St. Petersburg company creates 3-D printed furniture

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - At a microfactory in St. Petersburg, large robots named Tom and Jerry are plugging away at building furniture.

They work for Haddy, a 3-D printing furniture manufacturer. 

Jay Rogers, the CEO, said each piece takes about a half hour to create. 

"We typically stack up about 8 to 10 pieces of furniture. And so they'll print all at once," said Rogers. 

He wanted the furniture to be sustainable. It's something he thought about after traveling the world and serving in the Marines. 

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"We're making furniture locally and our furniture is 100% recyclable. The traditional industry is making furniture in Vietnam and Cambodia, putting it on a ship and sending it to you, and it usually goes into landfill," said Rogers.

Right now, Haddy is working with retailers like Room & Board. They have also been collaborating with another company called Coexiste on a side table that is also a dog bed. 

"There's nothing like this on the market. It's designed and created in the United States and more importantly, here in Florida," said Coexiste founder, Simonne McDonald-Hewett. 

Rogers said they are always getting suggestions for other products too. 

"When you think of furniture it's not something that you typically think of as innovative. We want to take furniture and give it its full potential. So we want to make sure that the designs that people desire on Instagram and TikTok and YouTube shorts, we want them to think, hey if I can see it, I can have it," said Rogers.

Haddy's production could mean gains for St. Petersburg.

"It benefits jobs in the local economy. It benefits innovation in the local economy. It improves circularity or sustainability worldwide. These are the benefits that come from the way we make furniture," said Rogers.