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Janne Kyttanen: Live Entrepreneurship and 3D Printing Value Networks

Janne Kyttanen is a pioneering designer in 3D printing who has brought us some of the world’s first 3D printed furniture, lamps, consumer objects and textiles. As an independent designer and working with Materialise and later 3D Systems to whom he sold his company FOC, Janne has left his mark on our industry. Right now Janne is onto the next big thing and he believes that to be value networks. Instead of focusing on one business taking all of the initiative, cost and reaping all of the benefits of a project, technology or development Janne envisions more of a cooperative business model. He believes in looking beyond the firm and harnessing the agility of 3D printing to co-create innovation alongside partners. This is something that I’m intensely skeptical about. Can you really get partners along the value network to work together to innovate? How do you effectively get firms with diverging interests to work together? Won’t the whole thing collapse in a meetings morass or under reams of contracts?

In order to show us what he means and demonstrate that value networks could be used to create innovative businesses we will be doing a series together with Janne. For the duration of the year Janne will be showcasing his business ideas, teaching the concepts of value networks and actually trying to get some value networks innovation off the ground. He will then share with us his steps and progress. He’ll interview leading executives to see what they think, share his business ideas with us and seek out partnerships. We’re calling this series Live Entrepreneurship since Janne will be sharing his continued progress. In order to kick this off, we interviewed him so that he could tell us what it was all about.

So what again are value networks?

It really boils down to one understanding that collaboration creates more abundance for everybody rather than looking at each other as competitors or transactional customers. When one compasses that mindset, blue ocean strategy ideas start flooding in.

What is the current state of 3D printing markets?

A lot of excitement going on, but I see a lot of incremental developments going on and when one has an incremental mindset, don’t expect any exponential opportunities to arise.

What do you hope to change? And, how will you change things?

People to start thinking beyond engineering solutions, think bigger, across boundaries and blend categories which open up new blue ocean markets. Hopefully through leading by example.

Why are value networks important?

They are nothing new, but they are still very new for the 3D printing industry. Give you an example. If I have an application for something, which can create an exponential scale, but if the material cost is too high, nobody makes anything and the industry won’t progress. It only makes sense for the parties to come together in a collective manner and creating value together for a new market rather than focusing on narrow minded transactions between parties.

Why should I care?

If you wish to create exponential abundance, you should. If you wish to create the next incremental engineering improvement, look away and carry on.

When are they advantageous?

When there is proven scale for a new product or service and an equity share creates more profit for everybody rather than transactional business between two parties.

Does this mean that I could raise less money and work with others?

Yes indeed. Let me give you an example of how 3 parties can come together and create a blue ocean value network business together.

Party A has a factory, which makes machines with 5x margin

Party A sells the machine to Party B, which creates things with 5x margin to a channel.

Let’s assume, I have an application, which can create 100x value for both Party A and B, but it doesn’t make any sense for me to start raising money for building a factory, which already exists or in building a channel, which somebody has spent decades creating. Nobody really has to make big investments, but it all boils down to connecting the dots and parties coming together around a round table in a transparent manner.

In the course of this series, I will openly lay down examples how it can work, but also show how linear thinking and companies not being able to flex around their existing business models, will also kill a lot of good ideas.

My tagline for 2020 is: Your expertise. My creativity. Together we create value for your 3D printing business and the industry at large. What this means, is that I used to know nothing about the construction world or food production for that matter. When people with totally different perspectives and backgrounds come together, you create magic. As one of the big ice cream producers literally told me, “the disruption had to come from the outside”. You just gotta draw a fine line between when to listen and when to fight. These ice cream makers saw what we were trying to do and their initial reaction was: that’s not how you make ice cream. We have been making ice cream for 100 years. We know how to do it.

So this is already happening?

It’s the same thing in 3D printing too. Makerbot is a classic example of a company, which carved out a new market in an old industry.. Stratasys could have created a plywood 3D printer as a weekend project, but since their channel didn’t see value in low price – low quality machines, why would they make such device? Makerbot managed to sell a dream to the makers.

Aligntech is a good example of where and why I would like the industry to open their eyes for. While dental may seem like a killer market for the 3D printing industry, it actually makes little on teeth, if you compare to Align, which generates 1.5bln in annual sales with just one product…”selling smiles”, not selling technology.

