3-D printing business turns selfies into miniature sculptures
PHILADELPHIA — In this era of self-absorption and promotion enabled by Instagram, Snapchat and other sharing arenas of social commerce, three-dimensional selfies were only a matter of time.
Open since August, Philadelphia-based PeoplePrints 3D is already profitable, with monthly sales reaching $20,000, exceeding owner Julian Rinaldi’s expectations.
“I get multiple people in here every day saying it’s the coolest thing they’ve ever seen,” he said on a recent morning, in a shop whose display cases hold several sizes of himself and others. The native of Bridgewater, N.J., lives in an apartment upstairs.
While he thought 3-D selfies would be a hit with millennials, Rinaldi — who, at 33, is one of them — is thrilled that the idea appears to hold even broader appeal.
Fans have included grandparents, grieving pet owners, even a guy wanting to make his mar- riage proposal extra-memorable. He gave his beloved a three-quarter-inch miniature bust of himself on a ring with a white-gold band.
The growth potential is essentially limitless, Rinaldi said: “The market is every person on the planet.”
A graduate of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Rinaldi majored in information technology and envisioned operating some sort of an online business. Instead, he dabbled in many ventures, including helping to open a restaurant, teaching winemaking, creating winemaking equipment and occasionally arranging charters for his family’s yacht.
Then “I kind of saw how 3-D technology was taking off,” Rinaldi said. “I really liked the technology and was trying to figure out a way you could make money with it.”
Rinaldi “came up with a business plan and dove right into it” about nine months ago. He found the retail space (a former umbrella shop), bought a fullbody scanner consisting of 100 cameras, hired a couple of artschool students with 3-D printing experience, filled the front window with models and opened for business.
Because of the prohibitive cost of an advanced color 3-D printer — about $80,000 — Rinaldi is outsourcing the printing to a company in Long Island City, N.Y., for now. With plans to open another studio store in Philadelphia within six months and one in the suburbs within a year, he said he will likely buy a 3-D printer eventually to create the models in-house. His ultimate goal is to offer franchise opportunities.
Pr i c e s , det a i l e d a t people - prints3d.com, range from $35 for a three-quarter-inch bust to a four-person, 9-inch-tall, fullbody group for $658. A single 9-inch model goes for $230. Prices include free shipping directly to customers’ homes.
Models cannot be made from pictures. Subjects must be photographed (it takes only a few seconds) at PeoplePrints 3D, where artists touch up portraits before they are sent out for printing.
“It’s amazing how accurate it is,” Michael Cahill, a K-9 officer with the Philadelphia Police Department, said of a 7-inch model of his late partner, Gero, a 10-yearold German shepherd whose replica he had PeoplePrints 3D make in the fall.
It was one week before Cahill, 39, a 17-year veteran of the force, had to put down Gero because of cancer.
The model, including the dog’s police badge, sits atop the box containing his ashes that Cahill keeps on the mantle of his home.
“I have a ton of pic tures of him,” Cahill said, “but this is, to a T, him.”