Shapeways files in the US for bankruptcy (update: operations restarting)

[3Dsf]

I think we’re all looking at this from a hobbyist point of view. Shapeways focused more on corporate prototyping and so on - I bet the domestic hobbyist model market was a tiny fraction of their revenue. And obviously home printers have significantly undermined that particular small market.

Even then they offered print services - such as prints with wax supports that don’t require physical support sticks - that home printers can’t do. I keep yapping on about this because, while there were serious issues with their last line of print options in terms of brittleness and visible lines, wax supports made many things possible that you can't do otherwise. The majority of my Shapeways store designs take advantage of that, and aren't really printable at home.

That’s also not addressing the fact that while many hobbyists are happy to take on the whole thing of caring and feeding a home printer, not everybody wants to do that!

 

[JPH]

Aw man!

I used them just a few months ago when they offered me 20% off.

Had 2 rings made, violet lantern in silver and Avarice in natural bronze.

I really liked their work.

 

[laellee]

They had their place with my work. I was using them years ago when SLS wasn't really available to the hobbyist, but holy snikeys it cost me. Over the last couple of years, they were good if I wanted steel/silver/etc final pieces from my models (like rings and medallions). The advent of quality resin printers for home use took the rest of their offerings off the table for me, they just weren't cost-effective anymore.
'Guess I finally have to pull out my jewelry kiln lol , but I really don't have time to pick up another skillset :/

 

[edge10]

I will for one will miss Shapeways and am kicking myself in the behind, for not getting the parts I want, while the getting was good.

 

[Millenniumf]

Wow, this is disappointing... there were some neat, esoteric things I wanted to get from the site.

 

[Djinn]

It seems awfully shady of them to have a special free shipping weekend, then declare bankruptcy a week later. One week before stepping down, they have to have been totally aware they were not going to be able to fulfill any order made that weekend.

 

[3Dsf]

It seems awfully shady of them to have a special free shipping weekend, then declare bankruptcy a week later. One week before stepping down, they have to have been totally aware they were not going to be able to fulfill any order made that weekend.

Are you sure you know whether you’re talking about the same they?

 

[19narvik40]

Are you sure you know whether you’re talking about the same they?

He does indeed as I also recieved an email from Shapeways offering free shipping up to $38 US.

 

[3Dsf]

He does indeed as I also recieved an email from Shapeways offering free shipping up to $38 US.

You're missing my point. "Shapeways" wasn't a monolithic entity. The people responsible for marketing and whatever were almost certainly not the same people as the financiers and the people at the VP level.

I very much doubt that the marketers, or any of the other staff, were told that the company was on the brink of death the week before everything was shuttered and closed. And maliciously trying to screw over a handful of customers who responded to the free shipping campaign wouldn't have benefited anyone. The bulk of the staff were undoubtedly just doing their jobs as usual, unaware of the approaching iceberg.

 

[19narvik40]

You're missing my point. "Shapeways" wasn't a monolithic entity. The people responsible for marketing and whatever were almost certainly not the same people as the financiers and the people at the VP level.

I very much doubt that the marketers, or any of the other staff, were told that the company was on the brink of death the week before everything was shuttered and closed. And maliciously trying to screw over a handful of customers who responded to the free shipping campaign wouldn't have benefited anyone. The bulk of the staff were undoubtedly just doing their jobs as usual, unaware of the approaching iceberg.

You make a valid point. I misunderstood what you meant by 'they'.

 

[Analyzer]

Oh no!

I had several things on a wish list that I had been slowly getting to via asking for them on gift giving occasions

Things I have not seen elsewhere

 

[3Dsf]

Drat. Sounds like the attempt by the management in the Netherlands to keep their operation going (as opposed to the facility in New York) has come to nothing, sadly.

