Reporting and photographs by Abe Burmeister

Outdoor Retailer (or OR to most attendees) is one of my favorite tradeshows around, as close to an asshole-free zone as you'll ever find in a business environment. The exhibitors are essentially just a bunch of people who would rather be outdoors, but happen to make a living designing and selling some amazing gear. OR is also something I've always considered Outlier's secret weapon, a hidden world of fabrics most other clothing designers in NY are never to access, to which OR is the gateway.

More on this lantern by Snow Peak below...

I spend most ORs behind the scenes in the back rooms of the show, knee-deep in fabric and fittings, but the bulk of the floor is occupied by outdoor vendors selling their latest finished products to their retail network. When Core77 invited us to write it up, I jumped at the chance to check out the fun side of the show. But take it as a caveat as well: this is far from comprehensive round-up, so apologies in advance to any amazing companies I may have overlooked.

Without a doubt, the standout product of the show was BioLite's CampStove backcountry generator. It has nothing to do with them being perhaps the only other Brooklyn-based brand in a backcountry-oriented show. Six years in the making, this combination of wood/scrap burning stove and electric generator is an incredibly thought through and rendered product that hints of even more from Alex Drummond, Jonathan Cedar and the Biolite team.

The roots of the stove are in the developing world, where smoke inhalation from wood burning stoves is still a massive health issue. The Biolite CampStove is uses a well-calibrated fan to create a secondary ignition that burns away almost all the harmful emissions of the basic burning wood. In the process, it also generates enough heat to run a small electric generator which can be used to charge the ever-growing array of USB driven outdoor lights and devices.

Perhaps more important than the stove itself is Biolite's hybrid business model (highlighted by Core last year). The CampStove generates revenue from wealthier (on a global scale) consumers, which then can be used to develop less profitable but more impactful products like a larger HomeStove that can both reduce harmful emissions and bring electricity to off-the-grid communities.

Of course, sometimes being in the backcountry means sometimes even a wood fire isn't possible. Utility Flame is a dead simple solution that the US Military has been using for the past decade and is just now being made for civilians like us. This gel ignites easily, creates a 10–15 minutes of a flame hot enough to boils water in 3.5 minutes. More impressively, it leaves nothing behind except a nontoxic mound of sand.

One of the long simmering stories at OR has been nonwoven Dyneema (sometimes called Cuben fiber). This American made fabric is incredibly light, strong and waterproof. It floats on water yet is 15 times strong than steel. It's also expensive and a royal pain in the ass to deal with, meaning only the scrappiest and sharpest young companies have built products with it. This year however the big boys at Sierra Designs jumped into the mix throwing their Mojo UFO tent right in middle of the show floor with plans to release a very limited run next year. It's a big move but as the photos should show it may take a while before they master the particular aesthetics of this unique material.

Meanwhile, the two pioneers in the space continue to move forward, each taking quite a different design philosophy in the process. Both built their own production facilities expressly to handle a material alien to most traditional factories. Currently based in Portland, OR (with roots in NYC and Turkey), Graham Williams of CiloGear is the godfather of Dyneema backpacks, building highly-engineered alpinist packs that often find their way to the world's highest peaks. Cilo packs are meticulously thought through for highly specialized tasks, every fabric panel and juncture has been considered and best material (in Graham's opinionated eye) is going to get used, costs be damned. Fittingly, Graham's latest designs—the ones he's willing to show publicly at least—are deeply customized for particular alpinists, something like the Saville Row of hardcore packs.

On the subway ride home I thought I'd peed myself, and discovered why the seller had been so eager to get rid of the machine. Cradled in my lap was a fairly rare 1965 overlock machine, Singer's 460/13 (above), and somewhere between 72nd and 14th Street it produced a large, oily wet spot spreading from crotch to mid-thigh on my jeans. It was leaking oil like crazy, a detail the Craigslist seller had neglected to mention while taking my money.

