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Bram de Zwart began working in the 3D printing industry in 2009 with a mission to make manufacturing more local and sustainable. To that end he co-founded 3D Hubs, the world's largest and fastest-growing network of 3D printers, which gives over one billion people in the world access to a 3D printer within 10 miles of their home.
Bram will be speaking on the Main Stage at WIRED Retail, our second annual one-day summit focusing on the future of retail, being held in London on November 23.
He will take part in the session "Cool technologies explored, including: wearables, VR and 3D printing" alongside Billie Whitehouse of Wearable Experiments and Will McMaster from Visualise.
What are you planning to speak about at WIRED Retail?
I’ll be speaking about the impact of 3D printing on the future of retail. It has the potential to revolutionise the retail experience through enabling products to be both designed and produced at the point of sale. What we're going to see is more products shifting from an archaic mass manufacturing model, one that relies on a "one size fits all" solution, to tailored products that fit the specific needs of an individual.
Retailers who choose to embrace this opportunity sooner rather than later will be able to engage and interact with their customers in entirely new ways. Among others, Nike has already shown that this is possible on a global scale in 2D with their NikeiD footwear colour design platform. As 3D printing technologies and materials continue to get better and faster, you will start to see how things will get really interesting.
Is there anything you'd like to achieve by speaking at WIRED Retail?
As more retailers become aware of the advantages that 3D printing can provide for them such as eliminating inventory and creating experiences that increase customer engagement I think that we'll start to see a greater shift in mentality. A great example of this has been with the print+ headphones.
Those who purchase the professionally designed headphones are sent a digital file of the headphone design, which is then used for manufacturing the headphone parts on a 3D printer at home or through a local 3D printer on the 3D Hubs network. At the same time that the digital file of the headphone design is sent, the company also sends the customer an additional hardware component pack consisting of ear pads, an audio cable and speakers for bringing the whole product together.
After the customer has printed the headphone design file in their desired colour and material (a process that can take just a few hours), they are then able to assemble the product together along with the additional hardware components.
This method of distributed manufacturing not only eliminates multiple steps from the supply chain that would otherwise result in wasted resources and product, but also lowers the price of the product for the end user. Additionally, the ability to manufacture, assemble, repair, and upgrade a product at this degree creates a level of connection that just simply hasn’t existed with consumer products before.
At WIRED Retail, I'm hoping that sharing examples such as the print+ will help create new conversations about how 3D printing can be applied to other product designs and retail experiences. With over 24,000 3D printers connected on the 3D Hubs network across 150 countries, it's possible to start offering these products and experiences to customers now.
Who are you looking forward to hearing and/or meeting at WIRED Retail?
I'm looking forward to hearing more about how other companies and individuals are disrupting supply chains while simultaneously creating more engaging brand experiences. These include Stefan Siegel from NOT JUST A LABEL and Jessi Baker from Provenance. Ultimately, it's exciting to see how other businesses and individuals are seeing opportunities in the same space as we are but for completely different applications. In the end, I think it's reassuring to know that these disruptions are not a matter of "if" but rather, "when".
What do you think your sector of the WIRED World might look like in five years' time?
Over the past decade, "3D printing" has become a buzzword in mainstream media and most people know it only as a way for producing static plastic objects. Within the last few years, however, we've seen some incredible advancements in both materials and speed that are helping shape the next era of 3D printing for consumer applications. Among others, these include the Voxel8 and Carbon3D 3D printers, both of which will continue to revolutionise how people manufacture objects directly on their desktops.
We're also going to see 3D printing expand into more applications with higher quality materials, faster production times and more affordable prices. These applications include everything from tissue printing in the biomedical industry to custom metal part production in the aerospace industry and everything in between.
What’s next for 3D Hubs?
Our 3D Hubs API continues to operate as a sort of "Stripe for digital manufacturing", which gives both online retailers and physical storefronts access to a reliable, global manufacturing network without the investment of space, money and time needed for owning a 3D printer.
As more businesses continue to explore and adopt 3D printing for a range of applications, we’ve found that our API is a great way for helping them get started with their individual 3D printing needs. Additionally, since we have the potential to add new 3D printing technologies to our platform as soon as they are introduced into the world, this puts us in a unique position to always be at the forefront of helping others move away from existing supply chains and reduce the number of wasted resources and products. With the launch of 3D Hubs HD earlier this year, our network now consists of a full end-to-end solution for consumer and industrial grade 3D printing services around the globe.
WIRED Retail returns to London on November 23 at St Pancras Renaissance Hotel. Last year's event sold out, so secure your place now: WIRED subscribers save 10 percent. We also have a limited number of half-price tickets available for retail sector startups. For more information visit:wiredevent.co.uk/wired-retail-2015.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
