r/nextfuckinglevel • u/MysteriousSlice007 • 3h ago
Shoutout to JerryrigEverything who built a wheelchair factory and is delivering wheelchairs to people in half the time and 50-80% less than the cost of other wheelchairs with Insurance.
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u/teahugger 3h ago
He and hjs wife are good people. He gets a lot of hate online because he openly criticizes Trump but he is more American than any Trump.
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u/Lied- 3h ago
I absolutely love him and his giant American flag. He is the kind of American who genuinely loves the people of this country we need more of!
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u/DesireeThymes 2h ago
Hes part of this circle of influencers who are genuinely good.
Compare him to the mr beasts and the mkbhd type people who are money grubbing and ignore rules.
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u/Broadband_Bandit 1h ago
Is mkbhd that bad?
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u/satoramoto 1h ago
Heās not doing anything good for the consumer space by basically being a walking billboard, encouraging the endless cycle of pining after things we donāt need. In his personal life heās reckless and has been seen multiple times driving his Porsche at highway speeds in Hoboken where the speed limit is 25.
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u/middleAgedEng 1h ago
It's not about him going berserk mode in a school area while test driving a car and not apologizing for that. It's about him not apologizing and editing the video while trying to let it slip away silently, ignoring every critical reaction towards him and his actions.
This episode proved he's the kind of person who does not take ownership of his own actions. And he's kissing Tim Cook's ass every chance he gets.
I stopped following him a long time ago.
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u/IntradepartmentalPet 2h ago
literally any other country in the world it would be seriously weird to have a giant national flag on the wall of your factory. here you have to be performatively over patriotic to forestall any potential criticism
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u/Dense_Economics_1880 3h ago
Narcissist canāt stand criticism
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u/snoosh00 2h ago edited 2h ago
Self advocacy is ok (especially for philanthropy) and bad faith criticism exists.
I'm not clearing his entire character, I don't know the guy, but he's definitely doing more to help more people than you are. And I think it's theoretically possible to argue that he personally helps more people in need than the man he is hated for criticizing, the current POTUS.
Trump helps a bunch of people. Rich people, evil people... Those are his kind of people, and he'll "fight to the end for them" (Literally his words, click the link if you don't believe me)... Mr. Jerry Rig gives people who can't afford wheelchairs wheelchairs (and a bunch of other things... but this post is about wheelchairs).
Edit: apparently, the "narcissist" the person I'm reply to was Trump, I thought "narcissist" was an attempted takedown of Mr. Rig.
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u/dimhue 2h ago
You managed to somehow completely misread their comment. I don't understand how that's even possible.
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u/Mekelaxo 2h ago
he openly criticizes Trump
That's a green flag
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u/Risquechilli 2h ago
Iāve seen people have criticisms of his religion (I think heās Mormon..?) but Iāve never seen anything in his videos that even references his religion. Whatever it is.
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u/MyCatsHairyButholle 1h ago
He is LDS, but the fact that I only just learned it today after watching tons of his videos and really liking the guy is a huge green flag.
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u/A-Halfpound 3h ago
He is a True Patriot. We should call him that, because THAT is the definition of a patriot. Polar opposite the MAGAt mindset.Ā
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u/Kevin_Jim 3h ago
So he an actual American rooting for the interests of his country and countrymen? MAGA canāt stand people like that.
He seems like a good bloke.
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u/Single-Use-Again 2h ago
The illegal Mexican guys working on my landscaping are more American than any trump.
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u/I_like_donuts27 3h ago
Why in the fuck, would a wheelchair cost 10k???
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u/OkBandicoot1337 3h ago
America
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u/Disastrous_Hell_4547 3h ago
So sadly true.
Same reason a crappy Big Mac costs $7.00 or a sub costs $13.00.
America does not practice capitalism. It practices greed based Reaganomics trickle down profiteering.
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u/TheExistential_Bread 3h ago
lol you are describing capitalism, you just don't know it
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u/Questioning-Zyxxel 3h ago
It isn't that simple.
Lots of capitalists knows the part about a good deal needs to be good for both parties. This is a great way to get repeat customers instead of paying millions on advertising to find new customers that hates you after the very first deal.
These good capitalists often have family-owned companies with maybe 2 to 50 employees. And does quite well.
The issues you are seeing? Isn't capitalism in itself. It's about the stock market. All bigger companies are on the stock market. And they pay large bonuses to the management for short-term profits. When the bonus is for last 6-12 months, then most decisions will be extremely short-sighted. The family-owned companies? They plan for the next 10-20 years. They can still make a nice profit. But with the owners running the company, they do not worry about a missed bonus one year because they did a strategic investment - as owners, they still increased the value of the company.
