We've all spooned grub into our gaping maws at one point or another, but how about spooning a new soul into the vacant husk of American manufacturing? That's what Spuni is doing with just a bright idea and hip-tastic technologies like crowd-funding and 3D printing. The New York Times dug into the story of Spuni's ascent, and how it's feeding an industry, spoonful by spoonful.
From the Times:
[Spoons] are poorly designed for small children. As they bite into the spoon, the food in the back half has nowhere to go but the floor. ...[They] came up with the idea of a flatter-shaped, more ergonomical spoon that would allow a baby to suck the food off it.
...To raise capital, they relied on crowd-sourcing, generating almost $38,000 by preselling Spunis on the Web site Indiegogo. Marcel, meanwhile, cut a deal with a small German manufacturer he had used before. ...If all goes according to plan, Spuni will be churning out around one million spoons a year by 2015.
And the home base for this design innovation is none other than the Brooklyn Navy Yard, quite literally the husk of a manufacturing age gone by, where Spuni plans to eventually open a small state-side manufacturing plant.
Armed with a clever design, rapid prototyping, and all today's tech at hand, Spuni looks set to help breathe new life into an obsolescent landmark of industry. And also make some kickass spoons to boot. You can read more about Spuni's journey over at The New York Times. [The New York Times]
How Baby Spoons Are Feeding American Manufacturing