Convaid

‘Convalescence Aid’

What started out as a small, family-operated wheelchair-making and repair shop run out of the owner’s garage morphed over the years into a major engineering and manufacturing facility with products taking the lead in design

Nathan Watkins can’t remember exactly when he started working in his father’s wheelchair-making and repair shop. After all, he was only seven when the family business got started in 1976. Back then Watkins’ father had been working for Evert Jennings & Wheelchairs when he noticed that the market for children with special needs was left widely unaddressed. “Convalescence Aid was born and [my father] began the company with one product—the Cruiser—which still exists today, and it was little more than a commercial stroller with a couple of bells and whistles for positioning the child,” says Watkins.

Hands-on son builds wheelchairs for kids with special needs

As a mechanically-inclined child, Watkins admits he was ‘very eager’ to get into his father’s garage filled with equipment. “At a very early age, my father would give me some menial tasks to keep me out of his hair and keep me busy. As the years progressed, I got assigned new duties and actually began producing parts and learning how to weld,” says Watkins who upon his high school graduation became a full-time employee. “Since then [our product] has become the one to beat in the market with regards to pediatric wheelchairs,” says the now 40-year old director of manufacturing and engineering at Convaid.

From a family-run shop to a major manufacturing facility

Over the years, Watkins has witnessed the company expand its product line and outgrow several locations in the process. Now, the Torrance, California-based wheelchair company runs its operations from a 44,000 square foot engineering and manufacturing facility with about 95 employees. “All manufacturing and design of product is done in-house. We do it all from tubular steel materials in 24 foot bundles that gets cut, bent, welded, and assembled,” he says, adding that the frame gets painted locally.

Customized-approach solution fits all 

One thing that Watkins is particular to stress is that each child’s needs are different, and simply trying to find a mean in the sense of building a standardized, one-fits-all product for this type of specialized pediatric customer is a challenge. “When you talk with the therapists, they want superior positioning, and the parents want something that is light-weight and fits in the trunk of their car. If it’s up to the dealers, they want something that they can make the most money on. So everyone has different parameters for what it is that they need. And of course, every kid has his or her special need,” he explains. That’s why the wheelchair company has taken a customized-approach tailored to fit each individual’s needs in addition to producing products that are stylish, functional and convenient.

“We have a custom-order department. We have equipment and people devoted to that sort of thing,” says Watkins, who adds that some custom-modifications are also be done by the dealer. “Our wheelchairs are much like a car, you wouldn’t buy a Toyota from Toyota Motor sales-you’d buy from your local Toyota dealer. Our strollers are much the same. We don’t sell directly to users, we sell to dealers and it is often those dealers that do the modification,” he says. But not all dealers have a shop to make custom-models, however. “And if they do they might find the specifications of the customer’s request beyond their capability…that’s when they come to us. I would say we have about two to three custom-models per day that we push out here. These types of requests range from a longer strap to a modified frame,” he says.

Giving older products a face-lift

For the first time, Convaid is giving all of its older products a face-lift. “Because the oldest product–the Cruiser— is nearly 30 years old,” says Watkins. “While we constantly update our products, we’ve done it from the viewpoint of usability but not so much from the point of how it looks or the style,” he says adding that Convaid is more interested in long-term sustainability than short-term profits. 

Convaid has five basic folding-chair structures in a variety of sizes and models in over 100 color varieties with optional features available. Convaid has been an industry leader in crash-testing adult and children’s wheelchairs since 1990. For more information, email, fax or call the company for brochures.

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