MakerBot will open a 3-D printing shop on Sept. 20 in New York City. Inside, a new breed of machines prints out designs from the web. The hope: to make the hobby mainstream.
Outside the MakerBot Store Clay Dillow
The 3-D printing world just took another big leap into the consumer market. Next stop: world domination?
MakerBot, the unofficial leader of the hobbyist 3-D printing movement, is putting the finishing touches on a consumer store located in the posh Manhattan neighborhood of NoHo.
Sure, the rare 3-D printer can be found in the corners of business service centers across the United States. But MakerBot claims their location at 298 Mulberry Street is the first one in the country dedicated to selling 3-D printers, supplies for the machines, and bespoke objects printed on-location.
If the new business proves successful, 3-D printing stands to expand from a relatively high-cost hobbyist venture into a mainstream consumer market.
"This is the first retail 3-D printing store" in the United States, said spokesperson Jenny Lawton from inside the shop. "We haven't combed the world over, but we're pretty sure it's the first ... of its kind."
On the heels of today's announcement the company also unveiled a 3-D printer called Replicator 2. The device is about the size of a cooler and can build objects three times more finely than MakerBot's previous desktop 3-D printer. It can also print more than a third larger, or about size of a big loaf of bread.
"It sets the standard in desktop 3-D printing," said MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis during a press briefing. "[Printed objects] won't feel rough like hobbyist 3-D printers' of the past."
