Long Beach, Calif.-based iWalkFree's iWalk2.0 won first place at the i-Novo Awards in Düsseldorf, Germany for best-designed product.
Here are five things to know:
1. Roughly 120,000 attendees from all over the world casted their vote for the best-designed product.
2. The device straps on below the knee of the injured leg, allowing the user to walk naturally.
3. iWalk reports that over 732,000 Americans rely on crutches:
- 70,000 people suffer ankle and foot fractures per year
- 420,000 people suffer shin bone fractures per year
- 185,000 people suffer lower leg amputations per year
- 57,600 people rupture their achilles per year
4. iWalkFree CEO Brad Hunter believes that upper leg and hip muscles atrophy up to 2 percent every day crutches are used. iWalk avoids this side effect, doesn't restrict blood flow to the extremities and eases a user's transition back to walking.
5. Celebrity actors and athletes such as Harrison Ford and Derek Carr have used iWalk2.0 and reported good results.
6. iWalkFree is working with the Motion Analysis Research Center at Oakland, Calif.-based Samuel Merritt University to continually improve its product.
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