Wheels of Change

Izzy Wheels is an award-winning range of decorated wheel covers featuring illustrations by international artists and designers. We speak to co-founder Ailbhe Keane about inclusivity, authenticity and working with a cultural icon.

WORDS BY Tara Corristine | PHOTOS BY Sarah Doyle

It was a college project that set Ailbhe Keane and her sister on a path to entrepreneurship. “My little sister, Izzy, was born with spina bifida and is paralysed from her waist down. Growing up she found it very frustrating and upsetting that her wheelchair was the first thing that people would notice about her but it wasn’t a reflection of her bright and bubbly personality. I studied art in the National College of Art and Design and in my final year, in 2016, I created a range of wheel covers for my sister’s chair that matched her outfits.”

Keane toyed with various prototypes before settling on a lightweight, waterproof and scratchproof plastic disc with three velcro straps. “I created an Instagram account, @izzywheels, and began uploading photos of Izzy modeling the designs, and overnight the images went completely viral. One of our videos was viewed three million times in one day and suddenly we were getting messages from wheelchair users and artists from all over the world. We decided to launch an online store selling our designs and have never looked back.”

As creative director, Ailbhe is at the helm of the business while Izzy takes an ambassador role while she studies Sociology, Politics and French in NUI Galway. “I’ve been full time with Izzy Wheels since I left college. Ireland has been a really wonderful place for us to start. It’s a small country so people look out for each other. Enterprise Ireland supported us from the outset, taking us onto the New Frontiers Entrepreneur Development programme in 2016. They gave us funding, business training and office space. We then moved to the National Digital Research Centre in 2017, a lovely coworking startup space in Dublin 8 where we are still based and we’re really happy there.”

The company sells directly to customers in 35 countries. “We do all of our tradings online through our website and social media channels. Having an online store has meant we can be a global business but can still operate from Dublin. All of our wheel covers are manufactured and packaged here in Ireland, too.” Keane looked to the Irish design community when creating the initial collection, working with artists such as Fuchsia MacAree and Maser, a move that launched the brand into the media spotlight. “Collaborating with brands has been key to our success. Having gone to NCAD I had some really good contacts so I reached out to friends or illustrators whose work I really admired and our first collaboration collection was with ten amazing Irish designers. It exploded in the press and we were contacted by artists from all over the world asking how they could get involved. We’ve had over a thousand applications from all sorts of artists, brands and studios. The quality of design is really important so I’m very selective about who we work with.”

The collection now counts over 70 colourful and contemporary designs from the likes of Helen Steele and Malika Favre and international fashion designer Orla Kiely. “I was delighted to be approached to design wheel covers for Izzy Wheels,” Kiely says. “Colour and pattern can bring so much joy and to apply both to something so vital in people’s lives to me was an absolute honour. I love the result.”

Other people obviously did too, and earlier this year, one of the world’s most recogniseable brands got in touch. “Mattel reached out to us and told us that they loved our brand and were really keen to work with us on a collection to celebrate Barbie’s 60th birthday. It was important to us that kids have dolls that represent them and, as a child, if you see a doll that uses a wheelchair it just normalises it from a really young age.”

“It was really special to be part of that and be able to make Barbie’s chair something that wasn’t just medical it was also cool. Barbie’s wheel covers go with her outfits, reinforcing that wheelchair users can be stylish and fashionable.” The sisters worked with Mattel to create four Barbie-inspired designs for the new wheelchair Barbie doll and a limited edition collection for full-sized wheelchairs, and it was important that the partnership be authentic, rather than a nod to inclusivity.

“It’s part of the Fashionistas range of Barbies – there’s a Barbie with braids, with curves, with prosthetic limbs. We wanted to ensure it wasn’t just for PR, there is a huge amount of that in the fashion industry at the moment.” She points out that large brands may feature a wheelchair user in a fashion show or advertising campaign but fail to consider their needs around cuffs or pockets when designing their clothing. “It’s a huge problem in the fashion industry, and people need to be more aware of that.”

The partnership had other benefits for the company too. “We learned so much from working with a company that size, around issues like brand licensing and maintaining creative control, and it’s opened a lot of other doors for us since. We have been contacted by loads of other brands and we have two huge collaborations coming next year and that’s off our learnings from Barbie and the reach it offered us.”

Collaborations with well-known brands further the effort to ‘normalise’ differentlyabled people and Keane feels that Ireland is slowly but surely becoming more inclusive. “Employment for people with disabilities is very important for society. Companies need to make more of an effort to secure jobs for people with disabilities and make their workspaces accessible. They need to be made aware of their needs from the top and we need more people of diversity in boardrooms giving their inputs. Sinead Burke is doing phenomenal work speaking to people in power about the needs of her community.”

She believes that a lack of communication could be hindering this effort. “I think a lot of employers are nervous about talking about disability, even the terminology, as they are afraid of offending people. There are companies that would love to have people with disabilities in their workforce and in their boardrooms, so it’s about letting people know that those jobs are out there.”

The pair’s achievements have led to numerous awards and accolades including Accenture Leaders of Tomorrow Award, Cosmopolitan Influencer of the Year Award and Forbes 30 Under 30. “It’s really nice to be recognised with awards but overall the people we meet throughout the process are the most valuable. We are really passionate about what we do: we are a company that creates a product but it’s a lot more than that, it’s the message, the ethos of disability positivity.”