June 19, 2019
Dan ShapiroTomorrow marks the kick off to National Week of Making (June 21-27, 2019). A week to celebrate a simple truth: each and every one of us has the ability to make wonderful things.
For me and my colleagues here at Glowforge, this is the week we offer thanks. For more than four years now, tens of thousands of creative visionaries have supported us through our journey.
In 2015, we launched the biggest crowdfunding campaign in history – proof that the single most exciting thing you can do with technology is empower people to realize their dreams.
In 2016, President Obama declared the first national Week of Making.
In 2017, we shipped our first production Glowforge 3D laser printers, and suddenly home laser ownership became possible.
In 2018, we finished shipping more than 10,000 pre-orders and launched our product for sale.
And now, in 2019…we hear the news that Make, the creators of Maker Faire and Make Magazine, are closing their doors.
This was crushing news to hear. Make’s Dale Dougherty helped us launch Glowforge at Maker Faire New York in 2015. Make was the first to weigh in on the Glowforge experience in 2017: “Worth the wait”. In 2019, Make awarded Glowforge the first ever Editor’s Choice for a desktop laser. And now, Make is gone.
What does this mean for the maker movement?
I’ve been asking around, and I’ve been shocked at the answer.
First, at Glowforge: every quarter, for the last six quarters, we’ve delivered a record number of printers. Every single quarter means more makers; each one is better than the last. Our customers are printing up a storm – most of our customers print at least once a month, even those with Glowforge printers that are more than two years old. In fact, we’ve had more than three million prints.
Then I’ve been talking to folks all over the maker movement: Joann. Inventables. Bantam Tools. Formlabs. Everyone is reporting record sales, and excitement around making that they’ve never seen before. Even my friends who used to be at Make reported that, while financial problems proved hard to recover from, the number of people who loved the sheer joy of making things was bigger than ever before.
Together, we have a responsibility to future makers. It’s up to us to guide and inspire those who might not know they can be makers, and lead a new generation along the way.
Join us for the National Week of Making
Glowforge wants to help get that started today. We’d like to invite you to join us this week and create something for the National Week of Making. Join us for the following:
I can’t wait to see what you make!
– dan
PS: I’d personally love to read your maker story and share it with everyone here at Glowforge. If you’d like to share it with us, please comment below to tell me about your maker story. I can’t wait to hear from you!
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