Diving Into the Maker Movement

Let’s start with an easy question: what is the Maker Movement? According to Adweek, “The maker movement, as we know, is the umbrella for independent inventors, designers, and tinkerers.” To put it even simpler, anyone who makes things can be called a maker. Like the homebrew computer hobbyists who gathered in clubs and conventions leading up to the revolutionary Apple II in 1979, we’re now in an age of huge potential for homemade goods.

The Maker Movement empowers people to create their own economy, instead of just being passive consumers. It also speaks to the malaise that many Americans feel when buying mass-produced, cheap products from overseas. Both online and at fairs across the country, makers are offering a local, personable alternative that goes right back into the American economy. Netflix even got on board recently, buying the rights to a critically acclaimed documentary about 3D printing called Print the Legend. Who wouldn’t be excited about this rising movement?

Today, the heart of the Maker Movement can be attributed to 3D printers. Before these amazing devices became affordable enough for home use, makers often crafted their jewelry, canned their jams, and embroidered their designs by hand. You’d see them hawking wares at various Maker Faires, with flagship events held in cities like San Mateo and New York. Now, however, these fairs are packed with the latest 3D printing technology, and makers have embraced the machines’ potential for limitless creativity. The word is spreading — last year, more than 280,000 people attended Maker Faires around the world. Not only has the grassroots caught on, but big business has long been singing the praises of 3D printing technology. And no wonder: the growing market is expected to hit $6.7 billion dollars in 2017.

As 3D printers become more accessible for the layman to use — just like how computers did in the late 70s — non-technical people will have the ability to design objects with ease. With a computer today, for example, you can be a professional photographer, musician, journalist, designer, and a hundred other roles. Similarly, 3D printers will enable users to be their own toy company, jeweler, architect, interior decorator, fashion house — anything that involves the production of physical objects. Putting these powerful tools into everyone’s hands will undoubtedly spur waves of innovation.

Again, look at computers and the Internet: in the last ten years, hundreds of people have created incredible music, films, and publications from their bedrooms, without any need for outside investment or costly machines. Not only that, but the Internet and the Maker Movement are both open-source projects at heart, which prefer sharing knowledge to a pure profit motive. To connect the makers with interested consumers, though, online companies like Etsy have created a marketplace for 3D-printed goods. The Maker Movement could be the missing puzzle piece to our new, homegrown economy. Whatever happens, it’s good to know that Americans are making things again.