SideStix has once again come home with hardware from the 2012 MISTIC awards, this time winning the promising pre-commercial innovation category.
We are delighted by our win at the MISTIC awards. It's wonderful to receive validation for our work, said Sarah Doherty of SideStix.
The company wowed the judges with their new sport crutch innovation, the FinGrip, a handgrip that functions much like a diving board, providing ultimate shock absorption to SideStix users.
We believe that the comfortable, shock absorbing FinGrip will be a vital component for SideStix and also for bicycles, helping to prevent rider fatigue and ulna nerve compression, Doherty said.
The grip is the latest addition to Doherty and partner Kerith Perreur-Lloyd's invention, SideStix, which are adaptive, shock absorbing forearm crutches with a multitude of attachments to tackle any terrain.
Last year Doherty and Perreur-Lloyd took home the win in MISTIC's emerging product design category for their adaptive forearm crutches.
This is the last year the MISTIC awards will run.
MISTIC stands for Mid-Island Science Technology & Innovation Council, and the council announced Nov. 5 they will no longer offer the awards.
We have had an amazing run with the awards for the last seven years, but its now time to move on to focusing on developing the local talent through different services that will help bring ideas and technology to life, said Paris Gaudet, executive director for MISTIC.
The next step for SideStix is developing their FinGrip idea to create a marketable product.
Right now we are working hard designing a manufacturing process that will make the FinGrip affordable to produce, Doherty noted.
For more about SideStix, see www.sidestix.com.