What I mean is that when people have the ability to dream big, things happen. There is a good quote in the Moonshots book by Naveen Jain, where he asks which is an easier business: a business with an incremental growth potential, say a corner café or a mission to mars. Most people would say that the corner café is an easier business, where in his opinion most get it wrong. A corner café has X amount of seats and your growth is limited and one is cut throat from the start. Whereas getting finance and big people behind your big plans going to Mars is far easier than getting finance for your corner café.

We’re really looking forward to hearing more from Janne in this series!

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The Diamond Project

The Diamond Project is a business idea from Valerio Semeraro. He is an Italian born in Martina Franca, Puglia, Italy. He is a passionate, technical, and highly enthusiastic 3D printing artist. Martina 3D Printing is an Instagram page he started, and it lead to this particular project we are showcasing today. I think it is an interesting concept that with some assistance could scale.

The “Diamond” Project is trying to create a diamond capable of projecting holograms suspended in the air.

We like to create objects that are unique in the world and different from anything we’ve seen before.We aspire to revolutionize the display of holograms with devices thanks to an application of 3D printing.

Diamond Project Prototype

Their Diamond wants to replace typical logos on the front bonnets of future cars. It will have a function similar to the Rolls-Royce statue and will highlight innovation, design, and technology. This design will give a futuristic look to cars as it will display a hologram on the hood. The technology they are using can also be readily applied to different mediums such as car headlights, audio speakers, gadgets for televisions, gadgets for telephones, lamps, advertising, and much more. It is a cool technology that is leveraging AR.

Here is my opinion on the project. I think that the project is truly in its infancy and needs more guidance from seasoned business professionals. The concept is good and definitely a doable one technology-wise. I do not believe they have the bandwidth or business experience to grow this fully. I am helping them in the sense that I want to highlight them for this though: dogged persistence. I will say that Valerio and his team have been emailing me for months sending me different media as well as updates on their project. It shows that as an organization they will put in the work necessary to grow. They just need the right business counsel to grow exponentially.

Valerio Semeraro

They are looking for some assistance in terms of company direction. Their intent is to create functional and futuristic prototypes starting from the holographic logos on the bonnets of cars. They are looking for someone to give them a hand to build their project. Their ideals of inventiveness came trough their Fablab origins. This idea won the Italian Microsoft award “SognatoriDigitali”. If this intrigues you and you want to help this project more contact them through email at diamond.project.hologram@gmail.com.

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3D Printing & the Circular Economy Part 4: Anthroposphere

Technosphere

Today we will be discussing the anthroposphere in relation to a circular economy. The anthroposphere can be defined as the part of the environment that is made or modified by humans for use in human activities and human habitats. People also refer to the anthroposphere as the technosphere. Humans have evolved over time to build more tools to navigate their environment. Technology is the crux of this. In order to navigate one’s environment, there is an implied and necessary usage of resources within an environment. To thrive, one must efficiently use their resources, but the question is whether or not humans are doing so. The circular economy is trying to establish a thought process and system of humans having a connection to their habits that cause deterioration of the world. We shall look into how the current state of humanity and the anthroposphere point towards how close we are to moving towards a circular economy.

The history of human development and advancement is imbued in creation. We are a species that continuously builds. This is a testament to the human society’s sense of exploration and experimentation. We are consistently challenging the status quo and trying to make our lives better. With humans inherently trying to make the world precise or technology driven, we are applying a mindset that is narrow minded at times. The technology and innovations we create are susceptible to unsustainable production methods. An example can be taken from overproduction with the use of injection molding systems at different companies. The technology itself is great as it produces such a large quantity of items for us in a short time, but that is a downfall of the technology as well. It is super efficient, and it causes us over produce. Building a machine such as an injection molder also leads to the utilization of resources inherently. Now it is important to denote that the technology is not bad; it just leads to unintended problems in terms of sustainability, the anthroposphere, and the circular economy. This is the internal debate of innovation and technology. We are trying to advance society, but we may be digressing it if we use all our resources. There is only a finite supply it seems.

How does Human Development relate to the Circular Economy

In terms of humans, I think a good amount of people in the developing world are okay in terms of life standards. This is granted a generalization, but there is validity to this. There is another opposing statement that occurs from this frame of reference: Life in underdeveloped nations is affected by developed nations having better standards of life. This does not necessarily bode well for the whole anthroposphere and the circular economy. It also seems unlikely that everywhere on Earth will have an equal distribution of resources and technology development. So how do we still work on this ideal of a circular economy when things seem unlikely? If we want to live the ideals of a circular economy to better the anthroposphere, various nations should be more focused on producing what they can based on their environment. Would this be good or bad though?

