The story behind Erin’s Chair, the first flat-packed spica chair.
As a very small team consisting of the two of us; Ian, a very experienced and multi-talented joiner and me, Michaela, a very experienced secondary school teacher, we decided to create Erin’s Chair Spica Chair as an altruistic project. Both of us hold a very dear philosophy which is… “You only get one life and so any opportunity which is presented to you, especially if it helps others, you should run with it’, so that’s exactly what we did.
This opportunity arose near towards the tail end of 2020, when our friends came to us to ask for help, knowing Ian has a wealth of knowledge and experience in the joinery trade. They told us that their daughter, Erin, who was 18 months old at the time, had undergone a hip dysplasia operation, which at that point, was a very unfamiliar concept to us. They said that they needed a chair designed that would aid Erin in being able to sit up and play with her toys. This was because her legs and hips were casted in a spica cast, meaning her legs could not move and were set wide apart and as a result, a normal chair would no longer be comfortable to sit on. There are very few options in spica chairs and the ones that already existed were bulky, ugly and not to mention extortionately priced.
It was just one of those moments of ‘the right person at the right time’! One of Ian’s many superpowers are being original, seeing solutions others do not as well as having such a kind heart and always willing to give to others with no expectation of return, so quite naturally when he was asked, he jumped at this challenge. This very spica chair challenge turned out to be the first step in the design of Erin’s Chair Spica Chair – the first collapsible and flat packed spica chair.
Erin loved her version of the chair and once used, we realised it just needed tweaking, so Ian got to work, designing the next version which turned out to be Erin’s Chair Spica Chair and of course, without question we had to name the spica chair after Erin. We knew we wanted to also have packaging for Erin’s Chair that was reusable, but we couldn’t find anything of that size. I always knew that my handy seamstress skills would one day come in very good use, not just in repairing clothes, and it turns out they did as I sew every bag for each of our Erin’s Chairs.
We then searched for a charity who could use our designs to bring Erin’s Chair to fruition for other families. That’s when we came across STEPS charity; a leading charity working for those with DDH (Hip dysplasia and other lower limb conditions) who were so delighted to hear that there was an innovative design of a spica chair. We can still remember the very words that were used, ‘we have needed this for over 40 years’. They then asked us, if we could manufacture Erin’s Chair to help as many families as possible. We didn’t need to mull over this question for very long and before we knew it, in February 2021, we had officially brought Erin’s Chair, the first collapsible spica chair to the world through word of mouth and social media. Two years later, we have worked tirelessly behind the scenes, with the help and support of many fond friends and partnerships to be able to say we are proud of our philanthropic brand and spica chair which many of you have loved and will continue to support.
Much love Michaela, Co-founder of Erin’s Chair Spica Chair.