We have a Secret... The Factory is Ready

[00:00] about five years ago, we built a factory  to manufacture off-road wheelchairs. Cambry: And since then, we've expanded  to make everyday manual wheelchairs,   Zack: For the past year or so, we've  been operating in stealth mode. And  

[00:14] even in stealth mode, we've managed  to save the wheelchair community about   $2 million. All thanks to you watching  our videos—videos like this one. Our   Paradox wheelchair isn't a one-size-fits-all;  it's super custom, with over 16 quintillion  

[00:28] different unique options to choose from. Every  person is different, and so is every wheelchair. you want a wheelchair that's  the right size for your body. Zack: This video is for two types of people.  One: you might be interested in super complex  

[00:41] manufacturing, since no two of our wheelchairs are  ever the same. It's going to be a little loud here   in the factory. Or two: you actually use a manual  wheelchair, because we're going to be showing the   process of how you get your measurements and  how the chair is built here in the factory. We  

[00:56] have my wife, Cambry. We have Taylor, Bailey,  and Dade, who will be helping us through the   measuring process. Our factory here in Utah is  able to take raw aluminum tube in one door and   have a full custom wheelchair leave the other side  of the factory within just a few weeks—all while  

[01:09] being about 60 to 70% cheaper than the other  guys. 'Cause insurance can be a real doozy. Cambry: "20 years from a horse  accident. And my last wheelchair,  

[01:22] it was $8,000. But my Paradox chair was  $1,900. And it only took about 6 to 8 weeks." Cambry: "It was a year from getting a  prescription to getting it in my hands."

[01:36] Bailey: "I was injured 7 years ago from a blood  clot in my spinal cord. My last chair was about   $10,000. Um, my Paradox chair was $2,100, and it  took about 6 weeks when compared to 6 months."

[01:51] Taylor: "I got into a car accident 9 years  ago. Uh, my last insurance wheelchair cost   about 5 grand; took about 6 months to get.  And then my Paradox chair cost $2,300." Dade: "I was injured 3 and 1/2 years  ago. I fell out of a tree. My first  

[02:07] chair through insurance cost $12,000.  And this chair, my Paradox chair, I got,   uh, for $1,649. It took five weeks to get here  as opposed to 6 months for my insurance chair."

[02:20] Zack: So, we are able to build chairs way  faster and way cheaper. And a lot of these   chairs have upgrades on them, but our chairs  start at $999. Let's start with the coolest   looking and most fun decision to make: the  color of your chair. Since we control every  

[02:33] aspect of the manufacturing process, we offer  more than 6,000 different color combinations.   The sky is the limit when it comes to color.  And since we do all of the powder coating here   ourselves, it doesn't add all that much time to  the build process. We've made psychedelic chairs,  

[02:47] chromed-out wheelchairs, neon chairs—pretty much  any color you can dream of, we can build. Plus,   you can see our base colors change in real-time  on our website configurator. It's kind of fun   to play with, and no other wheelchair  company on the planet has one of these.

[03:00] One of the reasons we're able to build our chairs  so quickly is because our entire factory and all   of our machines are located right here in the  USA. The magic begins with the state-of-the-art   laser that can cut whole wheelchair frames  in minutes. Then, the laser-cut tubes head  

[03:25] over to the CNC bender that is far stronger and  far more precise than any human, and far faster.   This machine alone can probably bend about 250  wheelchairs a day without breaking a sweat.

[03:39] Then comes TIG welding. Since every chair  is different, this still requires a human   touch. But at some point in the future, thanks  to you watching this video right now, hopefully   we'll be able to afford some robotic fixturing,  which will help cut our lead times even shorter.

[03:53] Final assembly is where everything  comes together with the seat pan,   the axle tubes, front casters,  large rear wheels, and of course,   the backrest, ready to become a useful piece  of equipment to help out with everyday life.

[04:06] Cambry: The seat type of a wheelchair is very much  a personal preference. About 70% of people choose   the soft seat sling like me, and 30% of the people  upgrade to a carbon fiber or aluminum hard seat.   While our Paradox wheelchairs are adjustable in  quite a few places, the seat width is not. So,  

[04:22] to get. Make sure the tape measure is flat and  use your hands to press in on any fabric. You   want the side guards to be lightly touching the  sides of your hips, but not adding any pressure.

[04:34] Zack: The measurement we're getting now will  become the exact measurement between clothing   guards of your Paradox chair. It'll be from  the outside of one tube to the outside of   the other tube, just within the nearest 1/2  inch. If your hips are wider than your knees,  

[04:46] you can add something called a seat taper,  which bends and brings the front edge of your   no wasted space on your chair and that  the footprint of your chair matches your  

[04:58] footprint as a human. We have about 10%  of people choose the seat taper option.   Keep in mind that most of the off-the-shelf  cushions are rectangular and not tapered. Then we have seat depth. This is another exact  dimension that's pretty dependent on your own  

[05:11] body size. We want full seat support from your  lower back all the way to the inside crease   of your knee without, of course, touching the  backside of your knee. We don't want anything   to rub. So, snag the complete measurement  and then subtract 1 to 1 and 1/2 inches so  

[05:25] the seat pan isn't touching your leg. For  example, if we take Cambry's measurement,   her measurement is 16 inches from  the hip to the backside of the knee,   meaning we subtract an inch and a half, putting  her seat pan or seat depth at 14 1/2 inches.

