Pimp My Crutches: Disabled, But Stylish

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MADELEINE BRAND, host:

Here's a fashion trend you're more likely to see in hospital corridors than on Paris runways: crutches, casts and wheelchairs designed to turn heads. With more on what's being called disability chic, here's NPR's Alex Cohen.

ALEX COHEN: The cast Alexa Bucks Kemper(ph) got from her doctor was just not her. It was a big, black boot cast with thick Velcro straps. Sure, it might have been fine for a Goth kid, but Alexa likes color, pizzazz. So she decorated the cast with flowers made out of twinkly Austrian crystals.

Ms. ALEXA BUCKS KEMPER (Creator of Designer Cast): The trim that I used around the top and around where my toes stuck out, I used Aurora Borealis crystals. It's basically a clear stone with a top coating that reflects the entire spectrum when the light shines on it.

COHEN: Alex wound up in the cast after taking a tumble off of her boyfriend's front porch.

Ms. KEMPER: I broke the fifth metatarsal in my foot. It's called the Jones fracture. It's a very difficult one to heal, so I was in the cast for a very long time. And so I wanted to kind of make sure that it was, you know, a happy time, even though I couldn't get around very well.

COHEN: And so she added the sparkle. Alexa says it gave her something to talk about besides retelling the story of her fall over and over again.

Ms. KEMPER: I did get a lot of reaction, especially when I was out in bright sunlight. One lady stopped me in a parking lot at a grocery store and asked to photograph the cast. And I know for me, every time someone said oh, that's a beautiful cast, you know, that was really an outpouring of good feelings and good wishes, and really think that did help me get better.

COHEN: There are a number of businesses that now specialize in ortho-fashion as an alternative to the unbecoming, standard-issue hospital fare. Michelle Kirk is founder of a New-Mexico-based business called Broken Beauties, which sells designer slings, cast covers and walkers online.

Ms. MICHELLE KIRK (Founder, Broken Beauties): We also make things like crutch covers, which we call crutch muffins because they kind of cover up and warm up the crutch, and they're filled with pockets for your cell phone and keys.

COHEN: For the broken-boned businessman, they make slings in modest black with grey pinstripe. For the fractured fashionista, there are purple paisley prints. And, Michelle Kirks adds, they also take custom orders.

Ms. KIRK: I did that for a man this morning, and when he found out he could get one, a sling with golf clubs on it, the man's 70 years old, and he burst into tears.

COHEN: For those who are permanently injured or disabled, the new variety in orthopedic devices can make a big difference.

(Soundbite of basketball dribbling)

COHEN: At a basketball in San Marcos, Texas, a group of guys in wheelchairs are practicing a rough contact sport called quad rugby. The chairs they use look like something out of Mad Max: the wheels are angled for maximum speed, there are metal protrusions in front to protect the players when they slam into each other. On the sidelines, Coach Terry Gumbert is in a light-weight titanium chair. The wheels are covered with burnt orange plates, the color also worn by his favorite football team. He says it's one of three pairs of wheels he owns.

(Soundbite of whistle)

Mr. TERRY GUMBERT (Quad Rugby Coach): One looks like the bling-bling wheel, if you will. It's a chrome, shiny, almost looks like it's spinning inside the wheel when I'm pushing it.

COHEN: What do your wheels say about your personality?

Mr. GUMBERT: I was probably an outgoing, kind of a gregarious person before, and I lost that person when I first got hurt. But after finding it again, I never want to lose it again, and that's part of my personality. I mean, I want them to see that I'm living my life.

Mr. TODD CASCHETTE (Quad Rugby Player) I had stickers all over the stupid chair that I had, stupid prints on the cushion covers and stuff like that, but now no.

COHEN: Thirty-six-year-old Todd Caschette is one of the players on Coach Gumbert's team. He says he's over the ortho-fashion trend.

Mr. CASCHETTE: In society, people - we feel - that they see a person in a chair, they think they can't speak to them or they feel uncomfortable. So a lot of people, when you first get injured, you try to be expressive to say hey, I'm not that way. But I've been in a chair for 20 years now, and I'm really not that - I really don't care anymore if people think that. If they think that, they think that, and if they don't, so what?

COHEN: The only accessory you'll find on Todd's chair now is purely functional. There's a pouch below the seat where he carries the essentials: cell phones, keys, his wallet and a cereal bar. Alex Cohen, NPR News.

(Soundbite of music)

BRAND: There's more to come on DAY TO DAY from NPR News.

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