Waste and Manufacturing Cycle

Based on the issues brought up today, I will be doing more research. I believe the importance of localization in production is a major key within our anthroposphere. These are some basic questions and assumptions I have. I will be researching and providing statistics on various items within industrial waste as well as nations that are focused on localization of their production and how this contributes to the overall anthroposphere.

Interview with Zach Kaplan of Corazon Capital, mHUB and Inventables

Zach Kaplan

Zach Kaplan is the founder and CEO of the company Inventables, a 3D carving company offering a powerful machine, intuitive software, and unique materials that make carving easy and inspiring. Kaplan is also a member of the board of directors for mHUB, Chicago’s first innovation center focused on physical product development and manufacturing, and a founding partner at Corazon Capital. He has a vested interest in the entrepreneurial economy that can be afforded through 3D printing and product manufacturing as his company helps to enable entrepreneurs within this field.

Give us a bit of info on your background?

I got started in digital manufacturing at Glenbrook North High School. That experience inspired me to get a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

What was your first experience as a maker?

My first experience as a maker was probably playing with construction toys as a child. We had LEGOs, Construx, and cardboard brick blocks. The first electrical project I remember was a soldering an autonomous robot together in 6th grade.

Chicago has deep roots in manufacturing, what effect has that had?

Manufacturers in Illinois account for 12.6 percent of the total output in the state, employing 9.5 percent of the workforce. Total output from manufacturing was $103.75 billion in 2017. In addition, there were 572,700 manufacturing employees in Illinois. I think that has helped us build an ecosystem to advance digital manufacturing.

Chicago has been the center of gravity for digital manufacturing. We’ve shown a lot of leadership when it comes to the growth in the movement. The Museum of Science and Industry was one of the first to have a fab lab. Chicago was the first big city to build a large scale makerspace in a library. Pumping Station One started in 2009 before it was fashionable to build a makerspace or hackerspace. Today mHub and DMDII are buzzing with activity and have brought together the traditional manufacturing industries, the startup community, with digital manufacturing technology. It’s a great place for Inventables to be.

X-Carve by Inventables

As a member of the board of Directors at mHUB, what excites you about developments within Chicago and the additive manufacturing sector as a whole?

mHUB was a glimmer of an idea 5 years ago when we first started talking about it at the GE Garage during Chicago Ideas Week. Today it’s a 63,000 square-foot facility that contains 10 fabrication labs, including electronics, plastic fabrication, metals, textiles and rapid prototyping, as well as a microfactory for small production runs. What excites me is it’s buzzing with activity.

You have a manufacturing background but also have involvement within the VC world as a founding partner at Corazon Capital. Could you give some insight on what it means to go from an entrepreneur to an investor?

Going from an entrepreneur to an investor happens pretty organically. As you go on your entrepreneurial journey other entrepreneurs start asking you questions or for feedback on fundraising. I gradually started getting more and more deals sent to me and eventually started investing. Corazon has a team of people and I’ve become a venture partner. My role is to help identify investments, evaluate them, and help other founders in our portfolio by making introductions or sharing my experiences. In terms of my own investment thesis I like to invest in people working on problems in big markets where the product is just starting to be defined. At Corazon we invest in seed and early stage deals so the product is still evolving.

What advice do you have to people who are working with startups in the additive manufacturing space?

Fail often to succeed sooner.

What advantages does Chicago have in terms of the global maker scene?

Chicago is well connected in the global maker scene because of O’Hare airport. Almost every city is a direct flight away. We sometimes take that for granted living here. We have McCormick Place which brings the IMTS (International Manufacturing Technology Show).

International Manufacturing Trading Show

What are some trends to watch out for within the maker world?

Low cost distributed digital manufacturing with CNC machines is going to dramatically increase over the next 5 years.

The Entrepreneurial and Maker Community

Maker Movement

What is the maker movement? The maker movement is a unique combination of artistry, circuitry, and old-fashioned craftsmanship. This is not new to us a society. Societal advancement has been predicated on people being able to create inventions that take us to the next level. We progress as humans due to our ability to make tools. I believe though that the recent resurgence of the maker community points toward some interesting implications overall for the global economy. In this article, I will point out my thoughts on the maker community as it relates to entrepreneurial activity as well as the global economy.

