Halifax Company Launches Back Brace That Doesn’t Feel Like A ‘Straight Jacket’
HALIFAX – They say if you build a better mousetrap the world will beat a path to your door. But what happens if you build a better back brace? A Halifax medical company, Spring Loaded, is about to find out. On February 9, the company released the Lumbrella, which is designed to give people more motion while having to wear a brace for back pain.
“Traditional back braces are often quite bulky and restrictive in terms of the motion they allow you to have,” said Spring Loaded President and CEO Chris Cowper-Smith. “So, while they can help you relieve pain, a lot of people feel they’re in a straight jacket.”
The Lumbrella, according to Cowper-Smith, gives more flexibility because of two belts built into the brace. Therefore, it still provides spinal decompression while allowing patients to move more freely. The brace costs about $1,800 to own and most insurance policies cover it.
Cowper-Smith began his medical career when he got a Ph.D. in experimental neuroscience. But he soon discovered that dealing with abstract questions about brain function left him feeling unsatisfied. He wanted to do something that would have a direct impact on patients’ wellbeing.
“The research I was doing was interesting theoretically, but not as directly applied as I wanted to,” said Cowper-Smith in a recent interview. “I was a long way from actually helping patients, which is why I decided to start the company.”
Spring Loaded began as a company specializing in bionic knee braces. The inspiration for the bionic knee brace began when Cowper-Smith got first-hand knowledge on the subject while playing highly competitive ultimate frisbee. He later suffered a back injury playing squash.
“It’s hard on the body, and I was regularly injuring different parts of myself. After the injury, I wore a brace, and realized it didn’t provide the mobility that I was after and that inspired the beginning of the knee brace,” recalled Cowper-Smith.
It took four years for Spring Loaded to develop their knee brace and another two years for the Lumbrella back brace, going to show medical technology takes time to advance.
The release of Lumbrella comes at a time when people are experiencing more back pain than before. Several medical articles have stated that working from home is causing people to sit for long hours with bad posture, which causes more pain.
“With a huge number of people working from non-traditional environments-working from home, sometimes on the edge of their bed with a little makeshift desk,” said Cowper-Smith.