[00:00] about five years ago, we built a factory&nbsp; to manufacture off-road wheelchairs. Cambry: And since then, we've expanded&nbsp; to make everyday manual wheelchairs,&nbsp;&nbsp; Zack: For the past year or so, we've&nbsp; been operating in stealth mode. And&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:14] even in stealth mode, we've managed&nbsp; to save the wheelchair community about&nbsp;&nbsp; $2 million. All thanks to you watching&nbsp; our videos—videos like this one. Our&nbsp;&nbsp; Paradox wheelchair isn't a one-size-fits-all;&nbsp; it's super custom, with over 16 quintillion&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:28] different unique options to choose from. Every&nbsp; person is different, and so is every wheelchair. you want a wheelchair that's&nbsp; the right size for your body. Zack: This video is for two types of people.&nbsp; One: you might be interested in super complex&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:41] manufacturing, since no two of our wheelchairs are&nbsp; ever the same. It's going to be a little loud here&nbsp;&nbsp; in the factory. Or two: you actually use a manual&nbsp; wheelchair, because we're going to be showing the&nbsp;&nbsp; process of how you get your measurements and&nbsp; how the chair is built here in the factory. We&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:56] have my wife, Cambry. We have Taylor, Bailey,&nbsp; and Dade, who will be helping us through the&nbsp;&nbsp; measuring process. Our factory here in Utah is&nbsp; able to take raw aluminum tube in one door and&nbsp;&nbsp; have a full custom wheelchair leave the other side&nbsp; of the factory within just a few weeks—all while&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:09] being about 60 to 70% cheaper than the other&nbsp; guys. 'Cause insurance can be a real doozy. Cambry: "20 years from a horse&nbsp; accident. And my last wheelchair,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:22] it was $8,000. But my Paradox chair was&nbsp; $1,900. And it only took about 6 to 8 weeks." Cambry: "It was a year from getting a&nbsp; prescription to getting it in my hands."
[01:36] Bailey: "I was injured 7 years ago from a blood&nbsp; clot in my spinal cord. My last chair was about&nbsp;&nbsp; $10,000. Um, my Paradox chair was $2,100, and it&nbsp; took about 6 weeks when compared to 6 months."
[01:51] Taylor: "I got into a car accident 9 years&nbsp; ago. Uh, my last insurance wheelchair cost&nbsp;&nbsp; about 5 grand; took about 6 months to get.&nbsp; And then my Paradox chair cost $2,300." Dade: "I was injured 3 and 1/2 years&nbsp; ago. I fell out of a tree. My first&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:07] chair through insurance cost $12,000.&nbsp; And this chair, my Paradox chair, I got,&nbsp;&nbsp; uh, for $1,649. It took five weeks to get here&nbsp; as opposed to 6 months for my insurance chair."
[02:20] Zack: So, we are able to build chairs way&nbsp; faster and way cheaper. And a lot of these&nbsp;&nbsp; chairs have upgrades on them, but our chairs&nbsp; start at $999. Let's start with the coolest&nbsp;&nbsp; looking and most fun decision to make: the&nbsp; color of your chair. Since we control every&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:33] aspect of the manufacturing process, we offer&nbsp; more than 6,000 different color combinations.&nbsp;&nbsp; The sky is the limit when it comes to color.&nbsp; And since we do all of the powder coating here&nbsp;&nbsp; ourselves, it doesn't add all that much time to&nbsp; the build process. We've made psychedelic chairs,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:47] chromed-out wheelchairs, neon chairs—pretty much&nbsp; any color you can dream of, we can build. Plus,&nbsp;&nbsp; you can see our base colors change in real-time&nbsp; on our website configurator. It's kind of fun&nbsp;&nbsp; to play with, and no other wheelchair&nbsp; company on the planet has one of these.
[03:00] One of the reasons we're able to build our chairs&nbsp; so quickly is because our entire factory and all&nbsp;&nbsp; of our machines are located right here in the&nbsp; USA. The magic begins with the state-of-the-art&nbsp;&nbsp; laser that can cut whole wheelchair frames&nbsp; in minutes. Then, the laser-cut tubes head&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:25] over to the CNC bender that is far stronger and&nbsp; far more precise than any human, and far faster.&nbsp;&nbsp; This machine alone can probably bend about 250&nbsp; wheelchairs a day without breaking a sweat.
[03:39] Then comes TIG welding. Since every chair&nbsp; is different, this still requires a human&nbsp;&nbsp; touch. But at some point in the future, thanks&nbsp; to you watching this video right now, hopefully&nbsp;&nbsp; we'll be able to afford some robotic fixturing,&nbsp; which will help cut our lead times even shorter.
[03:53] Final assembly is where everything&nbsp; comes together with the seat pan,&nbsp;&nbsp; the axle tubes, front casters,&nbsp; large rear wheels, and of course,&nbsp;&nbsp; the backrest, ready to become a useful piece&nbsp; of equipment to help out with everyday life.
