With an opening party on Saturday March 22nd, among incredible enthusiasm from local crowds, 3DiTALY’s second store on the Italian peninsula opened up in Pescara, in the central Italian region of Abruzzo. The event marks 3DiTALY’s status as the first example of a “3D printing social franchising business model” in Europe. Based in Rome, the original 3DiTALY which opened early last year, was the very first Italian 3D print shop. Its rise has but begun, with another opening already announced in Ragusa, Sicily, in the upcoming months.
Antonio Alliva, one of the three co-founders, explained that their franchise model is social in that each new store purchases a package of information, logos, contacts and training but after that it positions itself at the same hierarchical level as all the other stores. “Our mission is to contribute to relaunch italian artisan tradition through innovation and technology”. Alliva said. “Our means – he added – are courses in schools with children and students of all ages, workshops, laboratories, retail sale of 3D printed objects and sale of Italian-made 3D Printers”.
These include primarily the FFF (Delta and Cartesian) machines produced by companies such as WASP, Sharebot and Kentstrapper, along with a new low cost DLP machine currently in production. Ironically neither of the three co-founders had any actual 3D printing experience before opening the store, but business is going great (with as many as 40 to 50 3D printers sold monthly) and their rapid prototyping-local fabrication activity is taking off.
3DiTALY’s long term mission, starting with the new store in Pescara, is to create many small development centers and local factories in every city. The stores will offer 3D printing, 3D modelling and 3D scanning services along with courses, workshops and 3D printers sales and assistance. “3DiTALY comes from the dream of young entrepreneurs who believe in a new means of production”, continued Alliva: “what brings the entire 3DiTALY community together is the idea of future craftsmanship, that is combining new technologies with wide array of cultural capabilities and knowledge found with local artisans, designers and researchers. Together we want to build a new, more sustainable, model of production, giving everyone the tools to make ideas into reality while countering mass production scale economics that often end up blocking the introduction of new and innovative products into the market”.
The new stores also have a brand new look, with furniture in recycled wood, cardboard and 3D printed plastic to be as sustainable as possible. The inauguration party in Pescara began at 4 pm with the street-art installation of a giant 3D printer and a 3D printed replica of Vicentino Michetti’s Elephant sculpture, present in the city’s center. Italian 3D software and hardware companies such Slic3r, Stickfilament, Sharebot, Wasp and Arduino participated, along with international 3D printing network 3D Hubs.
Next stop: Sicily. We’ll keep you posted.
