Bespoke Fairings

The word “disabled” is often associated with synonyms such as “immobilized” or “out of action”, among many other negative connotations. Bespoke Fairings, a groundbreaking customized prosthetic, tackles the challenge of personal mobility for amputees whilst altering the perception of prostheses

Industrial designer, Scott Summit, and orthopedic surgeon, Kenneth B. Trauner, founded the company Bespoke Innovations with a mission to “bring more humanity to people who have congenital or traumatic limb loss”. The company sells “designer body parts” using advanced 3D printing to create customized prosthetic limb casings wrapped in “embroidered leather, shimmering metal, or whatever else someone might want” – even tattoos! All to the customer’s fancy.

Bespoke Fairings originated as a counterweight to most traditional prosthetics that are one-size-fits-all and focus pretty much only on replicating humanness as the aesthetic property. Bespoke prosthetics are thus not only aesthetically pleasing, and go beyond personal statement. Thanks to 3D scanning of a hindered limb, the product takes into account each person’s individual ergonomic characteristics, making it more comfortable and maximizing the ease and natural feel of movement.

By combining cutting-edge computer aided design technology with creativity and personalization, Bespoke Fairings does just that – and at one tenth of the price of comparable artificial limbs made using traditional methods. It costs $4,000 to $6,000 to print one of these legs, and it has features that aren’t found in legs that cost $60,000.

On another positive note, this affordable 3D-printing production method will hopefully empower those in developing countries someday soon as well, inspiring custom-fitted prosthetics that are even cheaper and hopefully, eventually, affordable and widely available to all, thus improving the quality of life for amputees and other prostheses.