Back at home I took the machine apart, put it back together and spent a week getting it running again. I also found the source of the leak: A ruined gasket whose online price is $1.50. It's an irregularly-shaped 2-ounce piece of rubber and no one in the world seems to stock it anymore. This isn't the first time one of my projects has stalled for want of a sub-10-dollar, no-longer-available part. And this is why I want a magic 3D printer that can make things out of metal, plastic, and rubber.

I might be screwed, but I was heartened to read MakerBot's story of Malcolm Messiter, a guy who fixes old machines like me. Messiter's machines, however, play music. His 1970 Robert Goble self-playing harpsichord was out of commission with bad "jacks," the little plastic bits that hold the thingies that pluck the strings in place.

MakerBot to the rescue:

To replace all the jacks on this instrument with custom wood pieces (there are 183 of them), Malcolm would have had to shell out something like £2000. That's $3100. And having custom plastic pieces made for the job? Forget about it.

But Malcolm has The Replicator, which can make anything, including 183 harpsichord jacks, and then 183 more. And now he has a functioning harpsichord. As far as we know, and as far as Malcolm knows, he is the first to perform this life-saving operation on a harpsichord. Like so many people on Thingiverse and others in the MakerBot world, he's a total pioneer.

...Malcolm tells me that, all told, these pieces average 3.62 grams when he makes them at 75% infill and one shell. MakerBot sells Natural ABS for $43 per kilogram. This means the entire repair set costs about $28.48 in materials.

In the photo above you'll also spot the iPhone stand he printed out on his M'Bot; this lets him run a a tuning app on it while keeping both hands free to adjust the machine. Not too shabby, Messiter.

Over the next few weeks we will be highlighting award-winning projects and ideas from this year's Core77 Design Awards 2012! For full details on the project, jury commenting and more information about the awards program, go to Core77DesignAwards.com

• Nest Learning Thermostat
• Designer: Nest Labs, Inc. Tony Fadell, Ben Filson, Bould Design, Fred Bould
• Location: Palo Alto, CA
• Category: Consumer Products
• Award: Professional Runner up

The Nest Learning Thermostat frees you from the hassle of programming a thermostat while providing the conservation benefits of a programmed device. It learns about you and your home to develop a customized temperature schedule that will keep you comfortable while also conserving energy. It automatically shuts down when you are away and encourages energy conservation when you are home.

How did you learn that you had been recognized by the jury?
I came into the the studio around 8:30 am PST and Kristen had watched the webcast from London and said that it had just been announced that we had placed in the consumer products category. Obviously, we were thrilled.

What's the latest news or development with your project?
In April 2012, just four months after Nest began shipping, new hardware was released to make installation even easier. Nest revamped the press connectors on the backplate, moving them to the outer edge so even those with the clumsiest of fingers can install Nest with ease. Nest also created custom screws that are engineered to work without wall anchors, saving people more time. Beyond that, Nest continues to make people happy by making them comfortable and saving them money.

What is one quick anecdote about your project?
Well, it was kind of exciting when we all gathered to look at the first cosmetic models that we had made. They were still a long way off from the final design, but many of the basic design elements were in place. The excitement was tangible. We knew we had a ways to go but we felt we were onto something.

What was an "a-ha" moment from this project?
I'm not sure if it was an "a-ha" moment but we did a lot of exploration around so many facets of the design and time and again we would return to the most simple, straightforward embodiment of any single element. So, I guess the lesson is that in so many instances, simplicity really is what works.

Reporting by Rain Noe & Perrin Drumm

Very clever, BMW.

If you've seen the small cars whizzing across the lawn at the Olympic stadium for track and field events and have been wondering whether remote-controlled car racing was added as a new Olympic sport this summer, rest assured that's not the case. You've spotted one of BMW Group's MINI Mini's, a 1/4-scale version of the street-ready MINI designed to transport sports equipment across the field. The speedy little guys are built with a 10-horsepower throttled electric engine and can carry up to 17.5 pounds, or two javelins (in the 'sunroofs'), a hammer, discus or shot. It measures just over 3.5 feet long, weighs 55 pounds and has a battery-powered radio control that gives it a 100-meter range and can hold a charge for 35 minutes and fully recharge in 80.

