Successfully developing products suitable for different wheelchair users, and even helping athletes such as Japanese wheelchair tennis legend Shingo Kunieda to win, originated from the eager expectation of a motorcycle company leader who was forced to rely on a wheelchair due to an accident. We hope to create “products that look cool and make people want to go out.” Let’s take a look at OX ENGINEERING’s original intention for manufacturing products, which constantly breaks through existing common sense and continues to be passionate about development.
Motorcycle company enters wheelchair development business
At the Paralympic Games, competitive wheelchairs are used in many competitive events. “OX ENGINEERING” (hereinafter referred to as OX) is a wheelchair manufacturer with overwhelming strength and is still active on this stage.
The company is headquartered in Chiba City. Its products first participated in the Olympic Games in the 1996 Atlanta Summer Paralympics, and successfully helped athletes win two gold medals. As of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, it has participated in a total of 9 summer and winter games. Assisted players to win 144 medals. He won 21 at the Tokyo Olympics alone, including the gold medal for wheelchair tennis legend Shingo Kunieda.
Why are OX wheelchairs so powerful? The answer lies in the company’s unique approach to business that is different from its peers.
OX entered the wheelchair market in 1992. Before that, it had been engaged in the development and manufacturing of motorcycles. The predecessor of OX, “Sport Shop Ishii”, was founded in 1976 with the main business of motorcycle sales. In 1988, OX was established as a motorcycle development department.
The founder of the company, Mr. Shigeyuki Ishii (late), was a former racing motorcycle rider and journalist. He worked hard to enrich the equipment, and the company attracted a group of riders who were passionate about manufacturing. The current president, Mr. Takaji Yamaguchi, is also one of the people who joined the company because of his love for motorcycles.
President Takaji Yamaguchi being interviewed at the Chiba City Head Office (Photo: Takayuki Buchi)
Mr. Yamaguchi joined the company in 1989. At that time, OX had begun research and development of a new wheelchair, but the purpose was not to sell it, but to be used by Mr. Ishii, the founder of the company mentioned above. In 1984, Mr. Ishii suffered a spinal cord injury in an accident while test riding a motorcycle, and has been forced to rely on a wheelchair ever since.
Yamaguchi described what happened to Mr. Ishii after his accident.
“Because he is well-known in the industry, I had heard about the accident before entering the company. At that time, he was using a wheelchair paid for by social security, but such a wheelchair could barely cope with daily life, in terms of design and function. They were all unsatisfactory. Ishii complained that “this wheelchair makes it impossible for me to go to the racing track.” He wanted his employees to modify it to be cooler, so he asked the company to modify his own wheelchair. “
In 1990, Ishii visited the “Motorcycle and Bicycle Show” (IFMA SHOW) held in Germany, which became a major opportunity. His special wheelchair was praised by local reporters, who called it a unique wheelchair design in the world. This inspired Ishii to make up his mind to enter the wheelchair market. In other words, the opportunity for OX to start making wheelchairs came from the company founder’s personal desire to “look cool and be a product that makes people want to go out.” It is completely different from other wheelchair companies that only consider design concepts that are sufficient for daily life, and embarked on a new challenge of making wheelchairs.
Shigeyuki Ishii (deceased) visited the German Motorcycle and Bicycle Show in 1990. The OX wheelchair he used at the time was well received (Picture: OX ENGINEERING)
When he concentrated on racing, he was a member of a strong Yamaha motorcycle team (Photo: OX ENGINEERING)
Utilizing the technology honed during the motorcycle manufacturing period
In 1992, the company began selling the “01-M” wheelchair for daily use. Three years later, it was decided to change the business content, terminate the motorcycle business that employees had long loved, and start focusing on the wheelchair development business.
This change in business content was a unilateral decision by the founder. It was originally thought that it would cause opposition among employees who loved motorcycles, but in fact it did not. “I also joined the company because of my love for motorcycles. Basically everyone likes to make new things. Now we just change the products we manufacture from motorcycles to wheelchairs. This is nothing to make a fuss about. And we are very familiar with what the motorcycle industry has to offer. Its service is to adjust parts to improve performance and help it win on the track. If the original product has poor performance, it will be difficult to win no matter how hard it is adjusted. Ishii believes that such a motorcycle business has its limitations. As a manufacturer. Shang, I think he is optimistic about the wheelchair business that can start from scratch.”
One year after changing the business content, in 1996, the company’s products participated in the Atlanta Summer Paralympics and won two gold medals. OX, which participated in the conference for the first time, was able to hand over beautiful results in such a short period of time, all thanks to the fact that it applied the technology cultivated in the motorcycle field for many years to the production of wheelchairs. It can be said that this is the true strength of “motorcycle manufacturers” honed through severe motorcycle competitions.
Details of the wheelchair frame welded by skilled engineers using metal molds (Photo: Takayuki Buchi)
The exposed aluminum parts give a glimpse of the profound strength of motorcycle manufacturing technology (Photo: Takayuki Buchi)
“Unlike other manufacturers that have been committed to manufacturing wheelchairs for a long time, we do not know the actual situation of people with disabilities. At the same time, I also think that wheelchair users also lack certain understandings, such as how to make their bodies function according to their disabilities, And how to improve wheelchairs to perform better in games etc. However, the company’s insistence on production quality has become an advantage, which is enough to make up for such shortcomings. Although our company has just entered the wheelchair market and is still small, we do not have traditional baggage, but we are more able to not be afraid of failure. , keep trying various possibilities and learn and grow from your mistakes.”
