Core77

New Online Resource Colin Offers an Easy Way to Find and Communicate with Local Manufacturers

By Emily Suzuki - March 7, 2018

in Research | UX | Design News

When starting a new product-based business, a major roadblock you'll likely hit is figuring how to bring your product to life for the first time. Outside of your homemade prototypes, you've never had to deal with finding a manufacturer before! But your product, whatever it may be, is in demand, so it's time to rise to the occasion.

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If supporting local manufacturing is your jam, the new online resource Colin is a promising start. When we first spoke with Colin co-founders Artin Yip and John Lempka last year, they explained that they were in the initial phases of creating a platform to connect designers with local manufacturers in New York and beyond. Needless to say, we were excited by the idea, but we weren't fully sure how it would end up coming together. Last week, a little less than one year later, they reached back out to let us know Colin had launched and that we could give the beta a test drive.

Search for a material, process or product.

Our editorial team isn't looking to manufacture anything at the moment (we are taking suggestions, though), but we're impressed with the wide variety of manufacturers already participating in the Colin community and how easy it was to get in touch with them.

I searched for "glass", and these were just a few of my results.

Once you search for your keywords, click on a manufacturer and their profile will pop up. From there you have the option to browse through a few of their past projects and send a message if you're interested in working together or getting a quote. The simple UI gives you all the basic information you need to know before taking the next steps.

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If you happen to be a designer seeking a local manufacturer or vice versa, Colin is an easy interface to use and seems like it would serve as a good starting point to your production research. If you'd like to test it out for yourself, Colin is offering the Core77 community an exclusive activation link that allows you to bypass the approval step and create an account instantly. And remember that Colin is not just for New Yorkers—the resource is seeking manufacturers outside of the NYC area as well.

Try Colin: http://www.hellocolin.com/core77/

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Chris Hoppe

6 years ago

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For US suppliers, there is a new directory for US manufacturing focusing on product developers. SourcingUSA.com its currently in its first gen, with a lot of new stuff launching soon. www.sourcingusa.com

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Paul Genberg

6 years ago

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It seems similar to Maker's Row (https://makersrow.com/) who's been around for a few year now. First pass at Colin and couldn't find anything... I'm sure it's still early and they're actively recruiting manufacturers.
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Kris Gebow

6 years ago

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Oops. No results for Sheet metal were found
I typed in sheet metal, and no results

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Robert Patience

6 years ago

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looks very much like Make Works here in Scotland,
https://make.works/

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