We can rebuild him. We have the technology. We can make him better than he was. Better ... stronger ... faster.
—Opening to “The Six Million Dollar Man”
As a boy, Scott Summit was entranced by that television show’s premise. As an industrial designer, he has made it his business.
Summit makes legs.
Chrome-plated legs. Leather-coated legs. Legs, some laser-etched with tribal tattoos, that mirror the shape of an amputee’s sound limb without pretending in the least to be human.
Prosthetics long have focused on function. But the same design sensibility that has come to influence practical items like smartphones is turning synthetic limbs into a platform for self-expression. As Summit helps fulfill that desire, he is influencing what it means to live with a disability.
Designer limbs must “represent personality as well as physicality,” Summit said recently from his work space on the upper floor of a light-dappled building near downtown San Francisco.
“The thought was, if it was beautifully sculpted and crafted, it would change … the way the person actually perceives their own body and, hopefully, it would then change the way society sees amputees.”