With the invention of 3D printing, people are able to create objects and parts with their imaginations. It takes a little bit of time to either find a part, or draw a part for production. With a couple of button presses we are able to create simple and complex geometries. These can then be leveraged for larger scale projects. People have the autonomy to build products for themselves and not need to be tied to any corporation that is making things. So what is important about that previous statement? Well, it shows that there can be a market for those who are able to create. There is a subtle shift when one learns that the means of production can be shifted from a large manufacturer to a consumer even if this is on a small scale. That leads naturally to people and smaller organizations questioning the status quo. This then can lead to entrepreneurial thought processes and new innovation.

2019 is the lowest global growth since the Financial Crisis

According to the United Nations, global growth is expected to remain at 3.0 percent in 2019 and 2020, however, the steady pace of expansion in the global economy masks an increase in downside risks that could potentially exacerbate development challenges in many parts of the world, according to the World Economic Situation and Prospects 2019. The global economy is facing a confluence of risks, which could severely disrupt economic activity and inflict significant damage on longer-term development prospects. These risks include an escalation of trade disputes, an abrupt tightening of global financial conditions, and intensifying climate risks.

Here are some even more fascinating statements from the United Nations: In many developed countries, growth rates have risen close to their potential, while unemployment rates have dropped to historical lows. Among the developing economies, the East and South Asia regions remain on a relatively strong growth trajectory, amid robust domestic demand conditions. Beneath the strong global headline figures, however, economic progress has been highly uneven across regions. Despite an improvement in growth prospects at the global level, several large developing countries saw a decline in per capita income in 2018. Even among the economies that are experiencing strong per capita income growth, economic activity is often driven by core industrial and urban regions, leaving peripheral and rural areas behind. While economic activity in the commodity-exporting countries, notably fuel exporters, is gradually recovering, growth remains susceptible to volatile commodity prices. For these economies, the sharp drop in global commodity prices in 2014/15 has continued to weigh on fiscal and external balances, while leaving a legacy of higher levels of debt.

I am going to analyze the following statements and relate them to the maker and entrepreneurial world:

The global economy is facing a confluence of risks, which could severely disrupt economic activity and inflict significant damage on longer-term development prospects.
Despite an improvement in growth prospects at the global level, several large developing countries saw a decline in per capita income in 2018. Even among the economies that are experiencing strong per capita income growth, economic activity is often driven by core industrial and urban regions, leaving peripheral and rural areas behind.

The first statement above refers to an underlying fear of global economic recession or depression from my analysis. The risks that this statement refers to are downside risks. Downside risks refer to estimations of a security’s potential to suffer a decline in value if the market conditions change, or the amount of loss that could be sustained as a result decline. Essentially if global growth stagnates and regresses, we do face global regression and depression possibilities. So why is this important for the maker community?

Democratized Product Development

Democratization of skills and making abilities is crucial for people within a depression or regressed state of economy. Jobs are cut thin during this time period for different institutions within global recessions. Those who are still very fortunate are the people who have the ability to create or make products as they can now be more efficient as well as build products that serve people at cheaper rates, as well as help to build up their own businesses. This can then lead to the market economy over time correcting itself. Then the cycle continues over time.

As outlined earlier in this article, I believe society progresses as innovation and inventions progress. This refers directly to the maker movement. In the times before an economic regression or depression, individuals who can leverage their skills to create are in less trouble than people who do not have these skills. The makers have the ability to transform society. Being able to create with the imagination and a couple of tools is the new means of production within the world. With individuals able to iterate with 3D printing, open source software, and a variety of info, it can revitalize an economy as these people may be employing others in the future due to their ability to create. Creation and innovation lead to a ripple effect. Value creation ensues when new products are made. We serve society when we are able to make. Hence it is important that makers are seen as the main drivers of the market economy if they decide to make their products for others and not just for themselves within their own environments. The ability to use items such as a 3D printer is immense. People and organizations in the maker community can now build. They are the ones who have the power in the market. If one wants to be ahead of the curve in terms of the macro-economy, it would be a strong argument for one to be versed in 3D Printing as the past, present, and future has always lied within people who control the means of production.

