By Colin Brown

Once the proud capital of American manufacturing, New York City boasted up to a million industrial workers in the 1950s, the bulk of them machine-stitching garments or else turning out commodity products such as staplers, electrical switches and kitchen implements.

Today, decimated by cheap foreign imports and soaring rents, that number has dwindled to around 100,000, leaving abandoned warehouses ripe for condo redevelopment. But hold off on writing the full obituary just yet.

The Big Apple finds itself in the midst of a manufacturing groundswell, one that marries the city’s chutzpah with web technologies. Three start-ups are emblematic of this Industrial Revolution 2.0, all catering to an emerging class of cocktail-napkin inventors, garage designers and DIY craftspeople whose US output alone is valued at more than $31bn (€22bn).

Over in Brooklyn, in the shadow the Manhattan Bridge, is Etsy. Operating under the motto “Buy, sell and live handmade”, this website is ground zero for crafters and hobbyists worldwide. A virtual flea market of more than 7 million homespun and vintage items, Etsy is making a killing in this austerity era.

Got a great artistic vision but no patrons? Just create a video and pitch your brainwave via a Lower East Side-based crowd-funding website. So far Kickstarter, which doesn’t get paid until you’ve reached your target, has collected more than $20m (€14m) in pledges for music, film and design projects.

And finally, for would-be Edisons, there’s Quirky. Based in Manhattan’s NoHo district, this website has crowdsourced the entire process of innovation. Entrepreneurs pay $99 to submit a product idea. The community then votes for the best, collaborating on design and price. Attract enough pre-orders and Quirky takes an active role in sourcing and manufacturing. In 18 months it has spawned 12 products, including a cord untangler and a portable coffee-mug spoon. It has also raised $6m to build a rapid prototyping shop, a global sales force and round-the-clock design and engineering tools.

All three start-ups are merely the latest in an assembly line of industrial pioneers drawn to New York. Much of the telecommunications infrastructure that they – and the world – rely on can trace its origins to innovations created close by. It was just across the river in New Jersey that Edison established the company that eventually became General Electric.