It has all sorts of other bells and whistles, too, none of which I'm entirely sure it needs. Dual vented disc brakes? Heavy-duty shock absorbers (have you seen how smooth and flat that field is)? Fully functional door handles? Headlights? Windshield wipers? If the phrase 'marketing gimmick' comes to mind, you're on the right trail, though it might also be called a brilliant marketing strategy.

The German auto giant is an Olympics Official Automotive Partner, meaning fleets of Bimmers and Minis are busily ferrying athletes to and from various venues. But while BMW is allowed to mention their OAP status in various ad spots, what they're not allowed to do is sully the actual venues with their own advertising; IOC rules prevent "commercial installations and advertising signs... in the stadia." (Omega, however, has somehow been allowed to have their logo on the timing clocks.)

So why are they allowed? Because as BMW has demonstrated to the London Olympics officials, the cute little things save time during the games as they tirelessly, speedily ferry gear back and forth. The three Minis in service cover some 18,000 meters a day between them, working in four-hour shifts each. At a strictly ad-free Olympics, BMW has figured out how to promote its MINI brand in a way that's hard to object to. Small cars are fun and hey, they're actually serving a purpose here, right?

The oasis of your workspace can sometimes get a bit lonely. Don't worry, it happens to the best of us. Fortunately, David Weeks recently designed a desktop USB Hub for Kikkerland to help battle the work-day blues. The elegant peripheral brings a bit of cheer to the often isolating experience of hacking away at your computer. The glow of the hub reminds us that once we unplug from "Lonely City," the promise of a world of adventure awaits. Windows and Mac compatible, four 2.0 hi-speed USB Ports. Godzilla and action figure not included.

Time for our annual check-in with California-based industrial designer Jeff Casper. For those of you working with reclaimed lumber, about the best you can hope for is to get some timbers out of a decommissioned factory; the lucky Casper recently got to work a more unique source, salvaging parts off of a shipwreck in Malibu (pictured above).

Commissioned by a Malibu-based friend, Casper created a shoe rack, a windowsill desk, a portable-heater/end-table cover, shelving, and a sofa/guest bed. The shipwreck, as well as scraps from Casper's various treehouse projects, provided the lumber.

With the exception of a few basic new items from Ikea (mattresses, sofa cover, storage boxes, led lighting, wiggly twigs), the entire project was built from scratch with disregarded scraps. There were a variety of hardwoods & softwoods used to construct this multi-unit assembly.

Initially, all the original hardware was removed, then the wood was milled & sanded. Star-headed woodscrews & glue were used to fasten the components together. These fastening points, which were visible, were countersunk & hardwood dowel filled (as were all the original holes). A bioresin epoxy was used on all the wood pieces to provide a glossy waterproof seal & enhance viewing the woodgrain without further maintenance.

One of my favorite parts of basketball games is the player introductions, which are essentially laser light shows to get the home crowd pumped up for the opening minutes of the game. I imagine that this video, which was played at the London Velopark before track cycling events over the past five days, is intended to have the same effect.

Commissioned by LOCOG (the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games for the uninitiated), digital experience specialists Crystal CG created the Tron-inspired animation, featuring original music from the UK's own Chemical Brothers.

Crystal has created a three minute animated sequence for the song's promotional video to match its heart-pounding rhythms. Played in the Velodrome before every session the video shows the Velodrome as never before, literally pulsating with excitement.

"We've created sweeping contours and sleek surfaces as the backdrop for an intense, futuristic cycling 'duel' as two animated riders power round the track," said Darren Groucutt, creative director at Crystal. "It truly brings the Velodrome to life."

CGI adrenaline rush notwithstanding, track cycling has attracted increasing interest from an ever-growing contingent of urban cyclists who prefer the ultraresponsive handling and low maintenance of fixed-gear bikes—low gears and hand brakes be damned—for city streets (I'll plead the fifth on this one). The Times has an excellent media feature about the gist of the race, as well as the cut of the racers.

