Our Message
Pebbl didn’t begin as a business. It started with an everyday frustration that turned into thousands of prototypes.
"We were exhausted by tangled cables messing up our bags, our focus, and our space."
As students at the University of Bristol constantly moving between campus cafés, libraries, and commutes, pulling out a laptop or phone charger meant minutes of annoying, tangled unknotting. Everything on the market was either clunky, overdesigned, or came with cheap pre-installed cables you didn’t want or trust.
We had already spent hard-earned money on durable Apple chargers — why couldn’t someone just engineer a sleek, automatic winder specifically for the cords you already own?
Arik Shukhman
Founder & Product Engineer Engineering, University of Bristol
Holly Brown
Co-Founder & Brand Lead University of Bristol GraduateArmed with 3D printers and hand tools
So, we decided to engineer our own. Arik had access to 3D printers in the engineering workshop, so we sketched out the very first spool geometry. Armed with whatever hand tools we could find, we created the early versions of what would become the Pebbl 1 Mini and Pebbl 2.
It wasn't pretty on day one — but the moment the spring clicked and retracted the cable smoothly, we knew we had stumbled upon something real.
"A simple, clean fix that makes packing up effortless, winds up at the click of a button, adjusts to any length you need, and keeps things neat without changing how you already charge."— Principles etched into every prototype
From student hack to award winner
It wasn’t perfect at the start, but it worked. And that was enough to keep going. We perfected the internal ratchet mechanism and spring curves through thousands of prototypes, testing wire friction against authentic Apple rubber and braided cables.
Pebbl was named a winner in the University of Bristol’s prestigious New Enterprise Competition, earning seed funding and support to scale our vision.
Layer by layer in our 3D printing farm
Rather than outsourcing to mass injection-molding overseas, we chose deliberate additive manufacturing. Today, every single Pebbl is 3D printed with care from sustainable, plant-based Matte PLA derived from renewable corn starch.
The subtle micro-lines you feel under your fingertips are living proof of this process. They give each unit its own unique tactile identity, while internal hexagonal infill keeps it lightweight yet drop-resistant.
Learn more about our 3D printing process →
Arik & Holly in Bristol
Snap. Stack. Go.
What began as a personal hack quickly grew into an international community of tens of thousands of Pebblers across Germany, France, Spain, the UK, and beyond.
We focus on the small things, like messy cables, so you can focus on the bigger things that matter most to you.