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Original, unique designs to help with lifting and carrying your bicycle

Lifetime leather bar wraps in five styles for every type of handlebar and bicycle

Best-selling "commuter essentials" for making the daily commute easier

Stunning handcrafted bicycle bags carry the essentials and turn heads!

Our original best-selling Travel Cribbage Boards have fans worldwide

Play dice anywhere you go in a handcrafted brass keychain or necklace.

Uniquely functional for travel: hand-drawn domino playing cards (2 sizes!)

Our newest folding leather board and favorite game: Travel Backgammon!

Leather handles in 8 styles, 4 leather colors, and 3 metal finishes

Strong yet soft, durable and sustainable, no-bumps and no-bruises

Add a label to handles and pulls for superior organization

Flexible but sturdy, creative solutions to tricky problem corners

We wrote a free educational series about our favorite material, delivered to your inbox.

Our blog "In a Nutshell" is chock-a-block with fresh and intriguing content written by in-house humans!

Our blog is 100% written by humans.We don't use generative A.I.

100% written by humans.
We don't use generative A.I.

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. 

Telling Our Customers' Stories

Walnut Studiolo provides solutions to everyday problems through beautiful, design-inspired products. We love sharing how those products change the lives of our customers, and the life stories they have to tell! Can we share your story? Contact us! 

A man playing wheelchair rugby leans over his cycle to catch the ball

How We Met: Everyday Leather Wheelchair 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."

Quadripalegic athlete Max Woodbury smiling in his wheelchair at the camera in front of Por Que No Mexican taco shop from the bicycle lane
Image credit: Max Woodbury

Wheelchair Rugby and Handcycling

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

Two men play wheelchair rugby on a wooden court
The Portland Pounders Wheelchair Rugby Team at the Vancouver Invitational. Photo credit: https://www.wcrugby.com/

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." 

A woman handcycling on a race track, demonstrating adaptive cycling
Adaptive cycling in action: demonstrating handcycling. Image credit: Adaptive Sports Northwest

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.

Max Woodbury on his everyday wheelchair with coiled leather wraps used as a grips and impact guards, looking dapper on the docks with a sunny boat hat and a big smile
Image credit: Max Woodbury

Working with Walnut on Custom Leather Wheelchair Wraps

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!

Max Woodbury in his everyday wheelchair on a shady tree-lined park avenue with his yellow lab service dog, Cobalt
Max with his 90lb yellow lab service dog, Cobalt. Image credit: Max Woodbury.

Products Featured in This Blog

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1 Response

David Taylor

David Taylor

July 11, 2023

I am a provider of wheelchairs and will be recommending these to my customers. Great idea. I think Walnut needs to make a nice calf strap to go with the frame wraps. :)

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