I suppose this is as good a time as any to "out" ourselves - we were pushed a little with some photos that got out, but it's about time anyway. Christian and I have had our heads down, and have been working as hard as we've ever worked for the last 7 months or so, on a new wheelchair.
I want to be very clear though – this chair IS NOT CURRENTLY FOR SALE– at this point, we’re ONLY looking for advice on design and the design direction that will be helpful to people who may want to use this wheelchair.
We’re about 6 months away from even talking about delivering chairs, and we cannot and will not respond to requests to purchase the chair, or to become a dealer, a salesperson, or a representative.
As mentioned in another post, we went onto a Canadian TV show called "The Dragon's Den", but in terms of how the adjustments and modularity work, the prototype chair that we showed on "Dragons" has very little in common with what we've eventually settled on, and absolutely ZERO in common with the M1.
In fact, for the chair that was on the TV show, and the following prototypes including the latest one, we went back to Christian's design from his efforts with Stryker, which he is also the sole inventor on, and that he developed prior to anything that happened at Marvel.
The Stryker chair was an amazing design, and the patents for it (conveniently for us) recently lapsed and became available in the public domain (they were active when we were designing at Marvel, so although we would have liked to, we couldn’t use them at that point).
Because they became available, we went back in time, attached to them for our foundation design principles, and set out to improve on them significantly.
The most important thing that we did though is listen to the advice that riders, seating specialists, therapists and vendors gave to us, and tried to incorporate those into the new design – we owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the people who stepped up to help us with advice, and criticisms.
The big ticket directions that we got were:
This may well win the "most self-serving statement of the year" award, but I'm personally awestruck with what Christian has come up with.
One of the great things that came from the Dragon’s Den show, is that we made an amazing contact, and just a few weeks ago signed a deal with a new manufacturing partner, Multimatic - you can check them out at multimatic.com – they’re a huge company, and they mostly work in the automotive industry, but they want to diversify, and are really excited about this project.
They have an F1 team, consult to Ford Racing, and they build the Aston Martin One-77 - the next step up from them would literally be NASA – and in fact, Multimatic does contract work for NASA. We’ve kicked off with them, and are super excited about what they’re going to bring to the table in terms of the ability to test, and in terms of the engineering support they’ll provide.
This is an incomplete list, but among other things, the Icon will:
We've shown the prototype to a number of the top rehab seating clinics and key dealers in North America, and we’ve gotten a pretty overwhelming “thumbs up” - for real, this chair is f-ing awesome.
As always, we want to hear your opinions/suggestions – please post them here, or send me a PM or an email to jeff@iconwheelchairs.com.
We’re looking forward to our “official” launch in the next few months, but I’m kind of glad that the CareCure folks are getting the news first.
Here are some clear photos (seriously, wheelergrrrrl needs to buy her brother a G4 iPhone with a flash or something) – please let us know what you think.
I want to be very clear though – this chair IS NOT CURRENTLY FOR SALE– at this point, we’re ONLY looking for advice on design and the design direction that will be helpful to people who may want to use this wheelchair.
We’re about 6 months away from even talking about delivering chairs, and we cannot and will not respond to requests to purchase the chair, or to become a dealer, a salesperson, or a representative.
As mentioned in another post, we went onto a Canadian TV show called "The Dragon's Den", but in terms of how the adjustments and modularity work, the prototype chair that we showed on "Dragons" has very little in common with what we've eventually settled on, and absolutely ZERO in common with the M1.
In fact, for the chair that was on the TV show, and the following prototypes including the latest one, we went back to Christian's design from his efforts with Stryker, which he is also the sole inventor on, and that he developed prior to anything that happened at Marvel.
The Stryker chair was an amazing design, and the patents for it (conveniently for us) recently lapsed and became available in the public domain (they were active when we were designing at Marvel, so although we would have liked to, we couldn’t use them at that point).
Because they became available, we went back in time, attached to them for our foundation design principles, and set out to improve on them significantly.
The most important thing that we did though is listen to the advice that riders, seating specialists, therapists and vendors gave to us, and tried to incorporate those into the new design – we owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the people who stepped up to help us with advice, and criticisms.
The big ticket directions that we got were:
- Lower the price
- Simplify the way it adjusts
- Start with a “base” chair, and let the user add upgrades/components
- Make sure that it’s compatible with the aftermarket accessories in the market
This may well win the "most self-serving statement of the year" award, but I'm personally awestruck with what Christian has come up with.
One of the great things that came from the Dragon’s Den show, is that we made an amazing contact, and just a few weeks ago signed a deal with a new manufacturing partner, Multimatic - you can check them out at multimatic.com – they’re a huge company, and they mostly work in the automotive industry, but they want to diversify, and are really excited about this project.
They have an F1 team, consult to Ford Racing, and they build the Aston Martin One-77 - the next step up from them would literally be NASA – and in fact, Multimatic does contract work for NASA. We’ve kicked off with them, and are super excited about what they’re going to bring to the table in terms of the ability to test, and in terms of the engineering support they’ll provide.
This is an incomplete list, but among other things, the Icon will:
- Adjust in 11 measurements and without tools for many of them – as much as possible, the adjustments will be made with the rider in the chair. (adjustable elements will include: seat width, seat depth, seat angle, front seat height, rear seat height, back height, back angle, rear wheel spacing, overall length, footrest height, footrest angle)
- Be offered in a base configuration at a price point that is in the same range as the base models of our competitors.
- Offer optional rear suspension; there will be no front suspension.
- Be compatible with all of the common aftermarket backs (the base model will come with a sling upholstery back), and power assist wheels.
- Weigh in at under 21 pounds, with wheels.
We've shown the prototype to a number of the top rehab seating clinics and key dealers in North America, and we’ve gotten a pretty overwhelming “thumbs up” - for real, this chair is f-ing awesome.
As always, we want to hear your opinions/suggestions – please post them here, or send me a PM or an email to jeff@iconwheelchairs.com.
We’re looking forward to our “official” launch in the next few months, but I’m kind of glad that the CareCure folks are getting the news first.
Here are some clear photos (seriously, wheelergrrrrl needs to buy her brother a G4 iPhone with a flash or something) – please let us know what you think.
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