TRANSFORMING Diversity and Inclusion
WORDS BY Ta ra C o rri st i n e
PHOTOS BY Sarah Doyle
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t was a college project that set Ailbhe Keane and her sister on a path to entrepreneurship. “My little sister, Izzy, was born with spina bifida and is paralysed from her waist down. Growing up she found it very frustrating and upsetting that her wheelchair was the first thing that people would notice about her but it wasn’t a reflection of her bright and bubbly personality. I studied art in the National College of Art and Design and in my final year, in 2016, I created a range of wheel covers for my sister’s chair that matched her outfits.” Keane toyed with various prototypes before settling on a lightweight, waterproof and scratchproof plastic disc with three velcro straps. “I created an Instagram account, @izzywheels, and began uploading photos of Izzy modeling the designs, and overnight the images went completely viral. One of our videos was viewed three million times in one day and suddenly we were getting messages from wheelchair users and artists from all over the world. We decided to launch an online store selling our designs and have never looked back.” As creative director, Ailbhe is at the helm of the business while Izzy takes an ambassador role while she studies Sociology, Politics and French in NUI Galway. “I’ve been full time with Izzy Wheels since I left college. Ireland has been a really wonderful place for us to start. It’s a small country so people look out for each other. Enterprise Ireland supported us from the outset, taking us onto the New Frontiers Entrepreneur Development programme in 2016. They gave us funding, business training and office space. We then moved to the National Digital Research Centre in 2017, a lovely coworking startup space in Dublin 8 where we are still based and we’re really happy there.” The company sells directly to customers in 35 countries. “We do all of our tradings online through our website and social media channels. Having an online store has meant we can be a global business but can still operate from Dublin. All of our wheel covers are manufactured and packaged here in Ireland, too.” Keane looked to the Irish design community when creating the initial collection, working with
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Wheelsof
Change Izzy Wheels is an awardwinning range of decorated wheel covers featuring illustrations by international artists and designers. We speak to co-founder Ailbhe Keane about inclusivity, authenticity and working with a cultural icon.
Ailbhe (left) and Izzy Keane
artists such as Fuchsia MacAree and Maser, a move that launched the brand into the media spotlight. “Collaborating with brands has been key to our success. Having gone to NCAD I had some really good contacts so I reached out to friends or illustrators whose work I really admired and our first collaboration collection was with ten amazing Irish designers. It exploded in the press and we were contacted by artists from all over the world asking how they could get involved. We’ve had over a thousand applications from all sorts of artists, brands and studios. The quality of design is really important so I’m very selective about who we work with.” The collection now counts over 70 colourful
and contemporary designs from the likes of Helen Steele and Malika Favre and international fashion designer Orla Kiely. “I was delighted to be approached to design wheel covers for Izzy Wheels,” Kiely says. “Colour and pattern can bring so much joy and to apply both to something so vital in people’s lives to me was an absolute honour. I love the result.” Other people obviously did too, and earlier this year, one of the world’s most recogniseable brands got in touch. “Mattel reached out to us and told us that they loved our brand and were really keen to work with us on a collection to celebrate Barbie’s 60th birthday. It was important to us that kids have dolls that represent them
IDAIRELAND.COM
13/02/2020 13:27
