GlideAbout scoots into geriatric mobility marketplace

The Patmont Motor Werks Inc.

factory in Minden has launched GlideAbout, a vehicle designed for people with foot injuries or mobility limits.

The lightweight, three-wheeled scooter is designed for adults who can sit while pushing with their feet.

An alternative to wheelchairs and crutches, GlideAbout is for use on hard, smooth indoor floors such as shopping malls or convention halls.

The maker of the Go-Ped touts the new product as easier on the hands than crutches and notes it has no motor, which keeps it lightweight.

Inventor Steve Roman of Irvine, Calif.

modified an existing Patmont scooter design, then asked the company to manufacture the product, says Ann Cecile,marketing director at Patmont.

"We realize geriatrics is a huge market," she says."There's a lot of competition from Japan for the geriatric scooter market, but we saw a need for a model that is lightweight, foldable and easy to tote around."

It's all part of Patmont's overarching vision to provide fuel-efficient means of transportation, says Cecile.

The Minden plant opened in late 2003, moving from Livermore, Calif.

It employs 40 at its 70,000-square-foot facility, says Scott Bolton,marketing associate.

It manufactures the entire line of Go- Ped scooters, 18 different models, from push-powered to gas to electric.

Patmont's second factory in Ireland supplies the European market.

Engineering is done at the California office.

The move to a more efficient factory brought manufacturing formerly scattered among nine buildings under one roof, says Bolton.

But Patmont still faces what he calls "the Wal- Mart problem." "Jobs are off-shored," Bolton says.

"Everything is made in China.You rarely see anything made in Europe and nothing made in the U.S.A.

Ours is one of the very few left."

Patmont has filed a federal lawsuit against 52 Chinese companies, alleging they violated patents protecting the company's signature GoPed line, he says.

"People infringe on our patent," says Bolton,"then copy the product and import it with zero percent tariff.

They sell it here for less than we would pay for the raw steel."