If you’ve ever seen a video of how UPS or FedEx handlers handle your precious shipments, you were shocked. But it’s not just these guys. Every single link in the long supply chain from China to Japan for printing to Long Beach, CA to Denver to New York City to London is filled with inventory dangers.
You have the danger of damage, loss, theft, customs delays, misrouting, depreciation over time and the huge danger that your competitor will make a much cooler new model before yours ever hits the shelves.
This is the traditional supply chain model. And it starts with injection molding mass production.
3d Printing on the other hand saves retailers one more major burden of a step: the return. Victoria’s secret says that about 32% of their clothing (read underwear) gets returned. In fact, many women order 2 different sizes and only keep the one that fits best.
This is where 3d printing solves that problem. And it works from NYC to Tokyo Japan.
Where you have a 3d scanner, you’ll end up with zero shipping time, and zero returns. You can custom print out a New Balance running show that perfectly matches your foot in every dimension.
Not only does that save you time and money, it saves the earth all that fossil fuel burning from ocean liners and tractor trailers moving your products across the globe. That’s a clean win-win.
