Your childhood Barbie could become gomi’s next marbled speaker

A Barbie doll left forgotten in the back of a closet for years might soon find a second life as a Bluetooth speaker. Brighton-based design studio gomi has partnered with Barbie on the Childhood Memories Collection, turning dolls and accessories that have reached the end of their toy box days into a limited series of electronics.

The creative process begins by collecting unused Barbie and Ken dolls sent in by the public. gomi processes these recovered plastics at its Brighton workshop, blending them with discarded plastic bags—a waste stream frequently excluded from standard household recycling—before pressing them into the studio’s signature swirling marbled housings. Because every batch yields a distinct color distribution, no two items look alike.

Rather than hiding the recycled origins, gomi turns the material itself into the visual identity of the collection. Saturated pinks, pale blues, and various fragments weave together across the surfaces, ensuring the new objects retain a visible trace of their former lives even as their function shifts entirely.

Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event

The sustainable ethos extends deep into the hardware as well. The speakers and power banks incorporate repurposed e-bike batteries, while the outer shells are assembled using screws instead of glue. This modular approach allows users to open, replace, and repair components as they age. gomi also has plans to introduce trade-in and upgrade programs to keep parts circulating instead of heading straight to landfills.