Cycling is increasingly popular in the UK in particular, and the home team enjoyed the support of a full house in the 6,000-person capacity velodrome throughout the five days of track cycling events, which ended yesterday. Indeed, Great Britain absolutely dominated the 250m circuit, winning gold in seven of the ten events to complement Bradley Wiggins' gold in the road time trial. (After defending his Olympic title in individual pursuit and earning his third track cycling gold the last time around in Beijing, Wiggins turned his attention to road cycling, becoming the first Brit to win the Tour de France just a few weeks prior to the London Olympics.)

Helmet-tip to Prolly

These five cities may not have made Monocle's Quality of Life index, but the magazine's urban experts say they "win in the simple living stakes." So while you might not want to pack up and move there, there are plenty of people who love living in Turin, Italy; Portland (Maine), USA; Tblisi, Georgia; Valparaíso, Chile; and Naha, Japan. Read on to find out why.

Turin
Monocle calls Turin the most overlooked city in Italy, but with none of Rome's congesting tourist trade or any of Milan's self-conscious slickness, Turin boasts a convivial atmosphere and thriving design community that seeks to balance out the city's baroque roots with modern architecture. With the its long history of producing and exporting coffee and chocolate, "taking a coffee or even a rich Bicherin chocolate is an art form" in one of many decadent cafes originally built for visiting royalty.

Portland, Maine
You might be surprised to find Portland, Maine listed here, as opposed to its West coast compatriot, but Monocle noted an "ambitious dining scene grounded in progressive principles" that's outsized for its 60,000-person population. With a strong farmers market scene and over two dozen micro breweries, Portland is engaged with their community and is clearly looking to attract young entrepreneurs.

Tblisi
With a multitude of modern, contemporary structures updating the austere architecture of its former Soviet occupiers, Georgia's capital city is noted for its "romantic, passionate and indefatigably hospital" inhabitants as well as the influx of young Georgians coming back home to start businesses of their own. The tide of younger generations settling in has inspired some exciting infrastructural changes, like the new cable car that run from Buddha Bar at the waterfront to a mountaintop castle, literally bridging the Tblisi's past and present.

Last year designer David Cann and engineer Marc DeVidts launched Double Robotics, a Mountain-View-based firm that aims to pair robotics with a "rich user experience that is seldomly found in the field." They're currently gearing up to release their first product, an iPad-based telepresence platform, this December.

Called Double, it consists of a Segway-esque, self-balancing dual-wheel base, a stalk and a mounting bracket for an iPad. A remote user drives it from afar with an iPhone/iPad/iPod or desktop, and can also choose to raise or lower the stalk to achieve sitting or standing height for virtual face-to-face meetings. When not in motion, the contraption automatically deploys kickstands to save on power.

Hit the jump to see it in action...

As in Bruno Serrao's take on a minimal workspace with plenty of hidden storage, which is something like a desk-sized tacklebox (or jewelry box), the minimalist form of Michael Bambino's "Tambour" table belies a clever storage solution. Where Serrao's desk might be suited to OCD-types, Bambino's version is like something that Dieter Rams would design for a computer geek.

While the "Tambour" table is a cable management system at heart, it's based on a clever mechanism that allows easy access to a shallow storage area beneath the surface.

The tabletop can be gently pushed away to reveal power, usb connections, and compartments that allow the user to store items or quickly clear the table surface. The tambour of the tabletop allows the table to be placed against a wall. To plug into an outlet or usb the user opens the table, plugs in, and closes the table to find that the wire has been maneuvered into the cutout in the tabletop, keeping all wire clutter protected and out of sight.

Its name refers to the traditional enclosed writing desks, a sectional rolling-door mechanic that is now more commonly seen drawn (á la blinds) on urban storefronts during non-business hours. The Brooklyn-based enigneer-turned-ID'er has updated the classic design by setting the slats at slight angles—radially from the axis of rotation—such that the fall flush with the back edge of the desk. When the surface is fully rotated, the desk resembles a large box with the lid set off-center, with one corner 'folded' down.

