The most frequently asked question we get is whether we can make a custom item. The answer is yes… usually. Our company is actually just an office with mostly office-type equipment. The cubes, the display cases and that thing you’re thinking about are all made overseas (China, mostly).

When we want to add a new product to our lineup the project starts out as a simple email to one of these suppliers where we submit the idea and they respond with an analysis of the costs and time required to make it. That first round yields a prototype that is much higher in cost than what the price of the units will be once the production run is underway. This is because the manufacturer has to assign the task of making it to an engineer who most likely will have to personally work with the material usually involving many separate steps to finish the product. Only after the prototype is approved does the lab or factory then design a workflow to ramp up production to make many of those units in a streamlined fashion which is where the savings come in.

Note that this means that as a one-off, your custom order is always going to be stuck in the initial stage of the process that is the most expensive. You will bear the prototyping fees and the long wait and even the risk that it may not be to your liking without recourse of a refund. For our part we can tell you from experience what the costs and time to manufacture will be as well as our guess on how feasible your project is but it’s up to you whether you want to go through with it given the costs and risks involved.