Protos Eyewear Creates 3D Printed Glasses, Turns to Crowdfunding

Like this? Share it.TwitterFacebookGoogle+ReddittumblrbufferEmail

Protos Eyewear 3D Printing

Protos Turns to Crowdfunding for Next Evolution in Eyewear 3D Printing

Protos is an eyewear company based in San Francisco that combines computer-aided personalized design with 3D printing to create the perfect pair of frames. We featured Protos last fall and recently caught up again with founder and CFO Richart Ruddie.

Protos is turning to crowdfunding to take the company to the next level. With 24 new designs and advancements in its 3D printing process, the company hopes to raise $25,000 in pre-orders for its custom frames.

Go check out the Protos campaign and pledge if you like their project.

Below is our interview with founder and CFO Richart Ruddie.

On 3D Printing: What’s new at Protos since we last spoke? How have you further developed your 3D printed eyewear?

Richart Ruddie: We have designed 24 new frames. We have taken on a new partner who is an expert in the eyewear industry. We have refined our material and finish to be smooth, comfortable, and strong. We are able to custom fit glasses to an individual user’s face in a semi-automated fashion.

On 3D Printing:  Why are you turning to crowdfunding now?

Richart Ruddie: We have reached a point where we want to offer our custom fit service, but don’t have the funds to develop it into a web application to be put on our site. We have the back-end programming worked out for it; all we need to do is integrate it into an attractive and easy-to-use interface. To do that takes a lot of development time and a mild barrier to entry in terms of funds that need to be spent.

On 3D Printing: Any plans to expand beyond eyewear in the future?

Richart Ruddie: Yes. We hope to leverage the properties of this new manufacturing for many other products. Eyewear is just the beginning.

Below is a gallery of the design process at Protos.

Like this? Share it.TwitterFacebookGoogle+ReddittumblrbufferEmail

One Response to Protos Eyewear Creates 3D Printed Glasses, Turns to Crowdfunding

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>