Those are USB charging slots in the top right corner; it's easier to see them in the video below:

Statistically speaking, few of us are lucky enough to be able to make a living doing what we truly love. And by that math, Danny Hess is doubly lucky, having successfully combined two passions—,woodworking and surfing—into a career. The San-Francisco-based Hess, who was formerly an art teacher and general contractor, eventually decided he'd rather be making boards than remodeling homes. That was over a decade ago; today Hess Surfboards is a sustainable company (and we mean that both ways).

First off here's Hess on his "handplanes," a manual wooden fin surfers can use to dig into the wall of a wave for stability:

[all images via Michael Shindler]

You'll never find an industrial designer complaining about using CAD versus a T-square and drafting pencil, but you'll still find photographers who swear by film and eschew digital. There is a visual quality to film, not to mention the attachment-forming ritual of processing it, that contains a humanity far surpassing pixels and the act of plugging an SD card into a slot.

California-based Michael Shindler has gone even further back than film to develop, pun intended, his photography. To produce the stunning images you see here, Shindler spent six years learning a photographic technology that's over 150 years old:

The Wet-Plate Collodion process, first introduced in 1851, involves coating an enameled metal or glass plate with a collodion mixture, which is then sensitized, exposed and processed all within a few minutes and while the plate is still wet.

The resulting image (while technically a negative) is made up of extremely fine silver particles that are creamy-white in color, which allows the image to be viewed as a positive when seen against a black background. For example, a wet-plate collodion image made on glass (traditionally referred to as an Ambrotype) would appear as a negative when viewed on a light table, but if the plate were held over black velvet (or the back of the plate was painted black) it would appear to be a bright and lustrous positive image.

So, the same process can be used to produce both glass-plate negatives and one-of a-kind, direct-positive images on black metal or glass. Either way, wet-plate collodion plates are capable of rendering exceptional detail and extraordinary subtlety in tone. Positive plates have beautiful, milky-metallic quality not unlike a daguerreotype and must be seen firsthand to be truly appreciated.

After finally mastering the process last year Shindler set up Photobooth, "The world's only Tintype and Polaroid portrait studio," in San Francisco. Those lucky enough to live in the Bay Area can have themselves immortalized in metal here.

via this is colossal

Because lowering a pommel horse to bench height or stacking hurdles into seating would have been too obvious, James Henry Austin has gone for a more understated approach to translating the glory of the London Olympics into a furniture collection. The young Shropshire-based designer has opted to incorporate the spirit of sport into the materials of the Project Won collection, such that the only embellishments are but a subtle hint of their origin. Austin has salvaged the floorboards of UK sports halls (hardwood courts to 'mericans) as the source material for the five pieces, retaining the painted lines as an aesthetic nod to the past life of the planks (at first glance, I thought they referred to gold, silver and bronze).

The individual planks are hand sanded, leaving the original sports lines on display and then recoated with a natural wax oil... All the furniture is handmade in our Shropshire workshop using time tested traditional joinery techniques—the furniture is handmade to order, one piece at a time, and is built to last.

Thus, while Project Won may look like archetypal forms of a chair, table, bench, coffee table and coat rack, each piece is intended to embody athletic achievement in its very essence: "Bringing people together / Keeping the excitement alive / Staying sustainable."

More than any other room in the home, the kitchen has undergone the most dramatic changes in the last century. From the large basement battleships de cuisine of the early 20th century to Margarete Schutte-Lihotsky's space saving 1920s Frankfurt Kitchen that embodied all the rigor of the Deutsche Werkbund, the kitchen has now evolved from a pure work space to a hub for socializing and entertaining. I spent half of my time at a recent party in the kitchen with my host and our friends, making drinks, prepping food and, when that was done, gathering around the countertop to chat.

