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Dave Johnson spent his life active in sports, so when he was benched by a knee injury several years ago, he went to work building a device that could solve his problem.
But what started as a desire to regain his own mobility has now blossomed into a full-blown businesses. Johnson founded Charlottesville-based Icarus Medical last year and is set to launch the Icarus brace on Oct. 1. Chief Sales Officer Joe Khalifa joined the team in June.
The knee brace is designed to be a light-weight, external muscle tendon system that takes up to 50 pounds of body weight off the knee, allowing for greater mobility and significantly reducing pain.
“When you bend down, it takes weight off your knee and springs you back up,” he said. “It works really well for relieving knee pain for people with moderate to severe knee arthritis.”
Johnson said he originally began designing the brace in 2015 for his own use after suffering a knee injury that prevented him from doing many of his favorite activities like hiking and snowboarding.
“That’s when I realized my knee is done, and there was nothing else out there to help me,” he said. “I love snowboarding and doing all kinds of active sports, so I started buying braces online and cutting them apart and putting in springs and hinges to make my own brace.”
He realized last year that his brace design had legs, so to speak, and began working on 3-D printed prototypes, with the intent to produce the brace using an injection mold. He found that the 3-D versions were extremely durable.
To ensure the braces are high-quality, Johnson said Icarus is investing $600,000 in a top-of-the-line 3-D printer that will produce braces customizable to each customer. To date, Icarus has raised $250,000 from angel investors and is working on another round of funding.
“They were durable in a way I didn’t expect, so we decided to produce the braces using a 3-D printer,” he said. “I really want it to look good and have that injection molded quality.”
Johnson said when the full site and sales launch next month, customers will be able to use the Icarus phone app to scan their knee, ensuring the best fit possible. A custom brace will retail for about $1,395, and an “off-the-shelf” brace will cost about $999. Both are reimbursable by most medical insurance for up to $1,100, he said.
“For me, it’s very simple: I cannot snowboard without this brace,” he said. “For some people, it’s simply mowing the lawn, playing tennis, hiking or just doing functional movements day-to-day.”
Johnson added, “It very clearly has a spot on the shelf and is something people need. We’re trying to demonstrate that you can do that activity again, and it’s not going to hurt, and it’ll give you the stability you need.”