Bioprinting 101 Part 18 – Pharmaceutical Testing

A pharmaceutical test can be referred to as a clinical trial or a rigorously controlled test of a new drug or a new invasive medical device on human subjects. In the United States, it is conducted under the direction of the FDA before being made available for general clinical use. With the testing of various drugs it is important to understand their efficacy. The FDA approves drugs for the public use after said tests have gained FDA clearance. It is such a pivotal moment within the development of any drug and it costs a good amount of money to go through FDA clinical trials. Most of these trials typically involved the testing of a drug on an animal as well. Today we will analyze bioprinting and this particular sector of the healthcare industry and how it may change what is possible in years to come.

The field of pharmaceuticals focuses on the following: drug discovery as well as drug development. When one discovers a novel usage of a chemical in terms of a drug, it must then be tested thoroughly a number of times in order to have validity as a commonplace treatment to a specific pathology or ailment. This also allows for one to see how a drug may be developed in lieu of complications that arise when testing a drug. A lot of these tests can be very expensive when done. A way to reduce cost of said tests could be bioprinting. Currently, the technology is not at a scale where one can mass produce tissues or organs for the use of clinical trials on a large scale quantity. With time though, this could be a reality and it can help save time and materials for pharmaceutical companies. Bioprinting also allows pharmaceutical companies to have models of human organs that may provide more accurate test results than lets say a pig organ genetically.

High Throughput Screening and Pharmaceuticals

We briefly have talked about animal trials already, but let us take a closer look at animal trials. Some animal tests take months or years to conduct and analyze (e.g., 4-5 years, in the case of rodent cancer studies), at a cost of a lot of dollars per substance examined (typically $2 to $4 million per two-species lifetime of a cancer study). The inefficiency and exorbitant costs associated with animal testing makes it impossible for regulators to adequately evaluate the potential effects of the more than 100,000 chemicals currently in commerce worldwide, let alone study the effects of a myriad combinations of chemicals to which humans and wildlife are exposed, at low doses, every day throughout life. One may even look into the ethics behind an animal test overall, and they could argue that bioprinting methods can be a solution to solve ethical problems of using animals detrimentally, but in a manner to serve humans. With bioprinted organs and tissue used for pharmaceutical testing animal ethics may be detracted from pharmaceutical testing (even though ethics is still very apparent if we want to analyze stem cell use within bioprinting, but that is not the topic of discussion).

Bioprinting can truly be beneficial to pharmaceutical testing if high throughput screening is also integrated. High throughput screening is a method to automate and reduce the costs of drug testing. As mentioned previously in our bioprinting series, high-throughput screening (HTS) is a method for scientific experimentation especially used in drug discovery and relevant to the fields of biology and chemistry. Using robotics, data processing/control software, liquid handling devices, and sensitive detectors, high-throughput screening allows a researcher to quickly conduct millions of chemical, genetic, or pharmacological tests. With the combination of high-throughput screening and bioprinting, automation of pharmaceutical testing will cut down the time needed to conduct these type of tests, which also leads itself to better use of time and more money to be made for pharmaceutical companies large and small.

Animal Testing

Overall there lies large potential with bioprinting and pharmaceutical testing. It still is far from a strong reality due to the following factors:

The healthcare industry does not innovate or change methods quickly due to the standards being used.
A lack of FDA clearance for bioprinting as a whole holds back development
Not a lot of work done in terms of perfecting these technologies when applied to a large scale pharmaceutical test being done

Interview with Patrizio Carlucci of Innovation Lab ECCO on 3D Printing Shoes

Patrizio Carlucci

Patrizio Carlucci is the Head of Innovation Lab ECCO a subsidiary of Danish shoemaker ECCO. The Innovation Lab is ECCO’s independent cross-disciplinary design studio. They explore, create, and deliver projects embracing alternative production methods, various materials, new technologies and experiential solutions. This lab has a big project called QUANT-U. It is a footwear customisation project by Innovation Lab ECCO. Built on half a century of industry experience and footwear research in dynamics and fit: QUANT-U combines future technologies to create 3D printed customised comfort, quantified by you. So for more info on innovation and 3D printing within the footwear industry pay attention to this interview!

Tell me a little bit about your background and how you are at this point of your life and your career.

I am an industrial designer by trade with a keen passion towards computer aided design and 3D printing. Fortunate enough in my career to be involved in innovative projects, not only from a designer’s perspective, I have been driven to challenge my own skills and knowledge base on a regular basis. Having been an early adopter of innovative digital tools has helped me in roles were transformation and change management was paramount for businesses, especially from a product strategy perspective.

