The Wheel Deal

An excerpt from OZY -

DISABILITY CHIC: THESE IRISH SISTERS ARE THE WHEEL DEAL
BY FIONA ZUBLIN

When Ailbhe Keane was young, her little sister’s wheelchair was her art project. Isabel, paralyzed from the waist down by spina bifida, would at times have a chair decorated in bright colors. “It attracted a lot of attention,” says Ailbhe, “but it was just temporary stuff.”

Not so temporary anymore. The two sisters are founders of the Dublin-based Izzy Wheels, which sells colorful removable wheel covers for wheelchairs like Isabel’s. Isabel herself may be their best advertisement, zipping through their Instagram videos in her brightly colored duds and wheel covers, a huge grin on her face.

Izzy Wheels was born in 2016 from a final-year project Ailbhe completed for her visual communications degree at the National College of Art and Design. Inspired by her childhood hobby of decorating Isabel’s chair, she “spent a whole year experimenting with ways of improving the chair. And the wheels were just this big blank canvas screaming for something to make it look better.”

Two years later, Ailbhe, 25, and Isabel, 21, are full-blown entrepreneurs, with customers in 35 countries (though most sales are to the U.S.) and 40 designer collaborations under their belts.

https://www.ozy.com/rising-stars/disability-chic-these-irish-sisters-are-the-wheel-deal/87908?utm_source=dd&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=07132018&variable=e3bf1057d4e3c0988a79ae4bce515610