iFixit opens in Chattanooga on Thursday

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- Call it just the fix one part of town needed…

 “A new company of Chattanooga that has really invested in Chattanooga spent a tremendous amount of money building out a building in an area where most corporations wouldn’t touch with a 10 foot pole.” said Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly. 

 Rehabilitating an old building near the chicken plant in the heart of Chattanooga…

 “So we took a dilapidated building and kind of a neglected part of town, and we want to revitalize it and make it part of the future of Chattanooga,” said Mayor Kelly. 

 That future includes adding 200 new jobs.

 iFixit will use their new 24 million dollar Chattanooga home to teach folks how to repair their own cell phones.

 “Various gizmos in our life break sometimes batteries, and our phones wear out, broken doesn’t need to be the end, you can fix it, you just have to believe in yourself,” said Kyle Weins, CEO of iFixit. 

 Californians Kyle Weins and Luke Soules launched the tech repair company in 2003. 

iFixit founders take a green approach to technology.

“Folks who are all working together to make this a better place, to restore some of the challenges with pollution that we have had in the past, I think iFixit wants to be part of solving things and part of building the future,” said Weins. 

 iFixit publishes free tutorials to fix gadgets, plus sells the parts and tools to do the job yourself.

 “You can get a repair kit to fix your phone with the battery and all the tools much cheaper than a new phone,” said Weins. 

 Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly led the ribbon cutting ceremony Thursday for the new iFixit distribution center.

“So it checks a ton of boxes from one Chattanooga plant, both creating a competitive regional economy, creating jobs the and closing gaps” Mayor Kelly concluded.