
this should definitely carry NSFW
otherwise we'll get in trouble
We've seen 3D printers produce custom guitars, house keys and even the occasional gourmet meal. Now the technology is being used to build commercially viable fashion products too. The Shapeways bikini - made in partnership with Continuum Fashion - is crafted from selective laser sintered nylon (SLS). Continuum Shapeways …
then I open it at work. And the boss walks in. And sees models in underwear on my screen. And I'm spending the next hour explaining why missing last week's deadline was really not my fault, nor the fault of the amount of time I spent perusing non-work related material online. So yes, if there's pictures, put up the NSFW! It happens often enough that there are no pictures and someone has to say ``if there aren't pictures, it didn't happen''.
I'm all for 3D printing, I can see it being very handy for producing things that are not easy to machine by normal means. However, underwear is hardly a complex shape, and also I cant imaging rigid plastic is particularly comfy.
Plus, if the sintered stuff they use is anything like the sintered nylon we used at uni to mock up some prototype widgets, its not even that strong.
Complicated and expensive just for the sake of it - that's Fashion you may say. I'm no fashion guru, but I cant say I'd prefer seeing my mrs in that rather than a nice set of French lacy silky bits.
Paris, Obviously
Try telling that to any woman who isn't a "standard size" and she'll tell you exactly how difficult it is to get a bra that fits her properly, gives the right support and doesn't dig in etc.
I've had several girlfriends with "non-standard" figures and even with the whole underbust/ overbust/ cup size system there's still a huge variation in supposedly identical bras, so anything that may actually benefit them would be welcomed by many women.
My missus used to run the QA lab for a lingerie manufacturer. Trust me, where bras are concerned it's not as simple as it seems to make something that a) fits properly and b) is comfortable for as many customers as possible, all of whom of course are varying shapes... try sitting in a pub for a couple of hours surrounded by underwear designers, amazing what you'll learn if you don't get embarrased easily. Nearly as bad as nurses!
for people who aren't a standard size (most of us). Especially those who hate shopping for clothes.
A bit more info on the creation and fitting of this stuff (not necessarily underwear) would have been nice, though.
BTW, I'm calling you out on your sexist assumption that it's always a guy who pays for a woman's clothes. We earn salaries too, you know. It's quite legal.
I remember when solar panels cost $70 a watt, which was totally impractical for earthly use. The cheapest panel is currently $1.75/watt, which is quite feasible to use for power. Given the state of 3D printing right now (highly experimental), I would not be surprised to see the cost come down, a lot.
For another, closer, example, the first laser printers cost $100,000. Today they cost what?
(Thumbs up for any article that can combine geeky tech and scantily clad women legitimately)
...just see how much a "normal" custom made bra will cost you! Hell even many off the shelf one will know you back £50
Estimates say about 80% of women wear the wrong size, so custom made, ones would be great for these people.
Think of it as the difference between an normal suit and a fitted suit.
"If this is what she wants, taking your girlfriend to the lingerie store is going to leave a whopping hole in your wallet"
As some other posters have mentioned, it looks as comfortable as an outfit made from lego and seems as supportive as a carrier bag - basically it fits where it touches. Custom made.... lol... I think they need to calibrate their measuring equipment.
It might appeal to geeky boyfriends (neat 3d-printing app huh?) but I can't see any girlfriend of sound mind wanting anything to do with this.
Bottom line (no pun intended. Jones! Yes, you Jones, at the back! Don't think I can't hear you sniggering!), it's a new technology in it's early stages that has the potential (I stress, _potential_ to change a number of paradigms.
I remember reading no few years back of a store in New York that would scan a customer (it probably had lasers removed from no longer retired combat sharks), send the data down to the cellar and tell cutting and sewing machines to generate a custom-fit shirt. Did it go anywhere? Take off? Buggered if I know. But it could.
Throw in another lateral tech - the Kinect and similar devices. People are already playing with these to use in online game activities and development. Mocap tech is big dollars - Kinect isn't. Is it possible that one day I might stand in front of my kinect-type thing, slowly turn round, then watch my home 3D-printer do magic stuff and give me a shoirt that actually fitted? Or a suit? Not today, for sure. Not tomorrow. But possible? Again, buggered if I know. But it might be so when it is so.
To cast nasturtiums on developing lateral uses of technology like this can be, for a moment at least, amusing. But in five years or so, when the first production models are selling like mad and somebody who was more interested in being smart than being witty is making a ton of green, it might be a little embarassing to be reminded of the posting :-P.
'it's a new technology in it's early stages'. Yes. I know. The second 'it's' has an apostorophe it shouldn't have. I'm a bad person :-P.
(I stress, _potential_ - ... and a missing bracket. This is not a good day.
(it probably had lasers removed from no longer retired combat sharks) - We can go two ways here. 'from retired combat sharks' or 'from no longer required combat sharks'. I went both ways, which is, of course, the wrong way.
give me a shoirt that actually fitted? - So maybe I'm from Brooklyn! Hmmm. But there'd still be an extra r. So maybe I meant 'shirt'.
And 'embarassing'? I'm embarrased. At the missing r.
Ah, well. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima, maxima culpa. Now I get to suffer all the people telling me about the typos in my typo correction.
Mother told me there would be days like this. She just never told me they would _all_ be like this. Sigh.
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