3D Printed Sports Logos: Illegal?

Boston, Massachusetts is the original home of ZCorp, now owned by 3D Systems. It's also the home of the Boston Bruins NHL hockey club, currently battling the Chicago Blackhawks for the championship Stanley Cup. 

 

In 2011 the Bruins won the cup and the folks (or perhaps fans) at ZCorp printed out the Bruins official logo above. Since that time we've seen multiple sports logos developed specifically for 3D printing. Normally these logos are 2D items, so it takes some creativity to convert them into 3D structures. 

 

On Thingiverse we found this Pittsburgh Penguins logo and model for a Winnipeg Jets Galaxy S4 Phone Case. Both are downloadable and there are many more sports-logoed items available. 

 

This is terrific for sports fans, but is it entirely legal? While the Bruins logo above seems to have been 3D printed for internal use by ZCorp, the downloadable items on Thingiverse are publicly available. 

 

Sports teams protect their logos diligently, as placing them on salable merchandise is a major source of income. Counterfeited jersey sales are frequently shut down, sometimes by police action. 

 

But what happens if the merchandise is distributed for free? And 3D printed? We strongly suspect the Thingiverse items do not have licenses from the respective owners. Will the owners be concerned if their logo is placed on objects and freely distributed as a printable 3D model? While no money changes hands during a Thingiverse download, there could be issues in the future when license owners see a dent in their profits because free printable equivalents replace salable items.

World's First 3D Printed Sailboard

Startup company MADE BOARDS has devised a process to create surf, paddle and sailboards using 3D printing. They don't simply design a board and print it out - they customize the design for each individual. 

 

The process involves capturing data about "your body, your style, and the conditions in which you ride", and then using their secret algorithms to transform these data into a 3D model of a board just for you. This 3D model is printed on a Stratasys 3D printer, likely a FORTUS production machine. 

 

MADE BOARDS founder Shanon Marks says: 

 

We've created the world's first 3D printed / additively manufactured sailboard - what truly distinguishes our approach is the tie to a performance tracking application that tracks riders and turns their behaviors into 3D models that become hyper-customized windsurf, stand up paddle and surfboards. It's a healthier way to manufacture, bypassing toxic subtractive proceses where damaging construction materials wind up on the shaping floor. 

 

What's the catch? Only one: the service isn't available yet. MADE BOARDS plans to launch a Kickstarter campaign in May. 

 

Via MADE BOARDS

World's First 3D Printed Snowboard

Every Third Thursday has published a video of their most recent experiment: a 3D printed snowboard. The experiment, as you'll see, was a success. 

 

Printing a snowboard poses two immediate challenges: a snowboard is larger than most 3D printers' build chambers. The second challenge is strength. 3D printers can produce objects but they often have limited ability to take physical stress; they break. Building a snowboard means you must solve both of those problems. 

 

The ETT team did so - albeit not entirely with 3D printing. They first segmented the board into several pieces, each of which could be printed within the build chamber of the 3D printer at GrowIt3D, a southern California 3D print service. The pieces fit together in jigsaw fashion. 

 

But was it strong? Evidently not - the jigsaw joints simply would not hold up the to stress of downhill action. The team decided to add several thin metal strips to solidify the board and testing proved out this approach. 

 

Even more interesting was their design: the front part of the board was made much wider than normal, in a parallel experiment. This proved to work also, but it demonstrated the ability to rapidly test different snowboard forms by simply redesigning and printing new sections that can be bolted into the prototype snowboard. 

 

Via YouTube (Hat tip to Jenna)

Necessity Causes Invention: A GoPro Scuba Mount

If you've never used a GoPro, perhaps you should. It's an inexpensive but very specialized camera designed to be used outdoors in action situations. It's the camera on the skydiver's helmet or hanging from bike handlebars giving us those heart-stopping videos.  

 

As you might imagine, there are an infinite number of possible mounting options to consider. How many skateboards, dashboards, helmets, UAVs and other items can such a camera be pasted on? 

 

Lots. Too many to be mass produced. This is a job for 3D printing. 

 

Felipe De La Torre had precisely this problem when he attempted to mount his GoPro on a Scuba mask to capture his underwater adventures in POV form. Instead of mangling the expensive mask by attaching a tripod mount, he designed and 3D printed a specially designed mount in alumide that does the job perfectly by wrapping around the strap. The light alumide material is strong enough for underwater stresses and won't degrade over time. 

 

The easy availability of 3D printing services means that this form of problem resolution can now be attempted by many people. All you need is some basic 3D modeling skills, an inexpensive software option and a lot of creativity. Easy! 

 

Via i.Materialise