading full lives, with family, friends, work, and most importantly, unlimited streaming options. 

We know that you want to preserve your valuable time and how compelling the convenience of buying something new can be when the old one breaks. 

We also know that as a society we are disconnected from the manufacturing process that produces many of our everyday products. Deep in the distance there might be some understanding of the materials, labor, and time involved in making something. But, for the most part, it’s an abstract thought, too far removed from our daily consciousness. 

We know that if you decide to try and fix the thing, you get something much better than just a few more hours of your favorite TV show if you hadn’t.  

You get to use your hands and other areas of your brain to problem solve. 

You get to connect with yourself (and if you have help, also to connect with others) and more crucially, you’re showing appreciation for all of the resources that it took to make the thing.

So thank you to everyone who fixed something last year! 

You’re all repair heroes! 

We wish everyone who entered could have won, because the truth is, even fixing one thing has a positive environmental impact that keeps one less thing out of the landfill. 

But, we did have to pick some winners.

Here are some of the RHOTY: CertainBro, Meow Purr, Sanjay Aiyagari, redishman, Mrmidnight, BenZ78, Carlos López (España – Spain), and Brendan. 

And one more thing! 

You’ll notice that we didn’t publish this announcement at the start of the year. This is because we want to make the 2024 RHOTY contest less daunting. 

We don’t want you to think of it as a New Years Resolution to fix, or to accumulate undue pressure to fix more than you can. Instead, we want you to see this contest as an opportunity to learn how to fix your stuff. 

Start whenever you want: today, next week, six months from now. 

Our goal is to support and encourage you to try repair by offering a sweet prize at the end. 

So, take a look around you, take notice of things that need to be fixed, and don’t forget to let us know. 

Thank you again for helping the world learn to fix every thing. 

To enter: Comment on this blog and write a story about your repair to enter for a chance to win a Pro Tech Toolkit! Winners will be announced around this time in 2025.