When my father and I opened Smart Mobility in June this year (as exclusive distributors of smartCRUTCH in the USA and Canada) we felt encouraged to learn that it was already proven enough that there was a waitlist.
We placed our first stock order immediately and emailed this list to start the process. We were again delighted with the positive response. However with factory production only recently back to full tilt and an established network of distributors throughout the world on back order, we quickly realized there was going to be a delay.
We decided to slow things down and planned on importing one to two small shipments to get us started. We figured this would allow me time to wind down some other business interests and projects, as well as set up the new distributorship properly including the website with an online ordering system.
What we didn’t know was that FDA fees are charged for any part of one calendar year. This meant that whether we received our first shipment in January 2016 or December 2016 the cost of the FDA would be the same, it also meant that whether we imported 50 crutches or 500 crutches we would pay the same FDA, and it was a significant cost to a new business.
At this point we had to decide whether to wait until the new year to ship our first consignment of smartCRUTCHes so we could amortize the cost of the FDA over a total year.
At about the same time I received an email from an overseas distributor forwarding details of a USA-based customer looking everywhere and anywhere in the world for a pair of smartCRUTCH, even offering to go to Canada to buy them. The email was from Melissa and the crutches were for her daughter Aria, who she said had been asking her about the crutches “on nearly a daily basis”. Aria is in a wheelchair most of the time and had heard from others on her Ehlers Danlos newsgroup that their “smartCRUTCHes allow them to be much more mobile and independent”.
This was the first time I had heard of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and I did some research, trying to understand why the smartCRUTCHes were so effective for this particular condition, and so was introduced to the dazzle of Zebras.
I emailed back and said that I had an obstacle with my FDA and that there might be a delay, and indicated that I wasn’t sure how long it was going to be.
Melissa replied “I've attached a picture of Aria with her sister (Aria is on the left). She is 15 and a freshman in high school. I have no doubt that that the crutches will make a huge difference in her life by giving her the stability she lacks and allowing her to feel ‘more normal’ when she feels up to using them. Maybe even allowing her to go to a dance or two! Teenage years are such a hard time to feel so different. She can't use conventional crutches because her condition makes her prone to shoulder dislocations.“
Reading about Aria made up my mind immediately, and we paid the FDAs and shipped the first small batch of smartCRUTCHes. I kept Aria as an inspiration to keep pushing ahead when the process of applying for an FDA was more complicated than we thought, and when the first shipment was detained in FDA in Denver, Colorado for almost three weeks. When they eventually arrived the very first pair headed out to Massachusetts to Aria.
A few weeks later I received an email from Aria herself, “The crutches are GREAT! I absolutely love them! I now find myself using them all of the time when I'm going places I know aren't wheelchair accessible, or if I know I'm just going to be walking a little bit in stores or at school clubs and such. They are helping me to expand my boundaries and build my stamina, without the high risk of falling I had before. With the smartCRUTCHES, my goal this year is to be able to walk a full day of school on them (by the end of the school year), and I think that it is definitely an attainable goal - and it's all thanks to you and your hard work getting them here to me. Walking isn't a dread any more, it's an opportunity for me that I look forward to.”
Since that first email from Melissa, on behalf of Aria, I have emailed and talked to many other Zebras now successfully using smartCRUTCH, and heard from many others with short-term injuries or using crutches permanently who have found that smartCRUTCH has changed the way they are able to move through life. It has made the challenge of bringing them back to the USA and Canada very personally worthwhile.
Many of you who I talked to and emailed while waiting for the crutches were a further source of inspiration to me. Thank you to each of you for your patience and grace, and I navigated each part of the process to get them to you (when some of you knew more about the product then I did).
I look forward to this next phase of smartCRUTCH – with a functioning website and hopefully some improved automated systems.
Best,
Kirsten
Kirsten Le Roux
President
Aria and her sister
I'm a right above the knee amputee as of 4/3/23 and have had my prosthesis about 6.5 months. I have been through PT and have on going balance problems. I'm told this is common. I have never use poles of any kind, I do use a cane. The feeling of being safer than with the cane is amazing. I can walk about twice as far as with cane and with less fatigue. I still use the cane around the house and for short jaunts. I will be starting advanced gait training 5/1/24 and my new PT is a fan of walking poles, so I will seen how she uses the poles in this new training.
The grips are a little small for me, Lauren suggested wrapping them tennis racket handle rewrap and the seems to have solved it.
The description doesn't do this product enough justice. They are way better than the description ever said! Not only are they great on wet surfaces, but they work amazing for anyone who works in food service around greasy floors! I work at a McDonald's where the floor is super slick and greasy and oily and these give me a decent amount of traction on said surface. Truly amazing.
Amazing product! 10/10 would recommend! I can move and be free again! I'm not limited to flat ground and short distances. Costumer service is just as amazing if not better than the product itself. I had a rubber tip split and break 3 days after receiving it and they listened and problem solved to find a solution. Truly amazing, genuinely caring people. I wish there was more I could do to give them the recognition they deserve! I will definitely continue working with them in the future!
First and foremost, I want to talk about the customer service. I
received a phone call from a person, not a computer-generated voice, that my order was going to be a day late due to weather in their area. It is so rare these days to be treated so personally that I am so amazed. That alone has boosted my experience with this company to the toppest level. Not to mention the craftsmanship and style of these polls! I highly highly recommend this company and their priducts. And I, intend to look up this company when I go to Cape Cod to personally thank them as they personally treated me amazingly.
These work alright for me. I think these could use more molded hand pieces, and they have a bit of wobble to them where they join. I'm going to add some foam tape to try to improve the former. Overall I still recommend them, though.