At D-Rev, we have a few core tenets. First, we design world-class products that perform on par or better than the best devices available. Second, we’re user-obsessed, which means that we relentlessly integrate user feedback into the design process, always expecting to iterate and improve our designs. Third, we are market-driven. That’s a phrase that gets thrown around a lot, but what does it mean in practice?

It means that we use the marketplace to tell us whether our products are meeting the needs of customers (in this case, clinics) and users. It means that we want our products to be self-sustaining on the market, and that our products must be purchased – not donated or heavily subsidized.

We sell our products because we believe that our target purchasers and users need to see value in products, and invest in using them. Valued products are used (and repaired and used); products that are used have impact.

This isn’t to say that donated products don’t have social impact; they can, and some products, like vaccines, do. But they aren’t economically sustainable once donors go away. It’s difficult to know whether a donated product is something that users would choose if they are getting it for free. If a well-designed donated product can have impact, a well-designed purchased product can have sustainable impact. This is a key distinction. Our goal at D-Rev is to design – and, with partners, to deliver – products that leverage the market and require no or very little further financial support.

While we are still in the design process, iterating and collecting feedback from our users (and iterating some more), we provide our knees to select clinics for free. In return, they help us by collecting rigorous data to better inform the knee development – and D-Rev’s approach. Once we move to full production, we will sell our knees to clinics. When you donate $80 (the cost of what we think the knee will ultimately cost our clinics), you are paying not for a one-time knee. You are supporting the design process itself and paying for an indefinite supply of knees, as long as clinics and amputees see value in them.

Please support the 1,000 Knees Campaign. By doing so, you become part of a movement to make mobility possible, and empower people to readily and sustainably access products that improve their lives.