OX has suddenly emerged in the wheelchair manufacturing market, and its brand influence has increased rapidly. They are not only satisfied with their past excellent results, they continue to break old concepts and stand out in the wheelchair industry.
“The wheelchair industry has long been protected by the social welfare system. For a company like ours that entered this industry from the motorcycle industry, there are many things that are beyond imagination, one of which is the price.” Daily life of OX’s early sales The model wheelchair “01-M” is priced at 220,000 yen, but it has caused controversy in the industry, believing that the price is too high.
“At that time, daily life wheelchairs were provided to the public by public payment in kind worth about 100,000 yen. Therefore, each wheelchair manufacturer was limited to this amount to design products, so it was difficult to develop the functions that users really wanted. ”
OX’s 220,000 yen wheelchair is no different from the motorcycle era and is designed with the user in mind. OX firmly believes that “even if it is a wheelchair, there will be people who are willing to spend a higher price to buy a product that is both fashionable and practical.”
The controversial “01-M” priced at 220,000 yen (Photo: OX ENGINEERING)
However, this idea caused huge waves in the industry. The prefectural and municipal governments responsible for reviewing wheelchair subsidies regard OX as “an unscrupulous manufacturer selling high-priced products to disabled people” and therefore do not agree to issue a 100,000 yen wheelchair subsidy. In addition, OX is also restricted. Sometimes it cannot engage in sales activities in hospitals and can only sell outdoors in parking lots.
At this time, the voices of the majority of wheelchair users saved OX, which was in deep trouble at the time.
“They enthusiastically spoke for us and said, ‘As wheelchair users, we are entitled to receive a wheelchair subsidy of 100,000 yen. We can pay the remaining part ourselves. We very much hope to be able to use OX’s wheelchair.’ Thanks to them, , our wheelchairs have just been able to enter the social welfare system and be used by more people.”
At this moment, the OX value of “providing good products even if they are expensive” was recognized for the first time by the wheelchair industry, which only manufactures products within the subsidy amount.
Social changes and demand for wheelchairs
Despite being criticized by the industry, OX’s wheelchair business is still growing year by year. So far, the company has produced more than 75,000 wheelchairs, 10% of which are competitive wheelchairs. Mr. Yamaguchi said that it is precisely because of the changes in the times that the company’s wheelchair business has achieved significant growth.
“The Tokyo Olympics and the Second Paralympic Games were held in 1964, but TV and newspaper coverage were very limited. Moreover, some people with disabilities had little interaction with society at that time. However, since our company began to get involved in wheelchairs, society as a whole has also Changes have begun, and wheelchair users are becoming more actively involved in various social activities. Our wheelchair design concept of ‘a product that looks cool and makes people like to go out’ coincides with this change of the times.”
Competitive wheelchairs currently on sale. The top left is for tennis competitions, the top right is for basketball competitions, and the bottom is for track and field competitions. Their appearance varies depending on the particularity of the competition and the expectations of the athletes (Picture: OX ENGINEERING)
Nowadays, it is common to see wheelchair users appearing in TV series or movies. Driving this trend was the 2000 TV series “Life is Beautiful” starring Kimura Takuya, which had an average ratings of 32.3%. The heroine is Takako Tokiwa, and the bright yellow wheelchair she uses in the play is an OX product.
“In the drama, wheelchair users are not portrayed as disabled people with limitations. They want to ‘live a happy and comfortable life’ just like us. The yellow wheelchair in the drama is widely favored by wheelchair users, they said , I hope to have the opportunity to own a wheelchair like that.”
Opening OX’s wheelchair catalog feels like looking at a motorcycle or bicycle catalog. There are no less than a hundred colors, and there are also glitter and inkjet designs to choose from. Not only are the colors rich, but each part also comes in many styles. Users can even replace or adjust parts with other functions after purchase, allowing OX wheelchairs to provide more complete customized services in both appearance and function.
The high-end daily life wheelchair “ZZR” is made of lightweight and highly rigid materials, and is a wheelchair that integrates OX’s excellent technologies (Photo: OX ENGINEERING)
This meticulous flexibility gives OX the title of “Porsche in the wheelchair world” among wheelchair users. “But no one in our company drives a Porsche yet,” Mr. Yamaguchi said with a wry smile. “Porsche is also known for listening to customers’ various subtle needs, such as whether they need to design icons and have various types of lamps. I think our service No less than Porsche. Our company never thinks that we are making assistive devices, we just want to make high-quality products that customers like. This persistence has not changed at all since the motorcycle industry.”
OX implements the spirit of its founder and subverts the common sense in the wheelchair industry. They eliminate the psychological barriers of users by making products that look cool and make people like to go out. This should be more meaningful than the number of medals.
OX Headquarters. Competition wheelchairs are produced here and R&B performances are held here, while daily life wheelchairs are produced at the factory in Nagaoka City, Niigata Prefecture (Photo: Takayuki Buchi)
Banner photo: Legendary Japanese wheelchair tennis player Shingo Kunieda, who broke numerous records with OX’s wheelchair. He has been sponsored by OX for wheelchairs since 2003. He announced his retirement in February 2023, but he continues to use OX products in his daily life (Jiji Press, Paris, France, June 2, 2022)
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