Milanese designer Elia Mangia has anticipated the future of our ever evolving kitchen with Critter, a free-standing mobile unit with a cooktop, sink, garbage disposal and work space. Even if you keep Critter in your kitchen where you do most of your cooking, you can easily lift it like a wheel barrow and move it outdoors for a backyard cook out. Unlike a traditional barbecue (which you don't need to buy now), you can position Critter anywhere you like—the patio, the edge of the yard or down wind from the outdoor seating. True, most readymade barbecues can be wheeled around, but even if your unit has more than the standard, plastic wheels that weather and crack, how many of us ever actually move it anywhere on a regular basis? With Critter, the mobile function is a central part of its design. In fact, the entire kitchen can be taken apart in just a few simple steps. Because Critter is fastened with only eight screws and the components are modular and freely interchangeable, it wouldn't even be a pain to pack it up in the back of your car and take it camping. And its solid ash wood, stainless steel and cast iron construction make it practical for outdoor use and beautiful enough to bring inside.

Available soon from Skitsch.

Graphic Designer
IDEO.org
San Francisco, California

IDEO.org is seeking an experienced Graphic Designer who is ready to apply his or her design chops to the nonprofit world? IDEO is looking for self-starters--designers who know how to lead IDEO.org's external expression with a knack for crafting stories in compelling ways across a variety of mediums. The ideal candidate has a passion for social impact work and is hungry for a job that goes beyond the surface. He or she has the ability to take brand from vision and personality to visual expression in identity, storytelling and print. (A bit of digital won't hurt either.)

» view
The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.

Helicopters and airplanes both fly, but obviously their physical designs dictate they achieve that flight in very different ways. "[A] helicopter is working very hard just to keep itself in the air," explains Nick Roy, head of MIT's Robust Robotics Group, whereas the gliding capabilities of a fixed-wing aircraft enable longer flying times. Yet common sense dictates that if you need an aircraft to navigate a constrictive, dense environment awash with obstacles, you'd opt for a helicopter.

But the eggheads at the Robust Robotics Group aren't interested in yielding to common sense. That's why after winning the last engineering challenge held by the Association for Unmanned Vehicles System International, a sort of obstacle-course competition for autonomous mini-helicopters, RRG decided to up the challenge ante. "The fixed-wing vehicle is a more complicated and interesting problem," says Roy, explaining why they decided, in the absence of any design competition, to see how tight a space they could get an autonomous model airplane to fly within.

The results are stunning. Through a combination of clever aeronautical design, algorithm-writing, active laser scanning and data-crunching computing, the RRG team produced two-meter-wingspan airplane that cand do this, all by itself:

The team did have to cheat it a little bit by giving the plane a map of the environment ahead of time, a luxury they were not allowed in their AUVSI helicopter challenge, but they're keen to remove that particular crutch:

The MIT researchers' next step will be to develop algorithms that can build a map of the plane's environment on the fly. Roy says that the addition of visual information to the rangefinder's measurements and the inertial data could make the problem more tractable. "There are definitely significant challenges to be solved," [Aeronautics and Astronautics graduate student Adam] Bry says. "But I think that it's certainly possible."

The games were over in a matter of weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds—and won in ever-finer spans that follow decimal points as a testament to our technological prowess—but the buildings themselves abide. London is just one of the dozen cities featured in filmmaker Gary Hustwit and photographer Jon Pack's ongoing project to document a representative sample of former Olympic sites in an effort to understand "what happens to a city after the Olympics are gone?"

We're still six months shy of a definitive answer, at least if we're holding them to their Kickstarter reward delivery dates, but seeing as the conversation will surely have shifted by then, Hustwit and Pack are presenting the work-in-progress at New York City's Storefront for Art and Architecture. If the salon-style presentation of the work—around 40 photos depicting half the cities in the final tally—is unbiased, the title of the exhibition betrays a hint of an answer.

