Social climbing: Pride Mobility elevates consumer mobility

EXETER, Pa. - Pride Mobility Products has upped the ante among manufacturers of consumer power wheelchairs with the recent launch of its Jazzy Air.

The Jazzy Air, which debuted at Medtrade Spring and won the top prize at the event's retail product awards, features patent-pending technology that allows 10 inches of seat elevation at a driving speed of up to 3.5 mph. 

“When you talk about what consumers are looking for in a power wheelchair, it's more social interaction and environmental access—that equals social mobility,” said Randy Walsh, vice president of Jazzy and Retail Mobility Sales. “Someone might need a power wheelchair, but what they want is social mobility. They want to go out for a walk. They want to go out to dinner. They want to function better in their vocation.”

Quantum Rehab, a Pride Mobility company, in February 2015 launched iLevel, a next-gen seat elevation technology for the Q6 Edge 2.0 complex power wheelchair base.

The receptivity in the market to iLevel inspired Pride Mobility to develop a similar product, this time for consumer power mobility and for retail, Walsh says.

“The same need was there,” he said.

Pride Mobility believes the Jazzy Air, which has an MSRP of $4,200, is a technology that consumers are willing to pay a premium for, Walsh says.

“When we were showing our prototype to end users at Abilities Expos, we asked them, 'What would you expect to pay for something like this,' and they said, '$8,000 and up,'” he said. “We were able to build a product and bring it in way under what you'd expect to pay for it. It's an affordable product for the end user, and it's a profitable product for the dealer community.”

To ramp up interest in the Jazzy Air, Pride Mobility has developed a specific website for the technology, www.jazzyair.com, and it's demonstrating that technology at various events and promoting it aggressively on social media. It also offers point-of-purchase material and other programming to help providers get behind the product, Walsh says.

“With the baby boomer generation coming into the marketplace with discretionary income, we're hearing from dealers that a retail offering in this product category is a must,” he said. “We've had no problem getting them to line up for it.” hme