What are some of the most important aspects of your career that have followed you through various roles?

A common thread for me has been the application of digital agile processes between concepts and products. Being agile in product design and development means more opportunities to identify at an early stage a breakthrough design direction or to refine to perfection existing ones. Furthermore, I have never understood how design and styling, in terms of creative moments, could be isolated from the physical creation of a product, particularly when ultimate product performance is paramount. Designers often delegate 3D work to a modeler, and this is often cause for delays and misinterpretation. For this, from 3D modeling passing by FEA simulation to 3D renders used for marketing purposes, I have personally experienced almost any phase of advanced product development. This helped me further down the line with a decent understanding of advantages and shortcomings of innovative technologies during innovation tasks for the entire product life cycle management.

Quant-U

What skills are the most useful to have at the intersection of 3D Printing and footwear in particular?

It might be trivial but 3D modeling and developing a shoe is a challenging feat compared to other types of products. To mention just a few reasons for this: the lack of lines’ symmetry between the medial and lateral sides of the shoe, the criticality of observing the right fit requisites for a wide range of wearers and the relatively low-tech manufacturing processes that causes inconsistencies between the 3D models and the final shape of the shoe. This is mainly due to components that can’t be molded, cemented or stitched in their final shape if not developed in a flattened form. Additionally, a shoe is a soft and hard good at the same time, requiring distinct processes for uppers and soles. 3D printing an outsole creates a decent representation of the final product but 3D printing a soft upper that feels like the final product is close to impossible.

The team at Ecco has had some interesting projects coming recently. Can you go into more depth about what Ecco is doing in particular when it comes to 3D Printing and footwear?

Dassault Systemes

We are focusing heavily on the wearable data capturing process, both in terms of next generation hardware development and for the advanced interpretation of motion data related to FEA processes with our project partners Dassault Systemes. With DOW Chemical, another project partner, we continuously explore further properties of 3D printed silicone we use for our Quant-U project. There is a lot of hyped and misunderstood activity around 3D printed footwear without a solid solution for true mass production and customization. AM offers the chance to create bespoke parts in series, but this is rarely translated in a consumer product; most likely due to the complexity of the 3D models and a lack of measuring data to begin with. To solve this, we invested heavily on the digital capture and interpretation of motion and orthotic data and the related AI and automated processes for the creation of 3D models without human intervention. With our Quant-U project we are showcasing these abilities on the market already and we look forward to extending its reach to more customers soon.

Which countries around the world are the most innovative in terms of integrating fashion and technology? Where should we be paying attention to in terms of 3D Printing and fashion?

Well, if you consider how thin the separation line between fashion and sportswear is today, and if you consider that technology in wearable goods is usually seen in sportswear, I would put the USA and Germany on the top list. France is seeing a lot of activity related to technology in the luxury brands arena, although still at an experimental level. In Italy, the motherland of luxury goods manufacturing, there is some use of AM processes in the product development phase that might find their way in final products. In the Netherlands, a country often ahead of the curve, there is a vibrant movement dedicated to 3D printed shoes that has been inspiring for a lot of young designers, although not commercially exploited yet. For us at ECCO, a Danish company, we believe to express digital maturity in fashion with our latest project and we hope to engage more and more with consumers from this point of view.

I believe that the next technological innovations in fashion will be represented by new bio/growth materials with a strong focus on sustainability and smart materials that have augmented functionality. The commercial application of 3D printing processes for fashion in general is, and will still be, for few players that have the necessary resources to sustain processes that are still slow in terms of output and expensive in terms of investments. Until a 3D printed product is either fully circular and sustainable or performs substantially better than a standard one, I doubt it will ever surpass the scope of a hyped experiment.

For this, at ECCO with Quant-U, we invested into an approach were a fundamental component of a shoe could be customized and 3D printed using a material and a process that truly augments the product’s performance while keeping the manufacturing aspect intact.

The Future of 3D Printing and Fashion Design Through the Eyes of LabeledBy

LabeledBy is a design studio based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. They work in fashion and their area of expertise is research and technology development. Their products range goes from technological textiles to innovative couture. As engineers with master degrees from the Technical University of Eindhoven, they are able to explore the future of fashion and adapt innovative methods to fashion design that bring the craft of clothing forward.