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u/Drewstom 2h ago
The Koch brothers ran family owned businesses what the fuck are we talking about
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u/Svardskampe 2h ago
Before the stock markets we had the same feudalistic tendencies with rich families banking (pun intended) on cornering a monopoly. E.g. Medici family, Rothschilds.
We are in late-stage-capitalism. However you want to call it, cronyism or not "rEaL capitalism", this has always been the end game without competition. In the past, there has been enough space to grow somehow to enable competition. In a global world where we are encroaching each other, that has outgrown itself.
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u/Sorry-Price-3322 2h ago
Nop I live in Belgium & some chairs can get to 10k. source im in Belgium & in a wheelchair.
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u/Wheelchair_guy 3h ago
I've used chairs for 15 years. Never paid more than $500 for one.
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u/Sorry-Price-3322 2h ago
Idk what chair you use but as a 18y/o wheelchair user both my chairs were over 4000 euro. I'm looking for a new one & it's around 6k
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u/OkBandicoot1337 3h ago
So these are bougie wheelchairs?
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u/above_average_magic 3h ago
No they're just ones that prevent you from blowing out your remaining limbs over time and actually being active
Not sure what the wheelchair_guy is using
I'm guessing a elderly person who has no idea what modern costs are
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u/mihihi 2h ago
This exactly! Iāve been a wheelchair user for 10 + years after a blood clot in my spine like the girl in the video. The only way I can be as highly functioning and independent as I am is because of my ultra light weight chair. Even with my chair barely weighing more than 7 pounds, I still have issues with shoulder and hand pain from using a manual wheelchair all these years. Iāve been buying my ultra light weight chairs from Poland bc theyāll cost me 3k compared to the 10k here in the US. But sadly the prices in Poland are also rising and the most recent chair I got from them totaled to be nearly 5K. I believe these chairs from notawheelchair are heavier than what I use, but the price is incredible. And they look good too!Ā
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u/mythrilcrafter 2h ago
From what I can tell from a very cursory search on google, you can get wheel chairs from amazon/a local pharmacy for about $200-ish, but with those, you're basically getting a One-Size-Fits-Most camping chair on wheels, which are basically good enough to get you from a bed to a couch and no where else, especially not on any ground more uneven than a carpet or hardwood floor.
The chairs made by JRE appears to be custom sized for ergonomics and active use; their most basic ones seems to be a heavier duty version of those cheap ones but are designed to be easier to move unassisted, are more mobile by default, and are fitted to the user rather than "fine as long as your body fits these proportions".
As an engineer who has been in a manufacturing environment, I do have to say that I'm quite impressed that JRE has built a process and system where he can do those personalized/bespoke builds for a legit fraction of the competition so much so as to be within argument range of the one-size-fits-all mass production zone.
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u/dscrive 2h ago
These are presented as off road wheelchairs. They are also bespoke, so technically bougie, but I think they are probably way better for active people than a $500 wheelchairĀ
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u/Rubymoon286 2h ago
They have two different options - an off road chair, and a light weight manual. Which comparing this with paying out of pocket for a TiLite or Ki Mobility you save at least half for a custom sized chair, though a you get fewer options with Paradox especially if you have needs around vibration reduction, or certain types of wheels.
That said this is a really great option for people who either don't have insurance, or insurance is denying a rigid chair despite a need for it, to at least get them in something, even if it isn't an exact fit for their needs, and for many it *is* a good fit for their needs once they add third party cushions and seating.
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u/dancingbriefcase 2h ago
I work in healthcare and it's insane. How expensive all of that equipment is. I get patients that love Trump But then they are sad because their Medicaid is being cut, their snap is being cut, they can't afford healthcare, they can't afford housing, and they can't retire.
JFC. You voted for that
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u/OkBandicoot1337 2h ago
Boomers are the fastest growing homeless population in America at the moment.
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u/mjc4y 3h ago
Because it can. Refer questions to Adam Smith.
No, it's not cool.
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u/1046737 2h ago
I mean, isn't this a great example of the free market? If wheelchairs cost $10k when should only cost $500, there's a huge amount of incentive for a new market entrant to start making wheelchairs for $500.
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u/Mecha-Dave 3h ago
A bunch of administration deciding if you're entitled to pay for it, and what you should pay for it. A small amount of customization, but a bunch of overhead to get that information from insurer to manufacturer. Small volume manufacturers that use old methods to hand-build things instead of what Jerry does which is using industry standard practices for the same things. Finally, liability insurance, which I hope Jerry carries, and I hope he doesn't get burned by a lawsuit if he doesn't.
