Culture

Reason TV Replay: 3D Printing and the Future of Shopping: Shapeways CEO Peter Weijmarshausen

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In a display of just how disruptive the age of 3D printing may be to the status quo, late last week the US Government blocked the Texas based company Defense Distributed from disseminating their plans for a printable gun.

Back in January, Shapeways CEO Peter Weijmarshausen sat down with Reason TV to discuss how 3D printing will fundamentally change the way we obtain products by empowering consumers and ushering in an age of mass customization.

Here is the original text from the Jan 19th, 2013 video:

"What we want…is not to be about 3D printing, but to be about empowering people to get what they want," said Peter Weijmarshausen, CEO of the New York based 3D printing company Shapeways. "We enable people to be involved in the products, and I think they like that."

Weijmarshausen believes that the growing popularity of 3D printing will revolutionize the ways we shop, giving consumers the choice to customize their products rather than settle for the small number of mass produced goods already on the market.

Reason's Nick Gillespie sat down with Weijmarshausen to discuss 3D printing, the future of customization, and the economics behind the new technology.

About 6 minutes. Interview by Nick Gillespie. Camera by Jim Epstein and Anthony Fisher. Edited by Amanda Winkler.