What is not to love about inventors? Two Halifax, Nova Scotia men, Chris Cowper-Smith and Bob Garrish, have developed a new sort of knee brace and they are vying for a $100, 000 prize in hopes of getting enough funds to bring their innovative brace to market.
According to Rebecca Lau, reporter for Global News, the prize is being offered by Business Development of Canada (BDC). The inventors’ company, called Spring Loaded Technology, has been named the Nova Scotia finalist for the 2015 BDC Young Entrepreneur Award.
The two cofounders, who met as college students at Dalhousie University, believe their device represents the world’s first use of bionic knee bracing technology. Lau reports that they initially developed the brace to help athletes recovering from sports injuries. They told Lau that their brace is capable of holding the body weight of a 250 pound person, but is still lightweight and can be worn under clothing.
“Inside this arm of the brace is our energy storage mechanism, so when you crouch like a spring your weight is actually stored in the brace.” said Garrish, the company’s chief technology officer. “As you crouch, all of your weight is taken up. The brace does what your quadriceps muscle would normally need to do.”
The company plans to manufacture the braces in Nova Scotia and distribute the product worldwide. It has gone through several prototypes and designs and, according to Lau, is now close to having a market-ready product. The inventors’ goal is to begin selling the braces by the end of 2015.
Winning the $100, 000 prize from the Business Development of Canada would speed up that process, wrote Lau. “Without the grand prize at the moment, we have to rely on third party industry partners to embed our hinge technology into their brace arms, ” said Cowper-Smith, the company’s president and CEO.
