There's a brand that wants to make housework cool

Youth and housework. Two distant worlds, two straight lines that will never meet, both for lack of desire and lack of time. Sandwiched between jobs that leave little free time, university careers with inhuman rhythms, and far too much sleep in the back, the new generations now seem to have lost touch with that manual dimension that always distinguished our parents instead. How often were you scolded by your father for turning a few screws too slowly in the living room cupboard? Or when was the last time you painted the walls of your house? According to a 2019 study published by Hometree, Generation Z is the most reluctant to pick up a hammer or screwdriver, while among baby boomers (aged 54 to 72), only 21 percent do not prioritize housework. This vacuum fits the success of companies like TaskRabbit, the service founded in 2008 and acquired by Ikea in 2017, which allows people to hire "taskers" - self-employed people who are available to do any kind of work, from assembling furniture to minor repairs. Even though the success of the app (where around 1.7 million tasks were booked in 2020 alone, with the strongest user group being between 25 and 34 years old) is definitive proof of the existence of entire generations allergic to screws and nails, there are some who claim the opposite.

Founded in 2021 with the aim of creating «the most useful brand of household products on the planet», Character is a cross between your local DIY store and cosmetics brand Glossier, where toolboxes are colored in pastel shades and chores become a task shared with the community. The brand's aim is as simple as it is confusing: to glorify the impossible, to make cool all those little household chores that we usually hide in a corner of our minds, under the illusion that they don't exist. In short, it makes us want to do-it-yourself. «By combining easy-to-follow training for anyone, regardless of skill level, truly helpful on-call expert support, and a DIY store with carefully crafted and selected products, you can now effortlessly beautify your personal space,» says the website, where the color palette, labeling and anything else you can think of seems designed to appeal to anyone born after 1995. Will it really work? To entice its potential customers to buy, Character goes beyond simply selling household tools and tries to create a lifestyle brand where hammers and glasses absolutely must go together. The tool storage bags are reminiscent of those from Sporty&Rich and Aimé Leon Dore, while the website features dozens of tutorials for every type of job imaginable. Need to change the wallpaper? Here are the instructions. Need to fix your new TV to the wall? There's a guide for that too. Your new painting won't stand upright? Don't worry, there's a guide for that too. As if that wasn't enough, the website also offers "Projects", and" kits with everything you need, divided according to your DIY project.

«Character is not just the brand for people who have never been to Home Depot. It's the brand for people who are afraid to go to Home Depot,» commented one user on TikTok, referring to Character's decision not to compete directly with companies like Black&Decker or Bosch, but to create a niche of consumers who prefer collaborations or Barbie-style social posts instead of quality. If in the past we have seen hammers and pliers in a "cool" version - the best example remains the collabo between IKEA and Virgil Abloh or the one between Aimé Leon Dore and Porsche - Character's project aims at something even more extreme, completely removing the objects for sale from their original purpose to make them simply something to own for their own sake. Something very similar to what has happened in recent years with coffee and the rediscovery of mocha and bar machines by Generation Z, who are willing to invest even thousands of dollars in very expensive items and blends from all over the world. But if in this case the balance between quality and price is on the side of the consumer, this time it seems to be the beginning of a trend that, in the best-case scenario, could lead us to choose Bob The Builder as the next style icon.