[05:42] Now, for frame type: about half of people  choose the no-taper option since it's the   least expensive. But if you want to reduce the  footprint of your wheelchair and make tighter   turns, you can add a Y-taper or a V-taper. The  Y-taper is slightly more popular than the V,  

[05:57] but it's all personal preference. Either taper  is the same cost, and our CNC bending machine   can knock it out in seconds. Personally, I  prefer the Y-taper a bit more since the shape   makes it easier to adjust the footplate. Take  special care, though, not to make the distance  

[06:10] between these two tubes narrower than the  widest pair of boots or shoes that you own. Taylor: One thing I added to my  chair are frame supports. I do   a lot of outdoor rugged activities,  so the added stability and stiffness  

[06:24] is always a great idea. Frame supports  are also a good idea for heavier users. Zack: The next measurement we need for the  configurator is the rear seat height. If you're   already in an existing chair, getting these  measurements should be pretty simple. This is  

[06:37] the measurement from the floor to the back side  of your seat pan. And the front seat height is   a self-explanatory measurement from the floor  to the front edge of your seat pan. The slope   between those two measurements is what we call  the seat dump, or the slope of your seat pan.

[06:51] About 50% of people have a 1-and-a-half to  two-inch worth of seat dump, but it really   is personal preference. Sometimes people with a  higher level of injury prefer more of a slope,   but this is a question you'll have to ask  yourself or a seating specialist. For reference,  

[07:04] Dade has a rear seat height of 17 inches  and a front seat height of 19 inches,   giving him 2 inches of slope. If you don't  have an existing wheelchair to measure off of,   you can still get your front seat height by  taking your seat pan to footrest and adding  

[07:18] you a good reference point to start your front  seat height, and then you could subtract the   dump to get your rear seat height—all, of course,  based on your personal preferences and your body.

[07:30] Dade: The frame depth extension is also  a personal preference. I like it 'cause   It does lengthen the wheelbase slightly, which  improves stability as well. About 25% of people  

[07:44] prefer no extension, and about 50% of people  extend the frame between 1 and 1/2 inches. Bailey: So the front angle has to do with the  curve of the wheelchair as it transitions from   the seat to the footplate. About 20% of people  like having it at a perfect 90° from the ground,  

[08:00] while about 60% of people like myself like  a slightly less abrupt angle and choose 85°.   This extends the footplate out ever so  slightly to improve stability. Further   out is more stable, but it increases  the footprint of the chair slightly.

[08:15] adjusted later after you receive the  chair. If you're sitting up straight,   you'll want the top of the backrest to sit  lower than your shoulder blades so you can   still use your arms to push while still  getting support when you're not pushing.

[08:29] is relative to the slope of your seat pan.  And the vast majority of people, about 60%,   choose 90 degrees since the seat pan is already  reclined slightly. While about 20% of us choose  

[08:42] to recline the backrest slightly further at  95°, but this is also adjustable after you   Zack: These seat posts will  always be 90° to the seat pan;   Taylor: The seat-to-footrest measurement is from  

[08:58] Zack: If you're going to be measuring from  the heel to the back side of your knee,   remember that you'll probably have a  2- or 3-inch cushion on your chair,   the measurement from the bottom of the  seat pan to the top of the footplate.

[09:15] Taylor: And remember to measure while wearing the  shoes you normally wear, 'cause your sole matters. Zack: Luckily, there is an inch or two of  adjustment of the footplate height after   you receive your chair. Our online configurator  does let you see everything in real-time with  

[09:28] dimensional measurements beforehand, which helps  us get your chair right the first time around. Cambry: And with that, our build is almost done.  The next step is casters. Here's our standard one,   or the Frog Leg that adds a little more suspension  to your chair. We also have some anti-tippers if  

[09:43] you want them, or push handles that retract.  And I love these, but Taylor does not. Taylor: Don't push my chair. I love  the wooden hand rims. They're great   for keeping your hands warm during  the winter season so you're not  

[09:57] touching the bare aluminum. I love the  wooden push rims, but Cambry does not. Cambry: I don't like the texture. I like my  metal. We almost forgot about gravity—the   center of gravity, that is. Popping wheelies is  kind of important when you're a manual wheelchair  

[10:10] user. So, setting the center of gravity is  what allows you to do that. Too far back and   you can't raise the front casters; too far  forward and you tip forwards. About 50% of   us choose 2 and 1/2 inches when measured from  the post of the backrest to the exact center  

[10:23] of your wheel. The axle can be adjusted  later—forward, backward, up, or down—but   Dade: As for wheel camber, about 75%  of people choose a two-degree camber,  

[10:36] Zack: So Camry has a two-degree camber and Dade   Dade: Wheel diameter is also a personal  preference, but the majority of people,  

[10:50] about 75%, choose 24-inch wheels for  their back wheels. If you're taller   Bailey: One of the questions we get a  lot is how much our frames weigh. Um,  

[11:02] the frame with the wheels is about 26 lbs,  but without the wheels, it's about 18 lbs. Zack: And of course, remember that protection  is always a good thing. We have wheelchair armor   supplied by our friends over at dbrand to help  protect your chair against scuffs and dings.  

[11:15] These skins are easy to apply and easy  to swap out if one gets damaged later. And finally, for summary, it's a good sanity  check to switch over to the numerical drawings   on our configurator and make sure everything  on your chair looks how you want it to. Nobody  

[11:28] else in the galaxy has a real-life, real-time  wheelchair configurator like we do, so we might   as well use it. How you see your rendered chair  in 3D is exactly how we will ship it, right, Levi? Zack: As you can see, the build process  of manufacturing a custom lightweight  

[11:43] ATP or a seating specialist to make  sure your measurements are correct. Cambry: Our goal is to build and ship your  wheelchair to you in just a few weeks. Now,   if you do need it expedited, there is a  paid option for that as well. And remember,  

[11:58] when you get your chair, it may take a few days to  kind of get used to it, like a new pair of shoes,   right? There is some adjustability, so you can  adjust it a little bit after the fact as well. to help support us is just by sharing this  video. The more people who know we exist,  

[12:16] Cambry: Thanks a ton for  watching. We'll see you around.