Hasta La Ideas

Bespoke Innovations is a San-Francisco-based firm founded by industrial designer Scott Summit and orthopedic surgeon/engineer Dr. Kenneth Trauner. Bespoke is using rapid prototyping to make a product with surprisingly little competition in the marketplace: Personalized prosthetics that not only work well, but look freaking cool.

“A current prosthetic is an amazing piece of engineering and research, but it’s half of the equation,” says Summit, featured in the NY Times video on rapid prototyping below. “A person is about form and shape and beauty and sensuality. That won’t be reached by an assemblage of off-the-shelf mechanical parts.”

Stepping in to fill the void, Bespoke makes kick-ass prosthetics using RP. If a person is missing just one leg, Bespoke can scan the other, mirror it in CAD, and crank out a counterpart; further production methods can then be applied to the prosthetic, like chrome-plating and/or wrapping it in leather that’s been etched with tattoo-like patterns. The end result becomes something that the user would be proud to leave visible, rather than hide underneath pant legs.

Hit the jump to read Bespoke’s well-reasoned mission statement.

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