Bespoke ‘fairings’ designed to give prosthetic limbs a bit more personality

Today’s artificial limbs function better than they ever did, but from an aesthetic standpoint something is lacking.

A standard prosthetic leg is simply a jointed metal pole with a plastic foot at the end. Basic. Functional.

“There’s nothing wrong with the design,” said industrial designer Scott Summit. “It simply looks to me like a job that’s half complete.”

So Summit, who had previously designed gadgets for Silicon Valley, created eye-catching covers for prostheses that he calls fairings, after the plastic shell around a motorcycle’s engine. The fairings of a bike give it the sex appeal and the sense of contour and flow, he says.

Summit’s company, Bespoke Innovations, aims to do the same thing with a prosthetic limb. You can order a herringbone leg, or one with cut-out flower petals, or repeating geometric shapes that look like Moorish tiles.

Matt Sullivan, a veteran who lost part of his leg in Afghanistan, went with a sports theme: the San Diego Chargers’ lightning bolt on one side, the Padres’ “SD” embossed on the other.

Brooke Artesi’s fairing has a pattern of chrome and black swirls that gives her a Terminator look.

“You’re not going to walk down the street in a Bespoke cover and someone go — oh that looks just like you’re real leg,” she said. “No. It looks like a piece of artwork walking down the street.”