My company is trying to decided if we’d like to susbscribe to the Material Connexion.
http://materialconnexion.com/pa1.asp
Does anyone else use these guys? Is it worth the $$? We are a soft goods company, so we would be mostly interested in fabrics and plastic/metal clips and hardware. Any thoughts would be great.
How much is a subscription?
$450 for only one person per year. This allows you view their database online and get mfg contacts. You can also go visit their showroom. This is in NYC so I would have to fly down for a day to actually use this feature.
My company does a lot of work with Material Connexion and at its best, it can be very inspiring. The other game is to bring our clients in and show them around and listen to the ooh’s and aah’s. 
Although there is a lot of inspiring stuff, much of it is not ready for commercialization or immediate product design integration. There are lots of things that could be applied architecturally…like different types of glazing (Glass windows, for the non-architects) for instance.
As a side note, The woman who started Chilewich, Sandy Chilewich, basically went in there, saw the Plynyl or whatever it’s called, and built a company around it. Success!
What field are you in? have you been there before?
There are other alternatives, either other (cheaper?) materials libraries (but for the USA, I think Material ConneXion is probably the only one).
There’s a free online one that I like called Materials Explorer (http://www.materialexplorer.com/) and it’s part of Materia, who are kind of a Dutch Material ConneXion (but not linked). http://www.materia.nl
Perhaps it’s not as “full service” as Material ConneXion, but have a look, perhaps it suits your needs.
I think for companies/Firms who are in the business of developing completely new products from new materials (sorta like an entrepreneurial approach to looking for new opportunities) would fins this very useful. But as a practical resource, Brett is right. Much of what ends up in that library are things that are weither unavailable or not commercially viable yet. But it’s definately and Oooh-Ahhh type place.
Yes, I think they did get their start in architechtural finishes… But with startups like http://www.inventables.com/, I think they are branching out into novel areas to help designers think up cool stuff.