Born without legs, Vail Horton was told by doctors at age four he would likely spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. His parents had taken him to the UCLA and Stanford medical schools in hopes of getting their son fit for artificial legs. But they were rejected at both schools.

Undaunted, the parents turned to Horton’s grandparents. They responded by paying to send the young boy to the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine at New York University, where he was fitted with artificial legs and given crutches to assist his walking.

Fifteen years later, Horton, a University of Portland senior, was still using crutches but suffering from arthritic pain, because of the stiff and unbending nature of the walking devices. He went to doctors about his pain and again was told to get a wheelchair. And that is when the enterprising student went to work developing a new type of crutch, one that has a shock-absorber and flexible tip to ease the daily pressure and pain associated with chronic use of crutches.

The prototype of the new crutches was finished in April 2001, the result of a team of university students representing several disciplines including engineering, life science, and business. The participation of a wide range of disciplines is a key component of the university’s Center for Entrepreneurship, which played an important role in the business that developed the crutches.

“I am a born entrepreneur,” Horton said of his efforts to start the business Keen Mobility – named in honor of his grandfather- along with fellow senior Summer Terich. “And I can’t say enough about the entrepreneurial spirit of our team and the support we have received from the university.”

Horton and Terich created the company through an entrepreneur program called I2E3 (Innovation and Invention in Environmental Science, Engineering and Entrepreneurship). The two had a business idea but needed technical assistance. So they turned to a trio of University of Portland engineering students -- Daoud Chaaya, Michael Cruz, and Eugene Mesa. The three engineering students each focused on a different aspect of the crutch as part of their respective senior engineering projects.

As of June 2001, the team had finished the prototype and was competing in local business plan competitions. The team placed second and earned a $2,000 prize in a university-sponsored business plan competition, the $16K Challenge in late April.

Their next goal is to raise an initial $50,000 investment, offering 1.2 percent of the company for each $10,000 investment. They had secured $20,000 as of late June. With their initial investment, they plan to manufacture the first 1,100 pairs of crutches.

Horton says Keen Mobility plans to market its product to the estimated 2.5 million U.S. and 48 million global users of crutches. He recently met with officials of a worldwide company about selling the crutches in their stores. Keen Mobility also has plans to sell its product to medical distributors throughout the U.S.

“We want crutches to be easier to use and more accessible,” Horton said. “We’re getting closer to achieving that goal.”

By the end of the summer, all the team members will have graduated from the University of Portland. Horton plans to produce 200 sets of crutches this summer and test the market. How far Keen Mobility goes after that is unclear. But they plan to take Keen Mobility as far as they can.

“I’m going to see this through,” Horton said. “There’s a void out there and we plan to fill it.”

For more information about Keen Mobility, contact Horton at keen_krutches@hotmail.com.
You can email John Furey at Furey@up.edu for more on the university’s work with students with disabilities.