About Us
As an engineer in “Rocket City” Huntsville, Alabama, design and engineering has always been my passion: tinkering with all manner of things, from programming Arduino boards and custom-automating our home, to building our own camping trailer.
When I bought my Rivian R1T in 2022, I wanted to add accessories to it to make it my own. Like many other R1T and R1S owners, I didn’t find much use out of the included Rivian Camp Speaker and would have preferred to have a lockable drawer in its place.
With no satisfying third-party products that met my needs, I decided to have a go at making one for myself in 2023.
Having just purchased my first 3D printer, I started prototyping designs. Making measurements of the Rivian Camp Speaker, I came up with a new design that would fit within the console cubby and accommodate a fingerprint reader and a bypass key/power supply. It took many tries (and rolls of 3D printer filament!) before I found a design that was functional, stylish, and producible.
Excited with the progress I’ve made, I shared my design with the internet late 2023. Not only did the Rivian internet community shared with me their excitement and enthusiasm for my success, but they also showed a demand for such a product.
I hadn’t initially thought to make and sell my design to others, but seeing the community need for it, it was at this point that I decided to start the part-time venture that is XCD Shop to satisfy this demand.
With just the one 3D printer at the time, production was slow and fraught with challenges. There was also the learning of how to function for the first time as a “garage shop” home business, from supply and inventory management to customer relations.
Since then (and many lessons learned), I’ve smoothed out the rough edges and have doubled my production rates.
However, XCD is still very much a one-person garage shop where I manufacture, assemble, and test each unit by hand and in my home.
In fact, each unit is quality tested in my very own Rivian R1T before it is packaged and shipped with pride.
It’s been fun and adventurous having gone down this path, and I have the Rivian internet community to thank for all their encouragement and support.
In the words of Rivian: “stay adventurous forever”!