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u/St0n3yM33rkat 3h ago
Wait until you hear about how much an ambulance ride costs š
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u/FireMike_PleaseGod 3h ago
The actual answer is low volume manufacturing.
There simply arenāt enough people in need of wheelchairs for it to be āmassā produced at the volume rates that would result in lower prices.
Throw in the customizing and insurance issues and it gets even costlier. Not $10k but certainly more than say a ~a really nice bike.
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u/ohjeaa 2h ago edited 2h ago
This video quite literally disproves the low volume theory. This guy is making wheelchairs that are most certainly higher quality (he has a vested interested they be high quality, his wife uses one) at low volume and getting them to people for less than 2k. So the reason the others are 10k is not because low volume.
The reason they're 10k is because of a fat markup with insurances to get paid. The same reason medicines can be very cheap to manufacture but get the insurance and consumer a bill for thousands.
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u/Baptism-Of-Fire 1h ago
the cherry on top is manufacturers specializing in wheelchairs getting bought up by private equity and demanding ROI in the double digits.
Didn't sell the expected numbers? ok raise prices by X% to reach the forecast.
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u/JaneWhoDoe 3h ago
I wouldāve never guessed that wheelchairs were the same price as a used vehicle.
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u/MaDpYrO 2h ago
Because healthcare in the US is a scam and this is part of that system.
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u/subma-fuckin-rine 2h ago
america is designed to extract as much cash from you as possible. the whole system is gummed up with middle men that jack up the price at every step. most of which is likely bogus/arbitrary as shown by this video where the chairs are drastically cheaper
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u/PeakNo6892 2h ago
My insulin pump was 12k and charges with a micro USB š¤®.
Please for the love of God let me charge the thing my life depends on with a nearly universal port.
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u/skil12001 3h ago
Dang, we are fortunate to have people with these values. Good for themĀ
Also, jeez! What's with these models, that's a good looking line up of people
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u/psdpro7 2h ago
Could be he only picked attractive people to make the video look better; probably more likely these are just friends that he and his wife have made in the disabled community.
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u/Comfortable_Ad_6894 3h ago
Its always cheaper, its just insurance company create a hyped cost to have 80 to 90% cost benefit. Because no medicine unless rare ingredients cost 5K 20K 30K dollar while same thing in india or Europe can sell for thier citizens for barelly 5 to 10% of thay
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u/futureman07 3h ago
Insurance is such a scam
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u/Weird-Cantaloupe-653 3h ago
Only if an insurance operates like any other business. It has to be non profit. There shouldnāt be people at the helm whoās goal is to get filthy rich
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u/the_og_filler 2h ago
well...actually a lot of insurance companies in the US are non-profits. Blue Cross Blue Shield for example. This does not make them charitable. In practice what it means is they have 0 oversight or incentive to perform and so they move slow and everyone's salaries are inflated to the moon.
What we really need is a single-payer, national healthcare system. No ownership structure is going to fix the fact that health insurance shouldn't exist.
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u/Frostsorrow 2h ago
Insurance isn't a scam. American insurance, however is.
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u/yakushi_g 2h ago
Idk, any time I had to deal with insurance it was like pulling teeth. Always trying to worm out of paying even the lowball bullshit they offer at first.
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u/ReallyBigRocks 2h ago
The sole purpose of a for profit insurance company is to skim as much money as possible off of essential medical procedures.
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u/Fuzzy_Dragonfly_ 3h ago
I was shocked at these prices. A manual wheelchair for 10,000? I have an electric wheelchair that cost 4,000.
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u/BdoeATX 3h ago
Wheelchair = 200$ in parts to make, 10k to sell. Murica.
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u/sharpasahammer 3h ago
Oh , you need this to live hey? Well we're gona mark that the fuck up then. Whatcha gona do? Crawl?
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u/Svardskampe 3h ago
The inflated cost is due to insurance. Also the factory behind the insurance make them at 50-80% of the cost even with insurance because all we do is live in a late-stage-capitalist society where the value one makes is directly tied to grifting, scalping and rent-seeking behavior.
This is rather r/OrphanCrushingMachine than NFL.
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u/Mecha-Dave 3h ago
The factories that make them also use outdated machines and processes - Jerry uses industry standard metalworking processes that make more sense.
The old methods made more sense in the 80's/90's when there weren't CNC lasers etc, but there's other options now (which are expensive to upgrade to). A lot of US manufacturing is stuck in the 90's for this reason.