Where the working title of the project was "The Olympic City," a strategically-placed prefix both clarifies and reframes their efforts in terms of bygone glory. (Tonight's panel discussion with the artists and several architects is a sporting play on 'aftermath.') The so-called "Post-Olympic City" comes in many shapes and sizes, but I was initially struck by how the sites (iconic landmarks notwithstanding) look remarkably similar, distinguished mostly by telltale signs of age and local graffiti tags. [NB: Those of you who can't make it to the exhibition before it closes this Saturday can see some of the work here.]

It's like a designer's dream come true: L.A.-based Stephen Kenn stumbled across a warehouse loaded up with surplus military gear, freaking mountains of it. While his harvesting process appears to be ongoing, he has gathered up enough of a particular canvas material to produce his Inheritance Collection series of furniture:

A proponent of local manufacturing, Kenn has everything done locally. The welding of the steel frames, the cutting and punching of the leather belts, even the weaving of the webbing all happens at nearby manufactories, as you can see in the video of the process, following the jump.

Bicyclists and horseback riders have something in common: During the course of riding, their bodies undergo highly focused pressure on the crotch, an area of the body that is not designed for such. Horseback riders can mitigate the pressure somewhat by using their thighs to squeeze the horse's torso, an option not available to cyclists.

If you look at the seats on scooters or touring motorcycles, you'll find the design vastly different than that of a bicycle seat. There's more padding and the bulk of the pressure is moved to the buttocks, as the riders needen't be placed to pump rotating pedals.

A company called Laterelle believes they've solved the bicycle seat problem with their eponymous product, which can be fitted to standard bicycles and features a carefully calculated, more ergonomic shape. "There is no contact AT ALL with the rider's central crotch area, removing all the unhealthy pressure and discomfort suffered with rounded, pear-shaped 'saddles,'" the company writes. A wider rear section provides more lateral support, while the pommel has been lowered and the mid-section cut at a downward angle to remove chafing. Have a look:

Laterelle's seats come in three sizes ranging from a 13-ounce Sports version, a 28-ounce version for cruising, and a 15-ounce in-betweener.

Engineer Matt Strong has generated strong controversy in recent days. Here's why: he's cloned the MakerBot Replicator, dubbed his version the TangiBot, and thrown it up on Kickstarter. His intent is to start his own "world class" company by undercutting MakerBot on price by about a third. In Strong's words:

Just to be clear, there is nothing illegal, sneaky or underhanded going on here. Everything is legal and fair. Makerbot also used other people's open source designs when they created their business. This is simply the way open source designs work. Welcome to the world of open source.

First thing to jump out at us: it's an option to pay MakerBot for licensing rights to use their name. Strong mentions he's opted not to. However, he uses the word "MakerBot" 23 times in his written Kickstarter pitch.

That seems like a bit much to us, but the other issues are less clear-cut. Commentary on Strong's Kickstarter page has been robust, with some taking him to task and others in strong support. One commenter says doing a part-by-part design knockoff is shameful; Strong claims he's made unspecified manufacturing improvements. Others are lambasting MakerBot and accusing them of price gouging. Still others veer into personal territory, accusing Strong of not having the requisite amount of passion to be a valid member of the digital manufacturing community.

Strong has kept a cool head and gamely answered with lengthy responses, even as the comments continue to pile in. Some have questioned his ability to deliver, which doesn't seem quite fair to us. On the other hand, another commenter has repeatedly asked technically specific questions that Strong never outright addresses, instead deflecting them with answers that incorporate mention of quasi-relevant personal hardships he has undergone. (I find that's usually not a good sign, but that is my personal opinion.) Other question marks appear when you find the link to his resume abruptly went dead after a commenter had some questions about a company listed on there. And Strong's Kickstarter profile lists his location as Utah, but in his most recent comment response he says "I don't live in the US, so I don't care for home-turf manufacturing."

All of those things could be explained away by Strong, and I can't call any of them damning; but the spirited and ongoing debate on that comments page does not appear to be helping his cause. At press time he had about $15,000 towards a $500,000 target with 24 days to go. Hanging in the balance is the possibility of a less expensive 3D printer, and the results of a community-wide debate on what "open source" really means.

We highly recommend you read the actual comments and decide for yourself here.