ST. LOUIS — When the Paralympic games begin in Tokyo next week, Clayton Braun will be over 6,000 miles away in Troy, Missouri.
But some of Braun’s designs will be at the competition. He's been working to build a better wheelchair.
“I’ve always grown up building things and designing things,” he said.
Precision is key to his efforts. Everything on the custom chairs has to be in the right place.
“When that chair comes back, we want it to be dead-on,” he said.
Braun knows firsthand why the chair must be just right. He is on wheels himself, after losing the use of his legs in an accident in 2003.
“Dove off the back of a boat and landed on the top of my head. I was unconscious in the ICU for a month. Technically a C-5, C-6 quadriplegic,” he said.
Braun’s condition did not take away from his determination.
“What are you going to do? You’re either going to sink or swim. Once I figured out a way to be competitive again from a chair, it was a done deal,” he said.
He was so competitive that he made the U.S. Paralympic rugby team. Braun’s competitive spirit continues to drive him away from the sport.
“The lessons that I could take away from playing at an elite level, I can apply everywhere else in life, especially right here,” he explained.
Braun is no longer on the team but he’s proud that some U.S. Paralympians will be using his chairs.
“It’s just as good as, to me, it’s just as good as being there on that podium,” he said.
The back of each chair has “Brand New” engraved on it – the name of the company Braun founded during the pandemic.
“As soon as a thought of that, I was like that’s clever,” he said.
Brand New has given Braun a brand new passion in life. He said he puts heart, effort, blood, sweat and tears into his work.
If you want to learn more about the company, you reach out on Facebook.