Morph Wheels are amazing wheelchair wheels which can be detached and folded up to approximately half their open size. They’re a genius idea to provide easier transport and storage for wheelchair users. They’re incredibly helpful and also look good too. The design has been knocking around since 2010 but has only recently become available for purchase in the UK.
It’s fair to claim that the wheels are a British idea since they originated in London. Duncan Fitzsimons, a graduate student at the Royal College of Arts, had been working on the idea of a folding bicycle wheel when he realised that it could be a hugely helpful concept for wheelchair users as well. As a result, he decided to turn his efforts towards designing a foldable wheelchair wheel instead. The initial incarnation of the design involved an entirely folding wheelchair rather than just the wheels. However, this must have been too impractical or expensive to design because eventually the decision was made to just go with folding wheels.
Fitzsimons joined forces with Maddak, a U.S. based manufacturing company specialising in disability aids who helped to develop the product and bring Morph Wheels to a mass market. They’ve been really successful since and have just won the Transportation category of the London Museum of Design’s Top Design of 2013 – ‘the Oscars of the design world’ – beating out some other stunning and/or useful designs.
When collapsed, Morph Wheels are small enough to fit comfortably into the boot of a car or, even more impressively, into the overhead locker of an airplane. They’re equally durable compared to most other wheelchair wheels since they use the same solid rubber tyres. In case you were concerned, you don’t have to worry about them folding in on themselves when in use – there’s a safety mechanism to prevent such a catastrophe.
The wheels can be bought from Da Vinci Mobility for a relatively hefty price of £660 including postage within the UK. They are expensive but then they are a unique design that could prove invaluable for wheelchair users on the go. They’re designed to fit all wheelchairs, so at least that would be one less thing to worry about if you were considering buying some.
They’re enormously practical and would also feature amongst the most stylish wheelchair wheels on the market even if they didn’t have the unique ability to fold. All this makes Morph Wheels an ingenious idea that quite literally reinvents the wheel.
