Printed Foundry: Local 3D Printed Gifts for the Home

from Design & Living Fall 2022

Wild Pines Cabin

This Fargo Company Makes 3D Printed Gifts for the Home...and for Toddlers

Meet Rob & Ali Burke, Founders of Printed Foundry

TThere are two types of married couples, those who love working together and those who would kill each other if they had to work in the same business. Thankfully, Rob and Ali Burke make for a great team when it comes to building a company up. Ali is an amazing organizer and culture builder, building processes into a well-oiled machine, and Rob has the crazy visions, technical skills and business acumen to succeed where others have failed.

Rob and Ali started Printed Foundry, their 3D printing business, at the height of the pandemic in 2020. Printed Foundry creates eco-friendly household products, made-to-order in the US.

A few years prior to Printed Foundry, Rob had begun 3D printing as a hobby, learning how to design in Fusion 360 and building solutions to everyday problems around the house and workplace like holding open doors in the house with a magnetic doorstop, or a custom shampoo bar holder for the shower or a toilet paper ornament to remember 2020's TP shortage.

In 2020, a high demand for mask straps made Rob realize he could help solve a shortage with his printer. This sparked the realization that there was a demand for 3D printed products that otherwise would be cost-prohibitive to bring to the market as mass-produced items. Thus, Printed Foundry was born.

Over two years later, Printed Foundry has over 16 custom-designed products selling across Amazon, Etsy, Facebook and Shopify with a fivestar rating across the web.

American-Made

Printed Foundry's products are fully made in the USA. They get their filament from 3D Fuel right in Fargo, print and ship all in the US. All orders ship to the US for free and are carbon neutral.

They often hear things from customers like, "We ordered this for a baby shower for one of our friends that loves Dungeons & Dragons... it turned out great and was so cute we needed to buy one for our baby too!"

Though toys are just a subset of the products they offer, their top seller is the Baby's First Sword, which has filled a niche in the market for fantasy fans, nerds and those with a sense of humor looking for a unique gift to give. The annual Christmas ornament is always a favorite as a way to remember each year by. The magnetic doorstop was the very first tool Rob designed to help solve their own problem and will always be one of their favorite products because of that.

So what's next for Printed Foundry? They plan to grow organically, adding new products throughout the years and continue to be a fivestar rated company that keeps production and jobs in the US.

Shop Local & EcoFriendly this Christmas

Printed Foundry's products are made in the USA; no sweatshops involved and no long supply chains. Their products are made-to-order, meaning they don't require warehouse space and there are no unsold products that end up in a landfill. 3D printing creates much less waste material during the manufacturing process which in turn means less landfill waste. The filament (plastic) used is made from corn, giving it biodegradable characteristics.

Magnetic Wall Door Stop