Customer Profile: Athlete and Music Lover Max Woodbury

UPDATED JULY 31, 2024

In this Customer Profile, we tell the story of Max Woodbury. Max is a C-6 quadriplegic who loves handcycling and wheelchair rugby and uses our leather wraps for his wheelchair grips and impact guards. 

Max discovered Walnut Studiolo quite a while back at the Art in the Pearl art fair in Portland, and he has been using our Leather Bar Wraps on his wheelchair ever since. "When I first saw your grips, I thought they were so beautiful. They seemed perfect as impact guards on my everyday wheelchair."

Max has played wheelchair rugby for more than 20 years. His team, The Portland Pounders, won the 2013 National Championship! 

Max also likes to compete in marathons on a handcycle. "I got my personal record in Boston this year with a time of 2:07:48.  I plan to compete in Hood to Coast and the Portland Marathon for the tenth time this year." 

When he's not busy competing, Max is dedicated to supporting XRAY.FM, a Portland-based non-profit radio station. He was one of the founding board members and helped launch this station. XRAY.fm is focused on building a culturally relevant center for ideas, music and creativity in Portland, Oregon.

Max is also a proud supporter of the local nonprofit Green Empowerment.

We here at Walnut were thrilled when Max reached out. Our full grain leather is a high-performance material that is durable in the elements, warm to the touch and becomes grippier when wet. We enjoy a strong spirit of ingenuity and finding new uses for our products and materials.

Our leather bar wraps have long been a favorite among cyclists, but we had never before seen them used on a wheelchair! 

We were thrilled to work with Max on his set up. We worked together, sharing measurements and making a custom wrap for his gear. It has been an honor to get to know Max!