University of Iowa student starts business to make custom prosthetic limb covers

Erica Cole is proof of the old adage that necessity is the mother of invention.

A senior at the University of Iowa, Cole, 22, came back to Iowa City different for the fall semester. The chemistry major had lost her leg in a car accident in May while visiting Colorado. 

Months later, with the support of UI's John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center and various business-pitching competitions at the university, the Cedar Rapids resident started her own business called No Limbits.

Cole's idea was simple: with 3D printers, make custom and affordable covers for prosthetic limbs. A cover sized like a leg can look more natural under clothing. Or, customers can take Cole's cover as example. She made herself one that makes the prosthetic look like a stained-glass window: silver-framing dotted with reflective slivers or purple, red, green, yellow and turquoise.  

"The questions from people stopped being, 'How did you lose your leg?' to, 'That's so cool, how did you get that?" Cole said. "That shift really helped me through my healing process because being pulled back to that moment of the accident every day was tiring." 

Kimm Harris, a lecturer at the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (JPEC), and a leader of the Iowa Startup Games, urged Cole to participate in various business pitching competitions at UI last semester to share her idea for No Limbits. Harris said she could see Cole's passion for the project."

“We all have ideas, we walk around with them and then see someone do it and say ‘Gosh, I should have done something.' Erica is that person who takes her ideas and sees them through," Harris said. 

On Nov. 13 and 14, Cole participated in the JPEC's Rose Francis Elevator Pitch Competition, where individuals or teams pitch business ideas to judges. She won first place on day one and day two of the competition, earning a $10,000 and $2,500 in cash prizes for her new business. Weeks later, she won the three-day Fall 2018 Iowa Startup Games, a weekend competition that featured competition between 50 students. Cole was awarded $1,000 for No Limbits.

“She's truly, truly remarkable. I think when people see what Erica has done, it helps others a lot," Harris said. 

The idea of starting her own business was not something Cole had even dreamed about before she got a prosthetic leg, but she did already have the entrepreneurial drive and knowledge-base to do so. 

For years, Cole has worked as a costumer as a side hustle of sorts. Working with fabrics and the thermoplastic worbla to design Renaissance fair costumes and cosplay outfits for others, she knew the ins and outs of design.

As a chemistry major heading to graduate school at Colorado State to study radiochemistry, she knew how to do research and think of innovative ways to solve problems.

She approached life without her left leg in a similar way. When she got her prosthetic leg in September, Cole set out to solve the problems she was having with her new limb.

She learned to walk again. She had been a ballroom dancer, so she set out to dance again. "I like seeing the look on people’s faces when I come onto the dance floor," Cole said. 

But it was the reaction of others that would keep her reflecting back on the car accident. Since health insurance didn't cover anything except the functional prosthetic, it was clear she was wearing one even while wearing pants because she didn't have anything filling out her pant leg.

"I kept getting these strange looks and questions when people noticed I was wearing a prosthetic leg,” Cole said. "Checking out in the grocery store, the clerk would ask what was wrong with my leg. A barista at a coffee shop would say, 'Looks like you have a hitch in your step.' It wasn't easy." 

Cole took her costuming skills and went to work. She heat-formed a piece of plastic around her right leg to get the sizing right. She then decided to do something colorful with the cover and made the stained glass design "because that's cool," she said. Working with Beratek Industries of Cedar Rapids and its 3D printer, she was able to get her own, custom-designed, inexpensive prosthetic leg cover. 

Before all of this, Cole had never been a part of programs at JPEC. When Harris and Cole first met, Harris urged her to compete in their fall semester IdeaStorm Week, where people from across campus and ideas — nonprofits, artistic projects, health initiatives and product services — can come and take a basic business idea they have, give a 30-second pitch and get some feedback in a casual environment in early October. 

"Of course Erica won that. She blew us away," Harris said. "She had not done anything here before and look what she did."

That began Cole's roller coaster of a semester at UI, where she won competition after competition. 

"I can’t think of a better confidence boost that that," Cole said. "It meant the world to me that people had the confidence in me, especially as someone who doesn't have a business background.”

Harris said examples like Cole are why they make events like IdeaStorm and pitch competitions open to everyone at UI, whether they are taking business classes or not. 

"People that are close to a problem really know the problem. They are in a really good position to have solutions, whether they're in business school or not," Harris said. “Erica is a an amazing example for us. We can all learn from her. We don’t have to have a devastating accident to be aware, to observe, to listen to people and what they need.”

The money will be a serious boost to Cole and No Limbits. She said with the money, she'll be able to finish prototyping by the end of January and hopes to get a 3D printer around the same time. If all goes according to plan, she'll be able to launch the website for her business where people can order designs in mid-March. Then she'll take her products to conferences that specializes in prosthetic and medical equipment. 

Even when she graduates UI, Cole will have support from JPEC and UI. Harris said that graduates can get additional support for up to a year after graduating. The school also tries to connect alumni who may be in a similar field. 

"None of us entrepreneurs did it on our own. It’s not the case," Harris said. "I would just encourage more people to be like Erica and reach out if they have idea. You don’t really have anything to lose.”

As for Cole and her business, her mantra about its future and her graduate studies is simple: "I'm just going to see how it grows."

"People have done everything to cove the prosthetics. I've talked to people who were duct taping a pool noodle to their leg to fill it out a bit. A lady sent me a photo of her leg wrapped in Christmas lights," Cole said.

"People want to customize, take ownership of their prosthetic. I just want to help them do that."

Reach Zach Berg 319-887-5412, zberg@press-citizen.com or follow him on Twitter at @ZacharyBerg.