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Passion for Purpose
It’s safe to say our Co-Founder, Jeremy Knopow, is a seasoned innovator.
This desire to create didn’t just start a few years ago. A mall caricature artist asked an 8-year old Jeremy what he wanted to be when he grew up.
“An inventor or artist,” Jeremy replied.
What then might have seemed like a pipe dream started to turn into a reality as Jeremy got older.
“As I grew up I found out about Engineering,” says Knopow, “and thought that was a good way to make a living tinkering with things.” Diving into the details of beauty and true usefulness became a real passion. “Later I found out about Industrial Design and realized that was a way to combine the artistic and user interface sides together.”
As any great artist, Jeremy’s personal style began to blossom through teachers and how we observed the world.
“I was fortunate to take several years of Japanese ikebana (minimalist flower arranging) in grad school from a fantastic Japanese teacher, Kimiko Gunji. This is probably my single strongest design inspiration. The ideas of eliminating the extraneous to emphasize the important and a perpetual connection to nature are things that seem to find their way into my life almost every day.” He considers his personal taste to be somewhere between the ikebana art form and Bauhaus.
Eventually, he got to apply his approach to something immensely important and useful. He proposed and led the design of what would become the primary shower facilities for 9/11 rescue workers in the days following the attacks. “Seeing how the whole community came together to quickly build everything and seeing the gratitude on the rescue workers’ faces will always be a highlight for me.”
After over 20 years of working at Fortune 500 companies, including Kohler, SC Johnson and Procter and Gamble, Knopow decided to dedicate his focus to another type of community, people of all walks of life who need walking assistance.
He took the “form follows function” Bauhaus philosophy and made it central to the Tour, a walker which works better for people. From ergonomics to functionality and even personalization, Jeremy’s design influences started to shape a walker that is intuitive, clean, and truly a design like nothing anyone has ever seen.
“Everything is centered around the users’ needs.” he says.
It’s this people first selfless attitude that glows with every grin and granular attention to detail from Jeremy. “That’s where people can really start to get excited, when they can see and touch something that improves their life in some way.”
What gets you up the morning? What are you excited about today?
Share with us what your passion is. We’d love to hear about it.