Wil Andruschak
‘You’re not going to not get a wheelchair because you think it’s bad — you’re fucked’
How did you end up in a wheelchair?
I broke my back snowboarding in 1996 a lifetime ago.
What inspired you to start designing wheelchairs?
I happen to be six-foot-four and at the time wheelchairs weren’t really made for tall people. I was working as a machinist at the University of Calgary and so right after I got my first chair I started redesigning and rebuilding and a year after I was first hurt I was cruising around in a custom-made chair.
So the one you first got was pretty uncomfortable?
Yeah. Right away it was obvious that this thing was not going to be right for me. It didn’t fit it was uncomfortable I didn’t feel like it was made very well. I’d come from this world of building things and you couldn’t lie to me and tell me that that thing was worth $5000.
That’s how much a wheelchair costs?
Yeah chairs go for $3000 to $8000.
After you built yourself one you must have known others were in the same boat.
I ran with a small community — I raced did marathons and would meet a bunch of other people in chairs people who were unhappy with their chair or had an idea of what they’d want. So I’d start to piece together those ideas and what I eventually realized was that no one idea was the way to go. Making something specific would only satisfy one individual and people in wheelchairs are like snowflakes no two are the same. What had to happen was to make a chair that was adaptable and adjustable to different situations and body types.
How many prototypes have you gone through since that first one?
I’ve probably built 15 chairs. Easily. There have been three companies Stryker Marvel and now Icon. Stryker was a giant medical company and that didn’t work out. Marvel was something I was involved in about a year ago and our partners were Cervélo the bike company and they did a hostile takeover of us. And now Icon which is myself and Jeff Adams.
What’s Jeff’s role?
He’s the marketing and the president. He deals with a ton of shit as far as finding the funding FDA compliance codes and all that stuff. We both do it all really; he comes up with ideas I just execute them.
What material is the chair made out of?
Materials are really the only innovation there has been in the wheelchair world the design has stayed the same. It would be like if we were still cruising around in biplanes but they were made out of carbon fibre and titanium. The design hasn’t caught up with the material choice. We’ll be using carbon composites and aluminum in our final chair but it’s more about the engineering behind it.
How long does it take to build one of these?
I do the research and development and prototyping all by myself. For a prototype I could get one done in about three weeks.
Is there a huge cost difference between Icon’s wheelchairs and traditional ones?
No. We’re aiming to come out at around $3500 as a base price and then up to $8000. The difference is that in someone else’s low-end chair you get exactly that a low-end chair as far as materials and functionality. Whereas we’re just going to try to save on the materials so the weight will take a hit but the functionality of it remains the same; all the adjustments are still there.
You were recently on CBC’s Dragons’ Den but the dragons ultimately turned you down. What’s happened since?
We kept in touch with Brett Wilson so we’re about to finalize a deal with him. We’re partnered with Multimatic which has a Formula One team and they make the new Aston Martin super car and they make about 500000 door hinges a month for cars — they’re just a massive car company with 300 engineers or something like that.
How did you end up partnering with them?
They saw us on Dragons’ Den and called us. They’re a Canadian company and the automobile market is hurting pretty bad. And I think it’s a bit of a carrot for their engineers as well. They have a room with 40 engineers designing car door hinges so I think after a while if you can work on the wheelchair project then that keeps your morale up a bit.
So a lot has happened since that episode?.
Yeah. The deal with Brett is from what he saw on Dragons’ Den . The Multimatic thing which is even bigger than getting any money from the dragons because there’s thousands of people out there with money to invest. But companies like Multimatic I think NASA is one step up from them — it’s pretty crazy what they’re able to do.
The big selling feature of the chair is the adjustability. I’m surprised this isn’t already on the market.
It’s crazy. The adjustability is cool and it works really well and it’s well thought out. But my theory behind it is that there’s very little competition in the wheelchair world because it’s a medical device and it’s a lot of work to get into; you can’t just be the little boutique wheelchair maker and sell chairs because people don’t want to buy from someone in their garage. You need FDA approvals. And because there’s so little competition these big medical companies just chug along getting their market share year after year. Why would they change their design? You’re not going to not get a wheelchair because you think it’s bad — you’re fucked. You’re buying one whether you like it or not.
What can you tell me about the deal with Brett?
He’d be coming in as a lead investor. I don’t know if I could say the amount; it’s not a lot of money.
What will his money do for you?
Basically we jumped at the opportunity to work with Mulitmatic which meant that we signed contracts and pay them every month so we’re just trying to keep up enough funding so that we never miss a payment. All the money is going into the engineering design and manufacture of the chair and then a little bit for marketing. We’re going guerrilla on the marketing as best we can just because it’s a pretty easy story to sell. Two guys in wheelchairs who wouldn’t go down kept on going.
So you’ve handed over most of the production to Multimatic?
Yeah. Only I make the prototypes and Multimatic will be making the chairs. That’s another big difference between us and every other wheelchair company. An occupational therapist will measure somebody for their chair fill out an order form and then send it off and then that chair starts to get cut and welded and bent. Two or three months later a wheelchair comes and hopefully it’s the right size.
That’s pretty archaic manufacturing. So not only is it an archaic design but their manufacturing is pretty old school like pre-dating Henry Ford. We’ve gone as far forward as matching the assembly line process and so our design is such that is has enough range that we don’t have to wait for an order to build a chair. We can incorporate modern manufacturing methods and modern engineering. We can truly design the chair and make it awesome whereas they can’t really design anything until they get an order.
You’ve mentioned that the body changes. How has yours changed?
Well if you think about it no one ends up in a wheelchair because they’ve planned it. It’s literally by accident that you end up in this thing. So you’re laid up in a hospital all of a sudden you can’t move your legs your whole world is upside down. You don’t know anything about wheelchairs you’ve done no research and now this therapist is tasked with predicting what your body is going to be like in the next six months. Not only do they have to deal with what your body might look like whether you’re going to take to sports stay the same weight or lose weight or have a tough time with it and gain weight. They also have to deal with your skill level in a chair and your healing. So your first chair needs to be super stable so you don’t tip over backwards or sideways. The seat has to support you really well because you’re back has just been broken. Let’s say the lifespan of a chair is five years so let’s say you’re a beginner for a year you still have that chair for another four years. You’re in this boat anchor of a chair that’s set up for someone who has just broken their back and let’s say you just started playing wheelchair basketball and you’re prefit and now your chair is three inches too wide you can’t get through doorways at bars you go to with your friends. You could if your chair was smaller but you can’t.
So Icon chairs can be used throughout all those stages until they break?
Exactly. There’s no reason anything should break but if something did break or wear out the frame is going to last forever. So instead of buying a whole new wheelchair like you have to now you can buy different components. Like when your bike seat wears out you don’t go and buy a whole new bike.
