Consumer Product Development
From concept to shelf — we design and build consumer products that look right, work reliably, and hit the unit cost your retail price point demands.
Book a Free 30-Minute Design ReviewWho this is for
You're building a physical product meant for retail or e-commerce shelves — brand teams launching a new SKU, DTC companies scaling past their first batch, or product managers who need a design partner that understands cost per unit as well as it understands CAD. You need a product that survives shipping, returns, and real customer use, not just a demo table.
What's different about consumer products
Cost and quality fight each other
Consumer products must hit a target retail price while holding up to real-world use. Every material and process choice trades one against the other, and getting it wrong shows up on your margin or your return rate.
It has to look good and work
Consumer buyers judge a product on sight before they ever use it. Aesthetic and function both have to be first-class requirements — not one traded for the other.
The market window doesn't wait
Consumer opportunities are time-sensitive. A slow development cycle means a competitor ships first, or the trend moves on before you're ready.
How RMA solves it
Cost engineering from the first sketch
We design against your target unit cost from day one — material, tolerance, and assembly decisions are all weighed against cost impact before the design is finalized.
Design and engineering work together
Form and function are treated as equally important requirements on every project, not competing priorities decided by whoever's in the room.
One team, no handoffs
Design, prototyping, and manufacturing run under one roof, so nothing gets lost re-briefing a new vendor every time your project moves phases.
The kind of work we do for consumer brands
New SKU from concept to tooling
Taking a new product concept through CAD, DFM review, and prototype validation before committing to injection mold tooling.
Cost-down redesign of an existing product
Re-engineering a product already in market to reduce unit cost or part count without hurting the customer experience.
Packaging-ready production run
Designing and manufacturing a first production batch that arrives ready for retail packaging and fulfillment.
What it actually costs
Tooling and first-run production are the two numbers consumer product teams need to plan around.
Manufacturing Tooling
$5,000–$50,000
Depends on part complexity and material — injection mold tooling is the biggest fixed cost before production starts.
First Production Run
$5,000–$150,000+
Ships in 8–16 weeks once tooling and design are locked — volume and part count drive where you land in that range.
"Working with RMA was a game changer for Shifters Eyewear. As a startup founder, I needed a partner who could take my design sketches and turn them into a real, manufacturable product. Reid guided me through every phase with patience and precision."
