Our History
Free 3D Hands was founded by engineer Mat Bowtell. After more than a decade working at Toyota, Mat found himself at a crossroads when the Australian automotive industry shut down in 2017.
Around that same time, desktop 3D printers were emerging in their infancy. Mat saw an opportunity to apply his engineering skills in a new way – making an existing open-source 3D-printed hand for a young boy named Eli. Helping to pick out the colours, Eli helped Mat to design an “Iron Man” themed hand to make him feel like a super-hero.
Seeing the smile on Eli’s face changed Mat’s life forever, sparking a new life purpose.
What started as a one-off project soon grew into helping more and more people – driven by Mat’s unwavering belief that assistive technology should not be a privilege, but a fundamental human right.
Mat and his family moved from Melbourne back to his hometown on Phillip Island, and utilising his redundancy payment from Toyota, he decided to become a full-time volunteer from the garage of the house he was renting. There, he continued to print and assemble devices for people around the world, while in the background designing a new device with improved functionality and aesthetics – the Kinetic Hand.
Free 3D Hands formalised as a DGR-1 registered charity in 2019, and Mat leaned into his public speaking abilities, sharing his story and using every cent from speaking engagements to fundFree 3D Hands. This enabled the charity to grow and provide more devices to more people.
Today, Free 3D Hands has provided thousands of devices to people in over 50 countries… and the mission hasn’t changed. Mat’s belief remains the same: access to assistive technology shouldn’t be a privilege- it should be a fundamental human right.
If you would like to support Mat and the team at Free 3D Hands, please consider donating.
To learn more about Mat’s journey, or to book him as a speaker, please get in contact via email. He would love to share his story with you.