Kibu Wins TCT Award and Featured in TCT Magazine

We've got some brilliant news to share. Kibu has won the TCT Consumer Product Application Award at the TCT Awards 2025, and our founder Sam has been chatting with TCT Magazine about why we make headphones the way we do.

For those who haven't heard of TCT, they're the go-to voice for additive manufacturing and 3D printing—the clever technology that makes Kibu possible. Being recognised by them feels like a wonderful stamp of approval for everything we're trying to do.

Why We Do Things Differently

Did you know that in the UK alone, over 100,000 tonnes of electronics are thrown away every year? That's a staggering amount of stuff heading to landfill—cables, gadgets, and yes, lots of cheap headphones too.

When Sam spoke to TCT, he explained why this bothered us so much:

"It's a commodity when it shouldn't be."

He's talking about those flimsy headphones covered in cartoon characters that seem designed to break and be tossed in the bin. We wanted to make something different. Something that children would actually want to look after.

Building Connections, Not Just Headphones

Here's the thing about Kibu: when you build something yourself, you feel differently about it. Sam put it perfectly:

"If you've built the thing to begin with, like your IKEA chair, first you get an emotional attachment to that object—it's your chair, you've built it—so hopefully you're then incentivised to want to fix it, if you're able to. We wanted it to be as easy to repair as it was to build in the first place."

That's the heart of Kibu. When children click those colourful pieces together, they're not just making headphones. They're learning how things work. They're discovering that broken doesn't have to mean binned. And they're building something they'll want to take care of.

What Families Are Telling Us

The best bit? Parents and children are getting it. Sam shared some of the lovely feedback we've been receiving:

"We're seeing more and more feedback from parents and children—like this is the way products should be."

That means the world to us. Every message from a family who loves their Kibu headphones reminds us why we started this in the first place.

Made Here, Made Fresh

Every pair of Kibu headphones is 3D printed right here in the UK, using recycled materials. We don't make thousands of headphones and stack them in a warehouse hoping someone will buy them. Instead, when you place an order, your headphones go into the queue and get printed just for you.

Our little fleet of printers can make a pair of headphones every 25 minutes. You pick your colours, we print them fresh, and they arrive ready for you to build together.

And because we use 3D printing, we can keep making Kibu better. When families tell us what they love or what could be improved, we can make changes straight away. No waiting months for a new factory run—we can tweak and improve with every single print.

Just the Beginning

Sam told TCT that this is only the start:

"We want to be doing more and more products that basically meet those principles: build, repair, recycle. We're not going to ever work on a product that we don't think we can firstly imbue those principles but also, where we can't add a level of value in terms of making it a better product."

So watch this space. Kibu headphones are just the beginning of something bigger.

Thank You

A huge thank you to Laura Griffiths and everyone at TCT Magazine for sharing our story, and to the judges who chose Kibu for the Consumer Product Application Award. We're chuffed to bits.

If you'd like to read the full article, you can find it on TCT Magazine's website. And if you're ready to build your own pair of award-winning headphones, pop over to our shop.

Here's to building, fixing, and making things that last.