MakerBot Store in NYC Drives 3D Printer Sales

This past week at the Inside 3D Printing conference, the On 3D Printing team was invited to a special event at the MakerBot Store in NYC, along with other industry press.

We asked MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis what’s the next big thing he’s working on? He answered immediately, “3D scanners.” MakerBot announced its Digitizer product at SXSW and has a booth where you can digitize your own head. We gave it a try and our 3D printed profile is on order. See the photo below of one of the visitors scanning his head in the booth.

MakerBot’s motivation to open the store is to give potential customers a chance to see 3D printing in action. Does it increase sales of printers? “Absolutely,” one of the MakerBot employees told us. There is a certain magic to seeing a 3D printed robot or digitized head. You can immediately imagine what you might 3D print yourself.

We met some great entrepreneurs at the event as well, including the founder of Square Helper who prints his products on MakerBot 3D printers.

Below is a photo gallery from our visit.