See Jules Witte’s activity on LinkedIn

 

[Leinads]

I once worked for a firm that had apparently been teetering on the brink of bankruptcy for some time, but most employees were unaware of the extent of the corporate problems. One afternoon, at the end of the day, the CEO broadcast over the PA system, “We’re closing shop right now.” All management, office staff, and hundreds of manufacturing employees were let go then and there. My management team had less than an hour to pack up our offices before the lights went out and the building doors were locked. We were absolutely dumbfounded, so it can happen ~

 

[laellee]

I once worked for a firm that had apparently been teetering on the brink of bankruptcy for some time, but most employees were unaware of the extent of the corporate problems. One afternoon, at the end of the day, the CEO broadcast over the PA system, “We’re closing shop right now.” All management, office staff, and hundreds of manufacturing employees were let go then and there. My management team had less than an hour to pack up our offices before the lights went out and the building doors were locked. We were absolutely dumbfounded, so it can happen ~

Beware, incoming likely dumb long story:

Not quite the same as a bankruptcy, but I worked for Marshall Fields in the corporate offices years ago; at this point they were considered the parent of Target as well, and it was a big well-oiled machine. I had only been there maybe 9 months), and performed very well in this business-to-business sales environment.

One Wednesday afternoon my entire department (most of a whole floor, 100+ people) gets called into a meeting in a conference room two floors down, everybody but me and one other guy who was a good friend of mine. Although we hadn't DONE anything untowards at work ever really, we were both kind of the anti-establishment anti-corporate class clowns who might have been bounced out on our asses months before had we both not been very good at our work. But at that moment we were SURE we had done something lol, so maybe we didn't get the 'pizza-party invite' or whatever team-building gathering was happening.

NOPE. Marshall Fields/Target eliminated the entire department in that meeting. There were 10- and 15+ year employees in there, lifers, but ti was an equal opportunity 'let-go'. Somehow , probably involving our numbers and pay grade, Davis and I were kept on to play clean-up with the hundreds of open accounts for a couple of months. At the end of that window, we both were offered positions in other departments. Davis stayed on, I moved on.

What stands out in my memory was watching the people come back in from that meeting, most looking dazed and in shock, wandering to their respective cubicles and offices to clean out their personal effects and walk out the door for the last time. People left pictures, clothing items, the work refrigerators were FULL of people's lunches from that day that they just abandoned. It was crazy coming into work the next day, a hundred people just GONE, and almost nothing but the sound of my keyboard for 8 hours.

 

[RealDaveWinter]

I used to work at a game development studio in Montreal. One Monday morning we all arrived to find the doors locked and none of our security swipe cards worked anymore. We started getting emails around 9:30 telling us how to pick up our severance packages (for those that got them).

 

[edge10]

I used to work at a game development studio in Montreal. One Monday morning we all arrived to find the doors locked and none of our security swipe cards worked anymore. We started getting emails around 9:30 telling us how to pick up our severance packages (for those that got them).

That sounds familiar.

I have yet to hear of a happy story, about a company going bankrupt.

 

[JoelSG]

Bummer to hear these bankruptcy stories. Anyways I’m another that was inspired to get my first resin printer back in 2018 and learn 3D modeling, after purchasing expensive Shapeways resin prints.

 

[laellee]

In 2014, I had Shapeways print me a dome for a studio scale spaceship project. The dome was a fairly plain hollow half-sphere, 18 inch diameter (about 450mm) with a 3mm wall thickness. Back then it had to be printed on one of their SLS machines due to the size, and it was run in their regular white natural versatile plastic.

That print was right under $750US. This was also shortly after they had restructured their print cost algorithm to be more affordable, streamlining the process with things like multiple print jobs combined and parts nested. 3 months earlier, the print quote on that same hollow dome model had been right under $2000US. I get that it was a large print, but today it could be run on a <$1000 FDM printer (Cr10 max for example) with acceptable finish and no SLS 'seam-line' which sucked.

My point is, we can do it all ourselves now, or at worst find someone fairly close to do it for us for relatively cheap. Combine today's easy-access hobby machine market with commercial manufacturing-based machine prices dropping so much, Shapeways wasn't going to be sustainable. I still liked having the option of using them for wax-casting stuff, but there are other smaller niche companies that can do it now for a reasonable price so I'm good.

 

[TazMan2000]

If any member here is selling 3D prints of their models on that site, what is your next step?

TazMan2000

 

[Leinads]

If any member here is selling 3D prints of their models on that site, what is your next step?

TazMan2000

This is something I was wondering as well. I suppose a lot of those members are now being swamped with file and or print requests?