Amputees Step in Style
Reported October 23, 2008
ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — Roughly one out of every 200 people you pass on the street has an amputation –but with today’s advanced technology, you might not even know it. Now, there’s a new reason for amputees to show off their prosthetic limbs.
Ed Repsher doesnt consider himself much of a fashion icon, but hes wearing a one-of-a-kind design.
I hardly ever wear shorts, but I actually started wearing shorts so I could show it off,” Repsher told Ivanhoe.
A car accident took Repshers leg 31 years ago, but today, hes sporting a prosthetic that does more than help him get around. Velocity Labs owner Craig Mackenzie helps put a little personality into the prosthetics he makes, like the one he designed for Repsher.
It gives people more opportunity to express themselves,” Mackenzie, a prosthetist at Velocity Labs, Inc., in Orlando, Fla., told Ivanhoe.
The choices are endless — but for some, getting their prosthetic designed isnt just for fashion.
If you do it with the skin and try to make it look more human, it adds weight to it,” Kyle Barrett, a lab technician at Velocity Labs, told Ivanhoe. “Its harder to walk, you have clean it, its more fragile.
The lab now gets more requests for personalized prosthetics than skin-colored ones.
Having a prosthetic, its actually even cool now with all this fancy artwork,” Repsher said.
Mackenzie says designs on prosthetics are especially popular among soldiers returning from the Iraq War — and he hasn’t made a single one that has been skin-toned.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Velocity Labs, Inc.
Orlando, FL
[email protected]
http://www.velocity-labs.com