[04:06] Cambry: The seat type of a wheelchair is very much&nbsp; a personal preference. About 70% of people choose&nbsp;&nbsp; the soft seat sling like me, and 30% of the people&nbsp; upgrade to a carbon fiber or aluminum hard seat.&nbsp;&nbsp; While our Paradox wheelchairs are adjustable in&nbsp; quite a few places, the seat width is not. So,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:22] to get. Make sure the tape measure is flat and&nbsp; use your hands to press in on any fabric. You&nbsp;&nbsp; want the side guards to be lightly touching the&nbsp; sides of your hips, but not adding any pressure.
[04:34] Zack: The measurement we're getting now will&nbsp; become the exact measurement between clothing&nbsp;&nbsp; guards of your Paradox chair. It'll be from&nbsp; the outside of one tube to the outside of&nbsp;&nbsp; the other tube, just within the nearest 1/2&nbsp; inch. If your hips are wider than your knees,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:46] you can add something called a seat taper,&nbsp; which bends and brings the front edge of your&nbsp;&nbsp; no wasted space on your chair and that&nbsp; the footprint of your chair matches your&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:58] footprint as a human. We have about 10%&nbsp; of people choose the seat taper option.&nbsp;&nbsp; Keep in mind that most of the off-the-shelf&nbsp; cushions are rectangular and not tapered. Then we have seat depth. This is another exact&nbsp; dimension that's pretty dependent on your own&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:11] body size. We want full seat support from your&nbsp; lower back all the way to the inside crease&nbsp;&nbsp; of your knee without, of course, touching the&nbsp; backside of your knee. We don't want anything&nbsp;&nbsp; to rub. So, snag the complete measurement&nbsp; and then subtract 1 to 1 and 1/2 inches so&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:25] the seat pan isn't touching your leg. For&nbsp; example, if we take Cambry's measurement,&nbsp;&nbsp; her measurement is 16 inches from&nbsp; the hip to the backside of the knee,&nbsp;&nbsp; meaning we subtract an inch and a half, putting&nbsp; her seat pan or seat depth at 14 1/2 inches.
[05:42] Now, for frame type: about half of people&nbsp; choose the no-taper option since it's the&nbsp;&nbsp; least expensive. But if you want to reduce the&nbsp; footprint of your wheelchair and make tighter&nbsp;&nbsp; turns, you can add a Y-taper or a V-taper. The&nbsp; Y-taper is slightly more popular than the V,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:57] but it's all personal preference. Either taper&nbsp; is the same cost, and our CNC bending machine&nbsp;&nbsp; can knock it out in seconds. Personally, I&nbsp; prefer the Y-taper a bit more since the shape&nbsp;&nbsp; makes it easier to adjust the footplate. Take&nbsp; special care, though, not to make the distance&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:10] between these two tubes narrower than the&nbsp; widest pair of boots or shoes that you own. Taylor: One thing I added to my&nbsp; chair are frame supports. I do&nbsp;&nbsp; a lot of outdoor rugged activities,&nbsp; so the added stability and stiffness&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:24] is always a great idea. Frame supports&nbsp; are also a good idea for heavier users. Zack: The next measurement we need for the&nbsp; configurator is the rear seat height. If you're&nbsp;&nbsp; already in an existing chair, getting these&nbsp; measurements should be pretty simple. This is&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:37] the measurement from the floor to the back side&nbsp; of your seat pan. And the front seat height is&nbsp;&nbsp; a self-explanatory measurement from the floor&nbsp; to the front edge of your seat pan. The slope&nbsp;&nbsp; between those two measurements is what we call&nbsp; the seat dump, or the slope of your seat pan.
[06:51] About 50% of people have a 1-and-a-half to&nbsp; two-inch worth of seat dump, but it really&nbsp;&nbsp; is personal preference. Sometimes people with a&nbsp; higher level of injury prefer more of a slope,&nbsp;&nbsp; but this is a question you'll have to ask&nbsp; yourself or a seating specialist. For reference,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:04] Dade has a rear seat height of 17 inches&nbsp; and a front seat height of 19 inches,&nbsp;&nbsp; giving him 2 inches of slope. If you don't&nbsp; have an existing wheelchair to measure off of,&nbsp;&nbsp; you can still get your front seat height by&nbsp; taking your seat pan to footrest and adding&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:18] you a good reference point to start your front&nbsp; seat height, and then you could subtract the&nbsp;&nbsp; dump to get your rear seat height—all, of course,&nbsp; based on your personal preferences and your body.
[07:30] Dade: The frame depth extension is also&nbsp; a personal preference. I like it 'cause&nbsp;&nbsp; It does lengthen the wheelbase slightly, which&nbsp; improves stability as well. About 25% of people&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:44] prefer no extension, and about 50% of people&nbsp; extend the frame between 1 and 1/2 inches. Bailey: So the front angle has to do with the&nbsp; curve of the wheelchair as it transitions from&nbsp;&nbsp; the seat to the footplate. About 20% of people&nbsp; like having it at a perfect 90° from the ground,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:00] while about 60% of people like myself like&nbsp; a slightly less abrupt angle and choose 85°.&nbsp;&nbsp; This extends the footplate out ever so&nbsp; slightly to improve stability. Further&nbsp;&nbsp; out is more stable, but it increases&nbsp; the footprint of the chair slightly.
