Reinventing America may involve 3D printers, and Etsy sees itself at the forefront of the movement. Forbes invited Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson to speak at its Reinventing America Summit this week where it convened executives, entrepreneurs, academics and elected officials leading “the next industrial revolution.” Movers and shakers included Chicago’s mayor, the governor of North Dakota, and top executives from blue chip companies.
Dickerson spoke alongside Randall R. Gorham, Jr., Deputy Director of Technology Development at America Makes and Mark Hatch, Chief Executive Officer at TechShop, on a panel called “The Next Industrial Revolution? 3D Printing, Crowdsourcing and the Democratization of Production.”
The Chicago Tribune’s Blue Sky Innovation online publication wrote about the session and an interview it conducted with Dickerson.
The Etsy CEO said 3D printing plans could become the “sewing patterns of the future.” He doesn’t predict that Etsy sellers will hawk mass-produced tchotchkes, “but said he can imagine makers prototyping wares they can customize.”
In the fall, Etsy relaxed its rules on what it considered handmade, which caused concern among sellers who felt the marketplace was moving away from its “handmade” roots.
Etsy isn’t the only mainstream marketplace thinking about 3D printing. Amazon has reportedly set up a new division selling 3-D printed products in partnership with five companies.
You can read more about the 3D printer session at Forbes Reinventing America Summit in the Blue Sky Innovation article.
