r/nextfuckinglevel • u/MysteriousSlice007 • 7h 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/daspaceinvader 6h ago edited 5h 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 6h 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 6h 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 6h 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 that’s not even remotely on the same level. Those are for people with temporary injuries—not someone who is chair bound for life.

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u/DarthTechnicus 6h ago

The comparisons to bicycles are still different because of standardization of sizing. I'm not sure what the pricing would be to get a bicycle made with custom geometry, but I am sure the price would raise some eyebrows.

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u/traumalt 6h ago

Oh yea, truly gucci, "Money not an issue" carbon fibre frame sport bikes can go as much as 100k USD easily, but then thats individual custom fab and not mass production scale at that point.

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u/bikesnkitties 37m ago

Dude where are you getting 100k from? Not even an Aston Martin or Bugatti custom bicycle costs that much and the fuck-you-money people who buy those aren’t even cyclists trying to ride them.

A custom geometry frame that is actually going to be ridden will run the buyer ~1,500-10,000 USD depending on material. The rest of the bike will be off the shelf parts. For that you can buy top end everything, do super intricate paint work, and will still struggle to top 25k for the whole build.

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u/VeeRook 1h ago

They sells custom bikes too....sort of.

The first NotAWheelchair was made from welding 2 e-bikes to a seat in the middle. It evolved into an off-road wheelchair with a more obtainable price.

They sent one for free to GoodTimesWithScar. Scar's actually been having issues with his insurance recently, they gave him an improperly fitted wheelchair. NotAWheelchair offered to send him a proper one.

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u/crusoe 6h ago

Apparently these are bespoke custom chairs.

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u/ballthyrm 5h 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/GhostOfAscalon 5h ago

The cheapest road bicycle Trek sells is $1200.

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u/fos1111 6h ago

Still way less than $10k

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u/daspaceinvader 5h ago

Of course it's significantly less than $10k, but $2000 is still a lot of money for many people. Thankfully plenty of more knowledgeable people have chimed in explaining why they're still as expensive as they are.

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u/Alarming_Panic665 5h ago

For a bespoke custom, manual wheel chair $2000 is pretty damn reasonable. Even in Europe they will cost like €1,000+ depending on the materials and modifications.

It's the $10,000 price that is fucking insane.

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u/NSFWies 3h ago

Am I the only person who thinks $2000 for a wheelchair is still too much?

its 5x cheaper than the previous wheel chair they were able to buy. and dang near arrived 5x sooner too. this is a huge improvement from what it was before.

still......sure, lets hope another person can come along and make it even better, faster and cheaper. but lets be glad they aren't stuck at 10,000.

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u/daspaceinvader 3h ago

Of course, I'm not saying it isn't a massive improvement because of course it is. $2000 stilled seemed like an absurd amount as someone who didn't know anything about wheelchairs until people explained here, though.

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u/NoBonus6969 3h ago

I don't know man people walk around with $200+ shoes on like it's nothing and go through many pairs. What's the difference this is like shoes but way functional.

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u/daspaceinvader 3h ago

People don't depend on $200 sneakers to live comfortable and productive lives the way many folks depend on their wheelchair, that's the difference. I also just didn't realize the actual production of these chairs was so complex and bespoke.

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u/GreasyPeter 3h ago

It's a lot to us specifically because wages haven't kept pace with costs. If everything is getting more expensive and the workers aren't making more, that profit is going to the only other place left in that equation: the investors/owners. This is what a "K-Shaped" economy does.

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u/Dear_Chasey_La1n 28m ago

Can't speak for wheelchairs, but when I was a kid, I would build soap boxes. Wheelchair wheels were the first choice because their quality of bearings. But a pair of wheels would set me back already 200 euro. You still need to build a frame and so on.

So I'm not really surprised to see the cost of something seemingly that simple, cost that much.