Sunrise Medical buys Ride Designs 

FRESNO, Calif. – Sunrise Medical has acquired Ride Designs, significantly expanding the company’s custom seating offerings, clinical expertise and service capabilities.  

Denver-based Ride Designs, which was founded in 1998 by Tom Hetzel and Joe Bieganek, has built a name for itself for designing and delivering highly specialized seating systems for wheelchairs using the most up-to-date technologies, including 3D printing. 

“By joining forces with Ride Designs, Sunrise Medical adds a high-end custom seating offering to our seating and positioning product portfolio, similar to RGK for the manual wheelchairs range and Magic for the power wheelchairs range,” said Thomas Babacan, president and CEO of Sunrise Medical. “The acquisition not only addresses and significantly expands the broad spectrum of seating and positioning requirements for wheelchair riders worldwide, but also brings highly valuable clinical expertise and advanced 3D printing technologies and competences into the Sunrise Medical group. Together with Ride’s seasoned management team and highly skilled workforce, Sunrise Medical now has an even stronger product range, clinical expertise, and operational competences to offer the best suited seating solutions to all wheelchair riders. This optimizes their mobility in terms of clinical functionality, comfort, posture, and skin integrity." 

Ride Designs is also known for its evidence-based product and technology development, supported by collaborations and research projects with institutions and universities like the Aspen Seating Clinic. 

As part of Sunrise Medical, Ride Designs benefits from global sales networks, business resources and an infrastructure to accelerate its outreach and expansion. 

“We are very passionate to bring our advanced, clinically differentiated solutions to as many riders as possible,” said Tom Hetzel, CEO and co-founder of Ride Designs. “The strengths of the two companies complement each other very well. We are committed to providing uncompromising solutions to address skin and postural challenges, and we believe that Sunrise Medical is our strongest partner in achieving our mission." 

Other recent successful strategic acquisitions by Sunrise Medical include The Helping Hand Company, a U.K.-based company specializing in pressure management and pediatric products, and Budapest-headquartered NOW Technologies, a technological research and development company focusing on digital and software innovations of wheelchair control systems.