Chairs away: Patmont teams with NNDA on invention

The people who invented the Go-Ped scooter in a garage 25 years ago are now trying to reinvent their company with a wheelchair.

Not just any wheelchair. In fact, their wheelchair might end up not being called a wheelchair at all (the patent and name are still pending).

Their four-wheeled transportation device for disabled persons has a patented suspension system that enables users to ride over square curbsides and cobblestone walkways.

The chair also has a hitch that can be hooked up to an electric scooter called an I-Ped. Together, the conjoined vehicles can reach 20 mph.

But the chair isn't a done deal. Not yet. And its development hasn't been easy, as the inventors will tell you.

"I know that we Americans can invent, we can develop and innovate our way out of this situation," Steven Patmont, owner of Patmont Motor Werks, said from his Minden factory on Monday. "To not give up, to know it's possible, to see our way through, we need to stay in the position of knowing, like we always have, that we can still come up with things that improve the world."

Patmont was 35, and his son Gabriel, now executive vice president of the company, was just 13 when they invented the first Go-Ped gas-powered scooter in the garage of their Pleasanton, Calif., home.

Gabriel, now 39, remembers welding the first frame of the prototype and then testing it out in his neighborhood.

"When he (Gabriel) couldn't break it, we knew we were in business," Steven said.

That prototype now sits in the Smithsonian National Museum in Washington, D.C. In the 1990s, the Patmont family company saw their Go-Ped business grow exponentially, peaking in 2000.

Not junk for children, Steven said, the Go-Ped, in its inception, embodied the ideas of freedom and mobility.

"That little pas-powered model has grown into many versions," he said. "We now have 20 models available to our dealers and online. We sell all over the world, and we're a proud exporter. These are high-quality alternative transportation tools that move people around."

In 2003, to escape what Steven called the "impossible business climate of California," the Patmonts picked up and relocated to a new, self-designed, 70,000-square-foot manufacturing facility off Meridian Boulevard.

Even with constant innovation and technological advancement, including the "swing-arm" elastomer suspension system, the first decade of the millennium was not necessarily kind to the Patmonts. The company saw their market share slowly siphoned off by cheap, Chinese imitations despite the family's best efforts to protect their brand in court.

Enter the recession the last few years, and the Patmonts saw sales drop as much as 90 percent, Gabriel said.

"We've downsized to a core group that keeps the machines running," he said. "We've hung on to employees as long as possible."

"Thank God for fingernails," added Steven, "because that's what we're hanging on by. But they're strong fingernails."

Earlier this year, the company put their state-of-the-art facility on the market. The future was looking bleak, but then the Patmonts got a call from "angels working behind the scenes."

"We're optimistic and so thankful that the Northern Nevada Development Authority recognized we may be worthy of assistance," Steven said.

When he heard the Go-Ped building was for sale, NNDA Executive Director Rob Hooper called Steven and asked him what it would take to keep his doors open.

The reply, Hooper said, was a 20-30 percent increase in business and some indication it would keep up.

To provide some perspective, Hooper said bringing a company to Northern Nevada is a two-year process. He said it's a lot easier to keep what we already have here.

"It's a big deal to get a company to move here, and we don't just want any old company in Douglas County," Hooper said. "This is the right story, the right company and the right community."

But where would Patmont's increase in business come from? How would that work given the precipitous drop in sales and the wide-spread retraction of consumer spending? How would Patmont not only keep their doors open but keep that innovative spirit alive?

The answer, they learned, was literally right in front of them.

About five years ago, Gabriel and former Patmont employee Trevor Snowden, who was paralyzed in a 1997 snowboarding accident, developed a "crude prototype" of the aforementioned super chair.

Snowden, who saw potential in the Patmont suspension system, began tinkering with a steel version of what would eventually become the "Trevair Chair." Taking his friend's lead, Gabriel applied their factory's tooling to the design and replaced the steel with aluminum alloy. The result was an agile 22-pound wheelchair with seven inches worth of "maintenance-free" suspension.

Now, the three men are business partners. With the help of the NNDA, they hope they can market the chair to veterans and other disabled persons desirous of ergonomic comfort, speedy transport, and the ability to travel in more places.

Steven and Gabriel explained that they already spent "the wad" in getting the chair tested and approved by the government. They said they have the tools and facility to mass produce the device. They don't need start-up. They need customers.

"All we need is an outlet for the wheelchair," said Steven. "Then we can stay here. We can produce and manufacture and do what we came here to do."

"With the scooter, we helped develop the industry and so guided the market," explained Gabriel.

In contrast, Gabriel said, wheelchairs belong to a "mature" medical-device market with which he and his father have limited experience. That's where the NNDA comes into play.

"It was something unique for them (NNDA) to realize what's going on," Gabriel said. "They asked how much money we needed, but we told them we don't need money. We have everything in place. We just need orders."

Steven said the NNDA is trying to help Patmont secure retail access, while at the same time retooling public relations to properly market the item.

"It's been suggested that we need a whole new paradigm to compete with the industry," Steven said. "Maybe the product is not even considered a wheelchair. Maybe it's better. With excellent advice, this thing could be big."

First stop on the marketing trail is the Abilities Expo in Los Angeles on April 9, where Snowden, 40, will be showing off his chair and four other models in a wheelchair supercross replete with obstacles and jumps.

"It really appears to be doing something," Snowden said of his design. "People are really excited. But my dreams would still be sitting on paper if it weren't for the Patmonts. These guys brought it to reality."

Both Steven and Gabriel take pride in manufacturing a product that enriches the lives of disabled persons. It's about more mobility and more freedom in the world, they said.

However, both father and son know it's too early to tell how the product will be received.

"With the NNDA, we're starting to see some doors open," Gabriel said. "We'll see what happens. It will either dry up, or it will take off like a rocket."

Knowing there's no guarantee of success, Steven believes the American Dream is about finding an idea and fighting it out till the end, whatever that end may be.

"Never mind the guys who sold us down the river. They can't kill us," he said. "But what a great chance this is to show what we Americans can do."

n R-C Editor Kurt Hildebrand contributed to this story.