MAKO’s Top Highlights from SEMA 2019!

Just a couple of weeks ago, our senior industrial designer, Magnus Skold, went all the way from Austin, Texas, to Las Vegas, Nevada, to attend the famous automotive innovation show SEMA 2019!

Passionate about cars, manufacturing and the automotive industry, Magnus attended the event to represent MAKO Design + Invent. He brought back amazing pictures and info on some incredibly impressive, unusual, and interesting cars from the show to share with us his favourite parts of one of the most notorious automotive events of the year!

Magnus’ Favorite Models at SEMA 2019

It’s normal for SEMA to bring in thousands of different cars and models from all around the world to present at the show alongside an impressive list of vendors and automotive companies. With some impressive and powerful vehicles, it would be hard for anyone to choose just one favourite model!

As Magnus is a huge fan of car models, and had so many different options to choose from, it was difficult to just choose one! After taking in the event and letting everything he saw and experienced settle in, Magnus curated the following list of his favourite models that were showcased at SEMA 2019.

AC Cobra Kit Car by Factory Five

The RauhWelt Porsche 911

Vintage Ferrari 348

Modified Ford Truck

Electric Porsche 911

What Stood Out the Most at SEMA 2019

SEMA 2019 hosted hundreds of different models that not only revealed the amount of innovation and change that is currently taking place within the aftermarket trends but also within the automotive industry.

The innovative show exemplified how much the aftermarket trend was heavily focused on off-road, Overlanding and extreme car camping segments. There was a whole floor completely dedicated to showing parts that played as attachments to Jeeps, trucks, and vans, as well as a lot of roof-mounted fold-out tents!

Rather than offering the usual 10×10 stands for the Overlanding tent, SEMA 2019 allowed vendors to park their vehicles as if they were camping to simulate a real-life presentation of what these vehicles would look like with the tent parts attached to the top of the cars.

The setups were all complete with fake trees and boulders, making it really look like an actual campsite! Another interesting area was observing all the paints, finishes, and tool halls, where they showed several vehicles with beautiful and immaculate paint jobs and colourful wraps with live demonstrations on very expensive cars.

On the outside, SEMA 2019 sectioned off an area where a Ford F150 Raptor and two Mustang Cobras were driving around participants all day. What stood out the most was how hard and abused the cars had been driven, but nonetheless, it was impressive to see how durable the cars were performing, especially under extreme abuse.

Another fun section was Hot Wheels! Hot Wheels had a whole section in which it would be decided which vehicle would become the next Hot Wheels car for the year. The best part was that right next to the toy car, there was a full-size car to match! Magnus’ favourite was the Darth Vader car.

Magnus enjoyed seeing and interacting with the over-engineered tools that were on display. One brand of Workbench, “Badass Workbench”, had a counter made of a 3/8-inch-thick steel plate. The system was all ridiculously heavy-duty! You needed serious arm strength just to open the drawers. Magnus also enjoyed another tool brand, originating from Germany, which had torque wrenches with twice the amount of gears than traditional torque wrenches – Magnus thought they were amazing to hold and use!

Magnus’ Final Thoughts on SEMA 2019

“What impressed me the most about the exhibit was the feeling of passion and love that all the vendors have for what they do. SEMA is the biggest innovation show in the aftermarket industry, and everybody has put their best foot forward to show what skills they have and the amazing products they’ve come up with.

The Las Vegas Convention Centre is a huge complex made of several very large halls, and SEMA 2019 took up ALL the space to accommodate all the different markets within the automotive industry. I walked nearly 26 miles in the two days that I was there! Some of the stuff shown at the show is the bleeding edge in trends and will somehow integrate their way onto regular cars in the years to come. It was a truly amazing show, and I would love to go again!”

Love cars? Check out this invention, CarGenerator, made by one of MAKO Design + Invent’s clients that turns your car into a power generator!

If you have a great new invention and you’d like to learn more about this process, get in touch with MAKO today and visit our website to find out more. Or feel free to give us a call at 1-888-MAKO, and we can set you up on a call with our product strategist!

About: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Also, our founder Kevin Mako hosts The Product Startup Podcast, the industry's leading hardware podcast. Check it out for tips, interviews, and best practices for hardware startups, inventors, and product developers. Click HERE to learn more about MAKO Design + Invent!