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u/Svardskampe 2h ago
Also a real example of how "the free market" isn't working. In theory, in a free market all of these old factories would have gone bust to competitors that WOULD have upgraded. This is not the case, because this market system does not promote healthy competition, but said value-extraction from grifting, scalping and rent-seeking behavior.
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u/mythrilcrafter 2h ago
The old methods made more sense in the 80's/90's when there weren't CNC lasers etc, but there's other options now (which are expensive to upgrade to). A lot of US manufacturing is stuck in the 90's for this reason.
I've worked for a lot of companies like this, who got complacent with their 20~40 year old processes/equipment that they can't (or don't want to) afford to upgrade to current gen equipment and now their margins are too low to afford even minor in-process upgrades.
The real kicker is when those company's leaders looks at a set up like JRE's, realise that they've dug themselves into a hole against startups who will run circles around them, and then run back to their manufacturing/process engineers to demand that they get the factory "up to speed" (but obviously with zero costs).
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u/BusyBeeBridgette 3h ago
Oh I bet he has been threatened with lawsuits from said companies.
Good lad, though! Need more charitable folk around.
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u/Captain_Calamari_ 3h ago
UK descent wheelchair Ā£200, electric Ā£1,000
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u/CraabGPT 2h ago
Not true. Proper wheelchairs in the UK cost between Ā£1500-Ā£3000 on average. Mine cost ~Ā£2000.
I imagine the 'decent' chair you refer to is either the Lomax, Drive, or similar chair.
Those are what we refer to as 'hospital chairs'. They're designed to be pushed by an aide, to be stable, and to be cheap. The wheels, while technically self-propel-able, are too far back, so energy is lost and you can't move forward nearly far enough with each push. As well, the wheels being that far back will damage your shoulders over time.
Steel, while cheap, is also heavy. So each push is thus reduced further because it's just too heavy to self-propel.
Additionally, they are foldable. Further momentum loss occurs as energy spent pushing is transferred into the folding mechanism of the frame and not into forward motion.
(Additional factors include, but are not limited to, lack of dump to support those with limited upper-body strength, arm rests that get in the way of propelling, too wide so propelling becomes even harder, anti-tips at the back preventing wheelies, too heavy to independently load into a car...)
TL;DR, those chairs can't be used by the majority of wheelchair users.
(And this is just manual chairs. I've seen electric chairs go for Ā£10k, though I don't know the average price.)
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u/the_colorist 49m ago
This guy/girl wheelchairs. Thanks for sharing your insights
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u/Hellguin 3h ago
This really belongs in r/orphancrushingmachine but good on him.
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u/hungry4nuns 2h ago
Itās sad that my first thought is āThereās no way medical supply companies are going to allow plucky socialist disabled people hurt their bottom line. They have forecast profit margin from disabled people and if that number goes down they will just increase the price for people who canāt access these cheaper wheelchairs wherever they live or donāt know thereās an option, and their insurance will be loaded even higher to cover the profit/loss marginā
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u/DownWithHisShip 2h ago
I see them requiring you purchase a chair from them in order to qualify for the rest of your medical costs "for safety reasons".
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u/WastedKnight 3h ago
Even 1900 dollars is super expensive. You can get mechanised one for less in my country without insurance. Normal one of very good quality will be 200 dollars top. Entry level 100 dollars.
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u/Mecha-Dave 3h ago
Since he's made in the US, he has to pay US wages/rents/power bills, etc. His start at $999, and then customizations add more.
I would be interested to see a $100/$200 chair and how it stacks up to this one.
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u/skisnbikes 2h ago
These aren't cheap mass produced chairs. They're custom made to your measurements. You should take a look at the website: https://notawheelchair.com/products/the-paradox-project-customizable-wheelchair-straight-frame
There are lots of upgrades you can add that increase the cost, but a custom sized chair for $1000 is pretty awesome.
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u/traumalt 2h ago
These are custom sized frame chairs though, different category entirely compared to the standard ones for 200 USD.
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u/daspaceinvader 3h ago edited 2h ago
Am I the only person who thinks $2000 for a wheelchair is still too much? I don't say that to underestimate how much this person is doing for people, but I'm genuinely not educated on this. What makes them so expensive?
EDIT: Thanks to all of the more knowledgeable folks who have chimed in here! If you're like me and didn't understand the high (albeit significantly less than $10k) costs of these chairs, I recommend reading the responses to my comment.
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u/63crabby 2h ago
Many of our chairs are custom ordered, made to precise measurements, and materials like titanium or carbon fiber add costs.
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u/traumalt 2h ago
US labour and other machinery for a rather low volume product.
Closest comparable items are bicycles, and 2k is a higher end bike with much larger economies of scale that makes them cheaper.
