Quickie
wheelchairs are manufactured and designed by
Sunrise Medical. In 1986, Sunrise acquired
Motion Designs, Inc. and Safety
Rehab. Motion was in the business of making lightweight manual wheelchairs and Safety Rehab was manufacturing
pediatric wheelchairs. The resulting acquisitions were named Quickie Designs, Inc.
Quickie was making lightweight and highly mobile wheelchairs. At the time, they had virtually
no competition. For the next four years, Quickie would focus on
this direction and in 1990 they shipped their first
power wheelchair, the P-300. With their step into the power wheelchair business, Quickie became the premier wheelchair manufacturer in North America.
Next, Quickie solidified their
hold on the market by going directly to their customers.
I remember being at national wheelchair track and field competitions in 1989 and seeing the Quickie logo everywhere. They would give away numerous free items including hats and stickers and anything else on which they could paste their
logo. They were the sponsors for every major wheelchair athlete of the time. I would mention their names but they are far from
famous, and in all honesty it is next to impossible to find a list of them from 1989. Quickie also started the WOW (Winners on Wheels) program in 1992. The program was a sort of support group for children in wheelchairs. It taught the kids that they weren't alone and that they could
achieve even though they were in wheelchairs.
In the same year, Sunrise was listed on the
NYSE as SMD. The company was pegged by
Forbes as one of the Top 200 emerging companies in the U.S. The company was touted as the
leader in the industry. This made Quickie even more popular and at the time a buyer would be hard pressed to find a different brand of wheelchair.
Quickie is now one of the most successful wheelchair brands ever manufactured. Although the age of
zero competition has ended they continue to strive forward with innovative design and award-winning customer service. Their major competition comes from
Permobil,
Action, and
Invacare. One of the newest models available is the Quickie XTR, which features a
shock absorption system. It is the first wheelchair ever built with a
monoshock suspension system attached to the seat.
Although these types of innovations are
amazing, I prefer the good old-fashioned simple wheelchairs. I tend to go with a chair that has as few moving parts as possible so that there is less to break. I have owned four different Quickie wheelchairs and have been very satisfied. My chairs have lasted on an average of 4 years and I have always been able to get replacement parts. I am currently riding around in a Quickie Triumph. It is a simple
rigid frame design with a folding back and I wouldn't give it up for all the innovation in the world.