SideStix Ventures Inc. is up for another MISTIC Innovation Award, this time in the promising pre-commercial innovation category.
Last year Sarah Doherty and Kerith Perreur-Lloyd of SideStix took home the win in MISTIC's emerging product design category for their adaptive forearm crutches.
They hope for a victory again at the Nov. 2 awards in Nanaimo.
MISTIC stands for Mid-Island Science Technology & Innovation Council. The council created the MISTIC Innovation Awards in 2006 to highlight and recognize emerging technology-based businesses in the area.
The award category Doherty and Perreur-Lloyd have been nominated in this year has to do with the production process of SideStix.
"We're a pre-commercialized product because we are now in the process of figuring out how to manufacture it so we can do it in the masses, and it's not that easy, partly because of the covering of the grip," she said.
The grip covering is made of a close-celled foam that needs to be poured in sheets and then custom cut and glued to the grip handles. It can't be poured in a mould, which is usually how mass production is accomplished.
"So we're trying to figure out something that's close to it," Doherty said.
Doherty and Perreur-Lloyd have developed the first and only damper shock absorbent crutches with changeable tips to suit a variety of terrains from paved streets to rocky mountain slopes.
Users all over the world are singing the praises of SideStix, saying the crutches allow them to live life to the fullest.
"SideStix changed my life," said 18-year-old Nico Calabria from Massachusetts, who was born with only one leg. "They brought me into a new realm of mobility and have given me the chance to choose what I do in life based on desire, rather than whether my crutches can keep up with me or not."
Calabria is a high school soccer player whose energetic goal while using SideStix has gained him international attention on YouTube (www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PZhS-GB6fA).
The video clip showing Calabria launching a ball into the net with a kick high above his head has generated more than 1.4 million views.
Calabria has been using SideStix since 2009, which is when Doherty met him while preparing to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. Calabria had done the same climb months before.
"He ended up becoming one of our first field testers," Doherty said. "He really puts his crutches through a lot of abuse. Now when we're testing new products we always ask, 'is it Nico-proof?' We won't put it onto the market until the answer is yes."
Earlier this year Calabria became the first sponsored SideStix athlete.
"SideStix revolutionized the forearm crutch," he said. "The design is lighter, stronger and tougher than any other crutch. They're the only crutches I've come across that can keep up with me."
Reports like that are common from SideStix customers.
"Slowly but surely we are becoming recognized as the best forearm crutch available and we are growing by word of mouth. Currently SideStix are being used on seven continents," Doherty said.
To find out more, see www.sidestix.com.
