Bre Pettis
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Bre Pettis (born July 14, 1972) is an American entrepreneur, video blogger, and creative artist. Pettis is best known as the co-founder and former CEO of
MakerBot Industries MakerBot Industries, LLC was an American desktop 3D printer manufacturer company headquartered in New York City. It was founded in January 2009 by Bre Pettis, Adam Mayer, and Zach "Hoeken" Smith to build on the early progress of the RepRap Projec ...
, a 3D printer company now owned by
Stratasys Stratasys, Ltd. is an American-Israeli manufacturer of 3D printers, software, and materials for polymer additive manufacturing as well as 3D-printed parts on-demand. The company is incorporated in Israel. Engineers use Stratasys systems to mod ...
.


Early life and education

Pettis was raised in
Ithaca, New York Ithaca () is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, Ithaca is the largest community in the Ithaca metrop ...
, a childhood spent climbing trees and playing in the woods independent and self-reliant. At the age of 13 he moved to the
Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...
area, where he later graduated from Bellevue High School. Pettis is a 1995 graduate of
The Evergreen State College The Evergreen State College is a public liberal arts college in Olympia, Washington. Founded in 1967, it offers a non-traditional undergraduate curriculum in which students have the option to design their own study towards a degree or follow a ...
, where he studied psychology, mythology and performing arts. After college, Pettis worked as floor runner and camera assistant on feature films in
Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
and as an assistant at
Jim Henson's Creature Shop Jim Henson's Creature Shop is an American animation and special/visual effects company founded in 1979 by Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets. The company is based in Hollywood, California, United States. History Jim Henson's Creature Shop was ...
in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
. He then attended
Pacific Oaks College Pacific Oaks College is a private college with its main campus in Pasadena, California. The college draws on Quaker principles and focuses on social justice. It offers full and part-time undergraduate and graduate courses at Pacific Oaks' Califo ...
and graduated with a teaching certificate. He worked as a teacher for the
Seattle Public Schools Seattle Public Schools is the largest Public school (government funded), public school district in the state of Washington (state), Washington. The school district serves almost all of Seattle. Additionally it includes sections of Boulevard Par ...
from 1999 through 2006.


Career

After graduating and working on various films in Europe, Pettis moved to London and began working at Jim Henson’s Creature Shop and making super-custom animatronics, or high-performance robots. Pettis learned prototyping there, as well as building one-of-a-kind things from scratch, allowing him to eventually be paid for his work. He is also known for DIY video podcasts for '' MAKE'', and for the ''History Hacker'' pilot on the
History Channel History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney General Entertainme ...
. He is one of the founders of the
Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
-based hacker space NYC Resistor. Pettis is a co-founder and former CEO of
MakerBot Industries MakerBot Industries, LLC was an American desktop 3D printer manufacturer company headquartered in New York City. It was founded in January 2009 by Bre Pettis, Adam Mayer, and Zach "Hoeken" Smith to build on the early progress of the RepRap Projec ...
, a company that produces 3D printers now owned by Stratasys. Besides being a TV host and Video Podcast producer, he's created new media for Etsy.com, hosted Make: Magazine's Weekend Projects podcast, and has been a schoolteacher, artist, and puppeteer. He was the artist-in-residence of art group
monochrom Monochrom (stylised as monochrom) is an international art-technology-philosophy group, publishing house and film production company. It was founded in 1993, and defines itself as "an unpeculiar mixture of proto-aesthetic fringe work, pop att ...
at Museumsquartier Vienna in 2007. Pettis was featured in the
documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
'' Print the Legend.'' He left Makerbot in 2014. In June 2017, Pettis acquired start-up Other Machine Co. — now called Bantam Tools — from its founder and CEO, Danielle Applestone. In November 2019, Bantam Tools moved their facilities to
Peekskill, New York Peekskill is a city in northwestern Westchester County, New York, United States, north of New York City. Established as a village in 1816, it was incorporated as a city in 1940. It lies on a bay along the east side of the Hudson River, across fr ...
. In January 2024, Bantam Tools announced that it had acquired Evil Mad Scientist, known for the AxiDraw, a computer-controlled drawing and handwriting machine.


References


Further reading

* Rich, Laurie
"Mr. Wizard for the Internet age"
Columbia University News Service, Columbia Journalism School, April 14, 2009.


External links


Bre Pettis website

Bre Pettis on The Colbert Report (June 8, 2011)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pettis, Bre American bloggers Evergreen State College alumni Pacific Oaks College alumni 1972 births Living people 3D printing specialists Henry Crown Fellows