After looking everywhere for a way of protecting my FreeStyle Libre monitor without great results, I decided to design and produce one myself — a first run of 200 silicone covers sold on eBay UK, with 10% of profits donated to Diabetes UK to support diabetes research and people living with diabetes in the United Kingdom. 😀
At the time, the FreeStyle Libre reader was the only way to access your glucose readings — the LibreLink app integration that came later wasn’t there yet. Which meant people were carrying the reader everywhere, and it had no protection whatsoever. No case, no cover, nothing. For a device that was genuinely life-important, that felt like a gap worth filling.
So I designed one. 3D modelled, then manufactured in China. The cover was blue — deliberately, to raise diabetes awareness. It had a small pocket at the back for storing a spare ketone or blood glucose test strip. Practical first, design second. A very diabetes approach to product design.
For me, this was new territory. I’ve always lived in the digital realm — screens, pixels, print. Designing something you can hold in your hand, that someone else holds in their hand, that protects a device keeping them alive — that’s a different feeling entirely. Seeing the real impact of a physical object is something I’d never experienced before in quite that way.
The first run of 200 sold out. I didn’t do a second run, but I donated a number of covers to local hospitals and diabetes centres in London — where I was based at the time — to get them directly into the hands of people who needed them.
Looking back, a silicone reader cover feels like a thing from another era — we all use our phones now, and the Libre has moved on significantly. But back then, when that reader was the device and there was nothing to protect it, it was genuinely useful. And the blue colour meant that every time someone pulled it out of their bag, it said something about diabetes. Small things can do that.
First run sold out!
Store a B-Ketone Test Strip or just a spare Blood Glucose Test Strip at the back!
