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For a companion piece I highly recommend this hour long vid by Wired about Shenzhen. It's worth your time: https://youtu.be/SGJ5cZnoodY https://youtu.be/SGJ5cZn

For a companion piece I highly recommend this hour long vid by Wired about Shenzhen. It's worth your time: https://youtu.be/SGJ5cZnoodY https://youtu.be/SGJ5cZnoodY Things that stood out to me was the maker mindset was so prevalent and competitve that it had filtered down to the buyers. So someone cobbles together some new widget for their phone and starts to sell it. Other people see it selling a nd copy it, but they make modifications. Shoppers see it for the first time and decide they want one with a purple strap, so they shop around until they find it or find someone who will make it that way. This is where the hoverboard fad bubbled up but also how and why it "flamed" out. I think it's a fascinating testbed for technology and creativity and economics.

mattbierner 8y ago
How can an outsider leverage this spirit to get something manufactured? I’ve got some stupid products that I just want to exist, things in the hover board vein, but haven’t found anyone who I can work with to take the idea to small batch manufacturing and get it tested in a marketplace. When I recently tried ordering custom sized rolls of paper tape from various Chinese manufactures of paper products, I ended up going with a company in the states because it was simpler to coordinate requirements and they didn’t require a hundred thousand roll minimum run
- njoro 8y ago
  The truth is that it is hard as a foreigner. It is sort of like if you wanted to leverage Silicon Valley without speaking English or having a degree. Things are "leaking" out of Shenzhen from time to time, but it is still a pretty isolated from the west. In addition to the Wired documentary I would also recommend bunnie's blog and Strange Parts. https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=4266 https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=4266 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO8DQrSp5yEP937qNqTooOw https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO8DQrSp5yEP937qNqTooOw

mattbierner 8y ago

How can an outsider leverage this spirit to get something manufactured? I’ve got some stupid products that I just want to exist, things in the hover board vein, but haven’t found anyone who I can work with to take the idea to small batch manufacturing and get it tested in a marketplace. When I recently tried ordering custom sized rolls of paper tape from various Chinese manufactures of paper products, I ended up going with a company in the states because it was simpler to coordinate requirements and they didn’t require a hundred thousand roll minimum run

njoro 8y ago
The truth is that it is hard as a foreigner. It is sort of like if you wanted to leverage Silicon Valley without speaking English or having a degree. Things are "leaking" out of Shenzhen from time to time, but it is still a pretty isolated from the west. In addition to the Wired documentary I would also recommend bunnie's blog and Strange Parts. https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=4266 https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=4266 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO8DQrSp5yEP937qNqTooOw https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO8DQrSp5yEP937qNqTooOw