About IndeTools My disability is diagnosed as Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease. I was born with the disease and it is classified as a genetic defect. When I was born the disease was undetected until age 2. (Chris, Jen here. This is the spot where I like to remember the story Tom's mother told me years ago. Tom's mom and dad began to suspect something was wrong when Tom would not pick up his feet when he walked. They brought him to the Dr. Tom was tested in a multitude of ways. At one point, the Dr. asked Tom to turn on a light switch that was too high for him, so the Dr. could see if Tom was able to go on his toes. Tom thought about the Dr.'s request and knew instinctively he wouldn't be able to perform the task. Looking around the room, Tom found some blocks and put them together to form a step so he could reach the switch without reaching. This is how Tom “rolls” to this day. If he's not able to do something the “normal” way, he'll figure out an alternative. The doctors back then did have a lot of experience with this disease and feared Tom's brain would be affected, which actually didn't take place until the arrival of our children! : - ) The doctors told his mom he should be institutionalized. Tom's mom reluctantly agreed and had him admitted to a state hospital. To say it was an awful experience would be a huge understatement. After about a week, she pulled him out of there and took his therapy into her own hands.) During my childhood years the doctors were only able to give me a general diagnosis of muscular atrophy. It wasn't until age 10 that I was formally diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth and much later in my 20's that I was found to have an autosomal recessive trait for the disease, meaning both my parents are carriers of this defective gene. Because Charcot-Marie-Tooth attacks the muscle development of the extremities (arms and legs) I was left without the strength to support my weight and walk. It also leaves me without arm and finger strength, the strength that allows for fine motors skills. Although a wheel chair provided me a simple solution for legs and mobility, fine motor skills proved more difficult for me to deal with. In 1992, I met and married my wife. We have 2 children, a girl Shelby and a boy named Sean. A simple task such as dressing and undressing was burdening and time consuming for me. It was also something that I needed to deal with throughout the day. I needed help in the form of a care taker or a tool that would solve the problem for me. Unfortunately, the only buttoning and zipping tool available was a wire-loop and wooden-handle type device. At a young age, I began using the stick and wire for buttoning chores and quickly found out it was only good for light weight shirt buttons. It didn't seem to matter what manufacturer produced the buttoner, they all were equally worthless. In addition to that, the materials and design proved to be unreliable: The wire loop bent and broke easily; the one size loop did not fit all my different sized buttons; the small brass hook, on the opposite end for pulling zippers, was unmanageable and I kept dropping the buttoner because there was no way to attach my hand to it. This led to my daily frustration with clothes dressing and a dependence on my wife for buttoning chores. I had to think of a better way, a way to achieve more independence for myself. At the start of 2002, I began to make some drawings of all the different types of tools I thought one would need to accomplish dressing chores from head to toe. I settled on a multi-tool design with six specialized tools. The design included a large button hook, small button hook, closed-loop buttoner, zipper pick, mini-pliers, and scissors. Satisfied with the way it looked on paper; I took my drawings to a CAD (Computer Aid Drawing) designer to work out the details and from there, off it went to the machine shop. All the little parts were cut out of plate steel using a computer aided milling machine. As part after part was assembled it started to take shape. It was exciting to see my idea materialize. I spent a month using my prototype Pocketdresser trying to evaluate the pros and cons. I determined that all tools worked exactly as I had designed them and even exceeded my expectations for durability. What I did not like about my design was weight and size. It was too heavy to carry and too bulky to fit in my pants pocket comfortably. The design needed to be more practical. At this stage I took my prototype to an industry analyst for a makeover. The Pocketdresser received a sleek new design and two tools were eliminated-the scissors and pliers. Feeling confident with the new design changes, I ordered a hundred units from a trusted fabricator and went into business. The most heart-warming experience thus far has been our contact with one of the soldiers injured in Iraq. We read his amazing story in a People magazine where he expressed his frustration about not being to dress himself (sound familiar?) He had lost one arm and most of the fingers on his right hand. We wondered how in the world we would be able to reach him to send him a Pocketdresser. Jen did a Google search and discovered a phone number for the soldier's dad. Nervously, she made the call and connected to a man who seemed as excited as we were to send his son a Pocketdresser as a way of saying thank you for the sacrifices he had made. It wasn't long after, we began receiving order requests from the hospital where his son had been in re-hab. We are humbled to realize the tool that has helped Tom in so many ways, is now going into the hands of young men and women who have been injured while serving our country.