Jessica Joosse, co-owner of LabeledBy

In their own words, here is their mission:

We strive for a personalised, localised and sustainable fashion industry. Therefore it is our mission is to transform the fashion industry through innovation and technology. We develop new textiles that are relevant for a diverse range of applications, and research alternative digital manufacturing systems for textiles and garments. These systems have the ability to automate labor intensive and dangerous processes, improving worker safety and wellbeing. Next to that, these digital manufacturing systems encourage on demand and personalised production of garments, resulting in less waste and more value for the customer.

Picture of a detail of a 3D printed pattern

Detail of a 3D printed pattern on textile

The use of 3D printing in fashion is creating an optimistic path towards the future of textile and clothing. What is presented nowadays as exclusive showpieces could be a possibility at hand for everybody in the future. As one of the most important features of 3D printing, the possibility of have a personalised garment that fits each body perfectly by being unique makes us impatient to see the future of fashion design.

LabeledBy is a studio that has placed its bet in this direction. They offer a future-oriented service of trend research, textile development as well as the making of exclusive showpieces. With an in-house production, they have the possibility of personalise each project and develop it in terms of manufacturing techniques and material. They work with a 3D printer that prints directly on textile, being able to create form small samples to big garments. Starting with an Ultimaker that they then modified the team is now continuing to develop their own print methods.

Garment made by LabeledBy

Picture of a detail sample mady by labeledby

Detail of textile. Image by Jessica Joosse.

I reached out to LabeledBy to interview Fabienne van der Weiden and Jessica Joosse on their chosen craft.

How does your 3D printer work?

The principle of the 3D printer is comparable with an FDM printer, however, it is redesigned and optimised for 3D printing garments and textiles.

What materials can it print?

The printer prints all the materials (filaments) currently available on the market. We are constantly tweaking the machine so it can also print with more experimental and biodegradable materials.

How would I work with you if I was a fashion designer?

With our manufacturing technique, the sky’s the limit in terms of design and materials! Fashion designers can make use of our pre-developed textiles or can collaborate with us to develop new textiles which will be implemented in the final design that can be printed on our 3D printer.

Why is what you do important?

FashionTech is there to explore and form the future, in anticipation of current society and its culture. By implementing technology in fashion we can make clothes on the edge of the existing framework and approach the state of the art from unknown perspectives. By doing this, we are able to create a culture in which society is encouraged to discuss the future of the fashion industry.

What is the added value of what you do?

We believe that fashion is not only perceived as functional, it also has the ability to show someone’s identity. Therefore garments could become much more personal, both in fit as in expression. Using technology during the process of creating a garment gives us the possibility of making the garment more personal and unique.

What are you adding to the 3D printing & fashion world?

The combination of digital generated personalized patterns (through for example AI) and digital manufacturing techniques gives us the possibility of easily changing the design of each garment without additional costs or long setup time. This gives fashion designers and fashion brands the possibility to efficiently adapt and personalize their garments to the fast-changing needs of their customers. We actually believe that this can give the fashion industry a lot of freedom and benefits when applied correctly!

What do you think about the future of 3Dprinting & fashion?

We believe strongly that consumers’ search for unique and sustainable consumption experiences will gradually drive the emergence of a different paradigm. Such a paradigm will require new technologies for consumer-driven design, new production methods for flexible, efficient and local on-demand production down to lot size one. And of course a seamless network of designers with different fields of expertise, working with these new technologies in an open-source community. We are excited for the future of fashion!

Can you actually wear the garments? Can you clean them in a washing machine?

Absolutely! Check our Instagram. Currently, our garments are worn by performers and artists. Yes, that’s not a problem! We use materials that are suitable to wash in a regular washing machine.

Personally, I do believe that 3D printing has a lot to offer the fashion world. Given my experience with developing 3D printing filaments as an engineer, I’m skeptical about the real-life wear and washability of 3D printed garments today. But, I’m sure that motivated people like Fabienne & Jessica will get us there in the end. We are at the beginning of a long path whose end requires a creative mind to foresee. The difficulties are in imagining a future of 3D printing in fashion which itself creates new aesthetics that still feel futuristic to us. As a designer, this idea of new aesthetic tinkles my mind. I’m excited to see the work of studios like LabeledBy which help us to envision the future of 3D printing and fashion through their dedication.