[08:15] adjusted later after you receive the&nbsp; chair. If you're sitting up straight,&nbsp;&nbsp; you'll want the top of the backrest to sit&nbsp; lower than your shoulder blades so you can&nbsp;&nbsp; still use your arms to push while still&nbsp; getting support when you're not pushing.
[08:29] is relative to the slope of your seat pan.&nbsp; And the vast majority of people, about 60%,&nbsp;&nbsp; choose 90 degrees since the seat pan is already&nbsp; reclined slightly. While about 20% of us choose&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:42] to recline the backrest slightly further at&nbsp; 95°, but this is also adjustable after you&nbsp;&nbsp; Zack: These seat posts will&nbsp; always be 90° to the seat pan;&nbsp;&nbsp; Taylor: The seat-to-footrest measurement is from&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:58] Zack: If you're going to be measuring from&nbsp; the heel to the back side of your knee,&nbsp;&nbsp; remember that you'll probably have a&nbsp; 2- or 3-inch cushion on your chair,&nbsp;&nbsp; the measurement from the bottom of the&nbsp; seat pan to the top of the footplate.
[09:15] Taylor: And remember to measure while wearing the&nbsp; shoes you normally wear, 'cause your sole matters. Zack: Luckily, there is an inch or two of&nbsp; adjustment of the footplate height after&nbsp;&nbsp; you receive your chair. Our online configurator&nbsp; does let you see everything in real-time with&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:28] dimensional measurements beforehand, which helps&nbsp; us get your chair right the first time around. Cambry: And with that, our build is almost done.&nbsp; The next step is casters. Here's our standard one,&nbsp;&nbsp; or the Frog Leg that adds a little more suspension&nbsp; to your chair. We also have some anti-tippers if&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:43] you want them, or push handles that retract.&nbsp; And I love these, but Taylor does not. Taylor: Don't push my chair. I love&nbsp; the wooden hand rims. They're great&nbsp;&nbsp; for keeping your hands warm during&nbsp; the winter season so you're not&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:57] touching the bare aluminum. I love the&nbsp; wooden push rims, but Cambry does not. Cambry: I don't like the texture. I like my&nbsp; metal. We almost forgot about gravity—the&nbsp;&nbsp; center of gravity, that is. Popping wheelies is&nbsp; kind of important when you're a manual wheelchair&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:10] user. So, setting the center of gravity is&nbsp; what allows you to do that. Too far back and&nbsp;&nbsp; you can't raise the front casters; too far&nbsp; forward and you tip forwards. About 50% of&nbsp;&nbsp; us choose 2 and 1/2 inches when measured from&nbsp; the post of the backrest to the exact center&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:23] of your wheel. The axle can be adjusted&nbsp; later—forward, backward, up, or down—but&nbsp;&nbsp; Dade: As for wheel camber, about 75%&nbsp; of people choose a two-degree camber,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:36] Zack: So Camry has a two-degree camber and Dade&nbsp;&nbsp; Dade: Wheel diameter is also a personal&nbsp; preference, but the majority of people,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:50] about 75%, choose 24-inch wheels for&nbsp; their back wheels. If you're taller&nbsp;&nbsp; Bailey: One of the questions we get a&nbsp; lot is how much our frames weigh. Um,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:02] the frame with the wheels is about 26 lbs,&nbsp; but without the wheels, it's about 18 lbs. Zack: And of course, remember that protection&nbsp; is always a good thing. We have wheelchair armor&nbsp;&nbsp; supplied by our friends over at dbrand to help&nbsp; protect your chair against scuffs and dings.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:15] These skins are easy to apply and easy&nbsp; to swap out if one gets damaged later. And finally, for summary, it's a good sanity&nbsp; check to switch over to the numerical drawings&nbsp;&nbsp; on our configurator and make sure everything&nbsp; on your chair looks how you want it to. Nobody&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:28] else in the galaxy has a real-life, real-time&nbsp; wheelchair configurator like we do, so we might&nbsp;&nbsp; as well use it. How you see your rendered chair&nbsp; in 3D is exactly how we will ship it, right, Levi? Zack: As you can see, the build process&nbsp; of manufacturing a custom lightweight&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:43] ATP or a seating specialist to make&nbsp; sure your measurements are correct. Cambry: Our goal is to build and ship your&nbsp; wheelchair to you in just a few weeks. Now,&nbsp;&nbsp; if you do need it expedited, there is a&nbsp; paid option for that as well. And remember,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:58] when you get your chair, it may take a few days to&nbsp; kind of get used to it, like a new pair of shoes,&nbsp;&nbsp; right? There is some adjustability, so you can&nbsp; adjust it a little bit after the fact as well. to help support us is just by sharing this&nbsp; video. The more people who know we exist,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[12:16] Cambry: Thanks a ton for&nbsp; watching. We'll see you around.