Team UnLimbited’s 2020 Wrapped

What a year it has been! We aren’t the first people to say this and we definitely won’t be the last but 2020 really was the year that no one could have predicted. 

For many of us, it has been an incredibly challenging year. Considering everything that has gone on, we are even more grateful than normal for the continuous support you have shown us this year.

Thanks to your love, Team UnLimbited has achieved amazing things in 2020. With unity, compassion and most of all, plenty of helping hands, 3D printed and otherwise, we have continued on our mission to empower those with limb difference. 

In the background between home-schooling, arm building, face shield making and lots of other projects, we’ve also been working on the next version of our arm! 

2021 is going to be very exciting as we release this open-source design that can be used by anyone, for free. 

More on that soon though, and in the meantime here’s our summary of Team UnLimbited’s 2020.

Our machines printed 3D face shields and protective devices

We are prouder than ever to be part of the international 3D printing community and as Covid-19 struck early in the year, this amazing group of people repurposed their printers to create PPE.

We were quick to get involved and created face shields using an easy-to-build open source design from 3DVerkstan. We even made a nifty device that eases the strain a facemask places on someone’s ears, and a helpful tool to remove other equipment without having to touch the item directly. You can find out more about this in our blog.          

By May, we had printed more than 1,100 face shields and protective devices! 

Our facemasks went to help the superheroes of our local community; hospital workers, community nurses, chemists and GP staff, as well as store attendants in local supermarkets.

Our co-founder Drew Murray said: “The world needs everyone to come together at this time. We’re delighted to play our part in helping to provide essential equipment so the nation can keep running and to protect those who are working tirelessly to keep us all safe.”

Thank you to everyone who supported our efforts.

The UnLimbited Cup 

This summer we ran our first UnLimbited Cup as a way of celebrating our incredible recipients. We cannot begin to tell you how difficult it was to whittle down our designs to our favourite eight arms. After a lot of debate, we managed to do it.

First Group 1 competed against each other. The group included an Infinity Gauntlet arm inspired by Avengers: Infinity War. Don’t worry, we made sure Thanos couldn’t get hold of it! We also had a Groot arm inspired by Guardians of the Galaxy. The Marvel films are a Team UnLimbited favourite.  

Then Group 2 was put to the test and featured four other arms, including a pink Barbie arm and one featuring Harry Potter. 

The competition was fierce. The final was between our beautiful rainbow arm and Alisha’s bright yellow “Always Believe” arm. 

It was a very close call but after the final round of voting the winner was our beautiful rainbow arm. We thought it was very fitting that after a stormy and confusing 2020, our winning design was a beautiful rainbow arm that inspires hope. 

The Team UnLimbited Community got even bigger 

2020 saw us giving a massive welcome to everyone who discovered us throughout this year. We are continuously amazed at the size and strength of our community.

Some people discovered us through the video shared by Tech that Matters. Others saw us on their TV as All4 showed our Shed of the Year episode again. 

Some people even discovered us thanks to Everton striker, Dominic Calvert-Lewin who tweeted Kobi’s Everton arm that our design helped create. Calvert-Lewin’s tweet led to more footballers and fans showing their support for Team UnLimbited. Read the full blog here.

No matter how you discovered our charity this year or if you have been here right from the start, we are glad to have you as part of the team! 

We built one of our favourite arms 

With the popularity of Minecraft, we knew it was only a matter of time before someone asked us for a Minecraft arm. 

This year it finally happened, and we created one of our favourite arms ever for Leslie! This arm is definitely capable of fending off creepers. Read our blog to discover more about our Minecraft arm. 

Steve was honoured with a BEM

Steve, one of Team UnLimbited’s co-founders as many of you know personally, was awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) for his innovation and ongoing contribution to the limb difference community. It was very well deserved. Check out our blog post on Steve’s tremendous achievement here.

Drew was a judge for The Drum’s Social Purpose Awards

Steve was not the only busy founder this year. Our very own co-founder, Drew was a judge for The Drum’s Social Purpose Awards.

Drew joined the likes of ITV’s Director of Social Purpose, Marketing Director at The Red Cross and Age UK’s Executive Fundraising Director to judge this year’s entries. 

We launched our official YouTube channel

Last year we launched our new website and this year we launched our official YouTube Channel. This channel is becoming the official home for our videos, guaranteed to make you smile.

Finally, Team UnLimbited won the Alex Moulton Award for 2020

Last and certainly not least, we were over the moon that we won the Alex Moulton Award for 2020. This was awarded to us by the Institution of Engineering Designers (IED) for our work on 3D printed arms and hands. We are so honoured to receive this award as you can see in our blog post here.

And that is our 2020 wrapped up

We want to give a massive thank you to everyone who has supported us during this very difficult year. We can’t wait to keep on building arms in 2021. See you in the New Year!