Active Hands Takes On The Nimble

Active Hands (the brand that’s famous for their SpillNot and Tipsi Tray), has bought the rights and stock of Nimble.

Active Hands has had “a long relationship with Version 22. [They’ve] successfully sold the Nimble to [their] customers for many years, and [they’re] looking forward to taking on and developing the Nimble brand.”

Nimble was originally owned and developed by Simon Lyons over at Version22. 10’s of 1000’s of units have been sold to date. Simon has decided to move on to new projects, and is increasingly busy in his family life, so Active Hands are taking over from here.

So how does it work?

  • A special blade design ensures that it won’t cause serious injuries like scissors or knives. 
  • The ultra-hard zirconia ceramic blade holds a sharper edge than steel, and it won’t rust.
  • The compact size makes it an ideal tool to have around the house, or on-the-go.
  • It’s bright colour makes it stand out in a full drawer, or on a messy desk.
  • A special sleeve design means that Nimble can easily adapt to fit most finger sizes by holding small or stretching wider.

It can be used for:

  • Opening parcels or mailing bags.
  • Opening plastic food packaging.
  • Cutting wrapping paper.
  • Children’s art projects.
  • Crafting.
  • Cutting coupons from newspapers or magazines.

Young or old, disabled or not, Nimble makes cutting and opening things easier for everyone.

The one-finger operation also makes it accessible for people with limited-hand mobility: as well as able-bodied users, it’s perfect for people with conditions such as joint pain, little-to-no hand strength, hand tremors, reduced hand-eye co-ordination, deformed or swollen hands, AND for people with only one usable hand, such as stroke survivors or amputees.

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Active Hands was founded in 2007 by Rob Smith, with a mission to teach and to help more people with hand function disabilities, to enable them to take part in numerous activities as independently as possible. Rob’s motivation came from a very deep experience, which he explained below:

In 1996, I was a twenty year old student studying Mechanical Engineering at Warwick University. While I was on holiday with some friends, I fell down a cliff, and I suffered with a high-level spinal cord injury. As a result, I was left with partial paralysis in all four limbs. I spent nine months in a Salisbury spinal rehabilitation unit. After that, I was able to return to University as a disabled student to complete my degree course.”

He continued: “I began to work with my mum on her sewing machine to try and solve some of these gripping issues. Together we explored a number of prototypes, testing and experimenting with different methods, materials and designs. Finally, we came up with the basic designs which have developed into the core of the Active Hands Gripping aids we sell today.

Rob’s work has been extensively recognised by various awards, such as the Stelios Award For Disabled Entrepreneurs In The UK 2011, The Inclusive Technology Prize, and The Disability Power 100 2020.

Find out more here: https://www.activehands.com

And don’t forget to watch the Nimble PRODUCTcast video featuring Rob Smith himself below.