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Interview with Scott Summit of Bespoke Innovations, creator of kick-ass prosthetics

By Rain Noe - December 20, 2010

We recently caught up with Scott Summit, the industrial designer behind San-Francisco-based Bespoke Innovations, at AU 2010, where he was one of the keynote speakers. Bespoke Innovations has a clear mission: Apply good industrial design and rapid prototyping techniques to make kick-ass prosthetics. They don't do off-the-shelf parts--they interview amputees, find out what makes them tick, and design some seriously cool custom limbs based on their interests and tastes.

Some amputees like Mid-Century Modern. Some like motorcycles. Some like leather or tattoos. Summit seems like the first industrial designer to realize that with today's manufacturing technologies, there's no reason an amputee should have to wear a cold and impersonal prosthetic designed by some engineer who's ordering parts out of a catalog and has never been to design school.

With about a million diabetic amputees in the U.S. alone, Summit and Bespoke have a huge market to address. And as they serve them, they're raising some very good issues about the product space that mass production should, and should not, occupy in the future. The production world is changing, and as you'll see in the interview below, Summit isn't just riding the wave--he's helping to create it.

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Interview with Scott Summit of Bespoke Innovations, creator of kick-ass prosthetics

Hale Keller

8 years ago

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This presentation is the best.
Scott's acceptance of the recipient's individual need is paramount to the design. He's accutely aware of where he needs to go with the final product.
Well done!
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Matthew Pursley

9 years ago

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I'm really excited about the work that Bespoke Innovations and Scott Summit are doing. I'm working on a degree in Rehabilitation Counseling, and one of the big BIG things that counselors and psychologists with a rehab and recovery focus have been trying help prosthetic/orthotic professionals understand for years is the negative impact that a blandly institutional artificial limb can have on one's confidence and social functioning. It's about time someone started making prostheses that emphasize the person instead of the handicap!
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Suzanne

9 years ago

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This is ridiculously cool! Ingenious to design for the person, it gives "personalized" a whole new meaning! Absolutely beautiful.
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Rain Noe

I’m a lapsed industrial designer. I was born in NYC and figured I’d die there, but a few years ago I abandoned New York to live on a farm in the countryside with my wife. We have six dogs.