Hardware products have a missing-middle problem when it comes to enclosures and packaging. For expensive, custom, one-off products, the costs are manageable and

Hardware products have a missing-middle problem when it comes to enclosures and packaging. For expensive, custom, one-off products, the costs are manageable and expectations around customization (printed logos, die-cut packaging inserts) are lower. For large scale productions (+10k) injection molded plastic or custom metal cases are relatively easy and cheap to produce, and the tooling cost of cardboard dies is easily spread over all those units. But for something you plan to sell 50-1000 of, minimum orders and tooling costs are a pretty large concern. As an example: packaging companies have minimum orders no lower than 1k-2k, and the die will cost you $500-$1000. A few tricks I've picked up for dealing with being mid-scale: 1. Rubber stamps are cheap and a low-environmental-impact way to brand packaging. Stickers are cheap too, but less low-impact. If you live in a major city, there's probably a stamp maker near you with a 1 or 2 day turnaround. 2. Packaging inserts can be laser cut out of cardboard in small quantities, if you can find a hack space near you with a shared laser. You can do cardboard design using the sheet-metal tooling in fusion 360, but do the prototyping with scrap cardboard and an exacto knife - it's way faster than starting digitally. 3. Cardboard sourcing is harder than you'd think - you run into minimum order issues just like with buying custom boxes. 4. For enclosures, see my other comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36115141 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36115141