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FLYEASE: Sneakers Designed With Disability In Mind
The one lesson we can learn from this story is to never be afraid to express what we need or desire because most likely, there is someone out there that will make it happen. Nike’s new shoe, FLYEASE, is designed with accessibility in mind, thanks to Matthew Walzer, who asked Nike to design shoes that would help him be self-sufficient. Matthew was born two months premature with underdeveloped lungs that resulted in Cerebral Palsy. Growing up, he overcame lots of physical limitations, however, because he has flexibility in just one hand, he needed his parents’ help to tie his shoelaces. Cerebral Palsy also causes stiffness in muscles, which makes certain every day activities like slipping one’s foot in a shoe tricky and not so easy. Thus, an easy way for the foot to enter the shoe was extremely important as well. Fearing that he would not be self-sufficient in college, Matthew wrote to Nike requesting if they could design a shoe that would eliminate his dependence on others. His message went to Tobie Hatfield, a prominent shoe designer at Nike, and he worked directly with Matthew on designing and creating various prototypes and finally reaching a version that Matthew [...]
Venkat Rao