We have a Secret...

I'd like to welcome Camry back to the channel. If you remember about five years ago, we built a factory to manufacture off-road wheelchairs. And since then, we've expanded to make everyday manual wheelchairs, and we're ready to show them off. For the past year or so, we've been operating in stealth mode. And 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-izefits-all. It's super custom with over 16 quintilion different unique options to choose from. Every person is different and so is every wheelchair. And just like you'd want a glove to fit your hand correctly, you want a wheelchair that's the right size for your body. This video is for two types of people. One, you might be interested in super complex 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 have my wife Camry. 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 being about 60 to 70% cheaper than the other guys. Cuz insurance can be a real doozy. For example, Camry, how long have you been in a wheelchair? 20 years from a horse accident. And my last wheelchair, it was $8,000. But my Paradox chair was $1,900. And it only took about 6 to 8 weeks. How long did it take you to get your insurance chair? It was a year from getting a prescription to getting it in my hands. Wow. Bailey, what about you? 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. 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. I was injured 3 and 1/2 years ago. I fell out of a tree. My first 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. 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 $9.99. Let's start with the coolest looking and most fun decision to make, the color of your chair. Since we control every 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, ched 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. 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 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. 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. Final assembly is where everything comes together with the seatpan, the axle tubes, front casters, large rear wheels, and of course, the back rest, ready to become a useful piece of equipment to help out with everyday life. 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, it's important that this measurement is correct. Luckily, it's an easy measurement 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. 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 in. If your hips are wider than your knees, you can add something called a seat taper, which bends and brings the front edge of your chair near your knees in by an inch and a half, just making sure there's no wasted space on your chair and that the footprint of your chair matches your 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 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 in so the seatpan isn't touching your leg. For example, if we take Camry's measurement measuring from the center of the hip where the seam of a shirt or jacket would be, her measurement is 16 in 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 in. 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 YTaper or a Vtaper. The Y taper is slightly more popular than the V, 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 foot plate. Take special care, though not to make the distance between these two tubes narrower than the widest pair of boots or shoes that you own. I've made that mistake before. One thing I added to my chair are frame supports. I do a lot of outdoor rugged activities, so the added stability and stiffness is always a great idea. Frame supports are also a good idea for heavier users. 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 the measurement from the floor to the back side of your seatpan. And the front seat height is a self-explanatory measurement from the floor to the front edge of your seatpan. The slope between those two measurements is what we call the seat dump or the slope of your seatpan. About 50% of people have a 1 and a half to two inches 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, Dave has a rear seat height of 17 in and a front seat height of 19 in, giving him 2 in 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 seatpan to foot rest and adding the ground clearance. We'll get to those measurements in a second. And that'll give 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. The frame depth extension is also a personal preference. I like it cuz it just gives me a little bit more to hold on to when I'm doing transfers. It does lengthen the wheelbase slightly which improves stability as well. About 25% of people prefer no extension and about 50% of people extend the frame between 1 and 1/2 in. So the front angle has to do with the curb of the wheelchair um as it transitions from the seat to the foot plate. About 20% of people like having it at a perfect 90° from the ground while about 60% of people like myself like a slightly less abrupt angle and choose 85°. This extends the foot plate out ever so slightly to improve stability. Further out is more stable, but it increases the footprint of the chair slightly. Back rest height is personal preference and can totally be adjusted later after you receive the chair. If you're sitting up straight, you'll want the top of the back rest 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. Don't stress too much about the back rest angle. The measurement is relative to the slope of your seatpan. And the vast majority of people, about 60% choose 90 degrees since the seatpan is already reclined slightly. While about 20% of us choose to recline the back rest slightly, further at 95°, but this is also adjustable after you receive your chair, the configurator makes it easy to see the difference. These seat posts will always be 90° to the seat pan. It's the back rest itself that has the adjustability. the seat to foot rest measurements from your seat pan all the way to where your heels rest on the foot plate. 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 in cushion on your chair, which is important information for you, but our configurator only needs the measurement from the bottom of the seatpan to the top of the foot plate. And remember to measure while wearing the shoes you normally wear, cuz your soul matters. Luckily, there is an inch or two of adjustment of the foot plate height after you receive your chair. Our online configurator does let you see everything in real time with dimensional measurements beforehand, which helps us get your chair right the first time around. And with that, our build is almost done. The next step is casters. Here's our standard one, or the frog leg that has a little more suspension to your chair. We also have some anti-tippers if you want them, or push handles that retract. And I love these, but Taylor does not. 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 touching the bare aluminum. I love the wooden push rims, but Camry does not. 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 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 in when measured from the post of the back rest to the exact center of your wheel. The axle can be adjusted later forward, backward, up, or down, but it's easy for you right now if we can get it as close to how you like it the first time around. As for wheel camber, about 75% of people choose a twoderee camber, which gives a nice stable foundation for everyday tasks. So Camry has a twoderee camber and Dade has a slightly wider stance at the bottom with a 4° camber. Wheel diameter is also a personal preference, but the majority of people, about 75%, choose 24in wheels for their back wheels. If you're taller or like a sportier chair, 25s are also an option. One of the questions we get a lot is how much our frames weigh. Um, the frame with the wheels is about 26 lb, but without the wheels, it's about 18 lb. 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. These scales 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 else in the galaxy has a real life, realtime 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? Yep. As you can see, the build process of manufacturing a custom lightweight wheelchair is rather intense, and we do recommend that you check with an ATP or a seating specialist to make sure your measurements are correct. 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, when you get your chair, it may take a few days to kind of get used to it, like like a new pair of shoes, right? There is some adjustability, so you can adjust it a little bit after the fact as well. We hope you enjoyed watching this factory tour, and the best way to help support us is just by sharing this video. The more people who know we exist, the more people we can help save money in the future. Thanks a ton for watching. We'll see you