Genny’s self-balancing and two wheeled wheelchair gets an upgrade – revealed at REHACARE 2022

Inspired by the self-balancing Segway, Genny Factory developed a wheelchair equivalent. What started as a newbie on the mobility aids market, now is ready for its third generation. The new wheelchair will be revealed in two weeks at this year’s REHACARE. Francesca Belotti allows for a little glimpse into what we can expect.

Genny is the first medical self-balanced device of this kind – with what goals in mind was it developed and how does it differ from other devices?

Francesca Belotti: Genny™ was born from the intuition of Paolo Badano, a businessman who, due to a road accident, has been using his wheelchair for over twenty years now. Following the accident, over the years, Paolo looked for a way to improve his daily mobility but couldn’t find anything able to make him break away from the usual schemes.

Wheelchairs not only seemed constraining and often aesthetically arguable but had a clearly obsolete technology as well. Only in 2009, Segway PT, a self-balancing ride equipped with only two wheels, conceived by Dean Kamen, and produced by Segway inc., drew his attention. The Segway imposes a standing position on its user. So, Paolo’s idea was to make this technology available to the "seated people" (a term often used by Paolo to define motor disabilities):

Genny™ was born, his first ambitious project, with its primary obligation to ensure the users’ safety. On the market, Genny™ stands out as a unique medical device. Today Genny™ has a big new challenge to create a new product that is even more technologically developed, safe, and affordable to as many people as possible.

You are planning a new product release this September. Could you give us a preview of what we can expect at REHACARE?

Belotti: At REHACARE we will be presenting our new product, entirely produced by Genny™. This is the third generation of Genny™, after more than three years of development, with cutting-edge technology and a unique design.

The presentation named "From disability to Formula 1", will be held on 14 September from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm at Genny’s booth (Hall 6/A34). The master of ceremony will be Luigi Mazzola, a very important race engineer at Ferrari.

What relevance does REHACARE as a trade fair have, also in relation to your products and your company values?

Belotti: Everything started at REHACARE: The first Genny™ was presented by Paolo at REHACARE in 2012. At our company, this formed a strong emotional connection that keeps us all together. REHACARE is the world’s most important fair for our sector, so we decided to invest in this scenario because we strongly believe in its unique potential to present our new product for the first time ever.