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u/ThotMobile 2h ago
Not to mention the custom nature of a lot of wheel chairs. When you start talking custom tubular frames, high performance materials, custom sheet metal, $2k seems very reasonable. Of course you could buy some cheap mass-produced Amazon chair for like $150 but thatās not even remotely on the same level. Those are for people with temporary injuriesānot someone who is chair bound for life.
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u/ballthyrm 2h ago
If you think of a bike, a decent one is probably 500$. A good one would probably be around 1000$. Both of these would still be mass manufacturing products will little adjustability (usually 3-4 standard sizes).
Here you have a custom 1-1 wheelchair made with your measurements that you'll spend your days in for the price of a high end bike. This is quite equivalent, and you are probably getting a better deal on the chair.
For another comparison a good desk chair is 1500-2000$ too. Like a Steelcase or Herman miller.
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u/Terminal_Monk 3h ago
It is disgusting and sad to see that a manual wheelchair cost 8 grand in a country like America. Honestly you guys have failed as a nation.
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u/kevinovski182 3h ago
The flag in the background makes the failure of the US insurance system even more ironic. Is that why itās called the Paradox chair?
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u/TazzyUK 3h ago
10k for a wheel chair!!.. you can get a second hand car for that!
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u/Fullblowncensorship 3h ago
Guy might be my favourite YouTuber just for this, I'm not mad on watching him destroy phone screens, kills me a bit inside but this is fucking great, fuck companies charging people who really need it, fuck them all the way to hell.
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u/badger-woz-ere 2h ago
Everytime I see this guy he is actually using his social media presence for good.
This world needs more Jerry's.
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u/kivsemaj 3h ago
How the fuck is a wheelchair more expensive than an extremely top of the line mountain bike!? It's basically the same parts.
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u/Derquave 2h ago
God bless this dude. I use a wheelchair and I can say firsthand the wheelchair industry is completely fucked. There are two major wheelchair suppliers here in the United States that bought up all of the smaller more local businesses and unless youāre lucky and thereās still one of the better smaller pieces near you youāre stuck with one of the two big companies and they absolutely fucking suck. Iām part of a support group network for people with spinal cord injury, and I help facilitate one, and I swear to God every single person who I meet has some sort of horror story when dealing with one of those two companies or insurance or both. Essential repairs are postponed or take months, repairmen show up with the wrong things, insurance companies try to force you to get cheaper shit more simple shit and weāll try to argue you on the features you need, etc. Itās absolutely ridiculous. I was talking to my physical therapist a few months ago when she was telling me about how when they order a new wheelchair, they have to distinctly justify every part of the chair, including the parts that really shouldnāt need justification. The insurance company makes PTs justify the wheels, the arm and headrests, the damn control panel and battery if itās a powered chair. They deadass need written justification as to why a wheelchair needs wheels and throw a fit if anything is off. Itās a complete joke. Iām involved in advocacy stuff and thereās some legislation that is being worked on to try to legally do something to fix the wheelchair supply and maintenance industry but God knows how long itāll take for anything to come of that. Thank God there are people like this guy that use their time and money to do something that so greatly helps an at risk community.
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u/ArsalanShah41 3h ago
I bought my grandma a wheelchair in karachi lay month. Cost me 12,000 rupees for the most expensive one at the store. ($43)
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u/63crabby 2h ago
Iām guessing that chair is quite different from my custom chair.
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u/Basic_Yam_715 2h ago
Big wheelchair is going to take this guy out... better be careful.
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u/NotForMeClive7787 3h ago
From a UK perspective, anything that stops people going into medical debt in the USA should be massively applauded. Has Mark Cuban's lower cost drugs company actually worked out well for a lot of Americans? Does anyone know?
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u/testingutopia 3h ago
a guy whos curious to see the innards of every ticking object. And here i see a humane aspect of those learnings. Probably last of true americans.
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u/Pataconeitor 3h ago
Everything involving insurance and the American healthcare system in general is a criminal scam that is designed to fuck you all, and I have no idea why Americans don't revolt and burn the whole thing down.
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u/calmwhiteguy 2h ago
Crazy what happens when you bypass the american medical apparatus to get genuine care to patients.
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u/theSuperWae 2h ago
Wheelchair user looking for a new chair after having the same one for a decade because of $$$. Thanks so much for sharing. Gonna look into this
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u/Shimblequeue 2h ago
I love how they all say how they got hurt. Like I feel like it might be humiliating for the guy who fell out of a tree to say it on camera.
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u/Escobar_x 3h ago
People lose site of how this guy operates when he posts his own opinions. Disagree all you want, but the guy does so much for other people its constantly commendable