Lincoln Inventor, Entrepreneur is Inspired To Improve Life for All Wheelchair Users
Being a paraplegic wheelchair user comes with innumerable challenges and obstacles that could be overwhelming for most people, but not for Jason Leuck.
- published: 2023/11/28
- contact: NBDC Communications - Nebraska Business Development Center
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- email: kjefferson@unomaha.edu
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Lincoln, Nebraska – Being a paraplegic wheelchair user comes with innumerable challenges and obstacles that could be overwhelming for most people, but not for Jason Leuck. Instead, it inspires the Lincoln man to find ways to lessen those challenges for all wheelchair users.
His patented product is the CushPocket, which attaches to a wheelchair and gives the user a double-compartment fabric storage bag within easy reach. Sold through his website, cushpocket.com, and on Amazon, an impressive 83 percent of his customer reviews give the CushPocket five stars.
Leuck, 42, has nurtured an entrepreneurial spirit since he was young. Born in Omaha, he placed second in a seventh grade science fair with his design for a pneumatic can crusher. He regrets not taking that idea further. “I just saw one like mine on Amazon a month ago,” he says.
His life changed in 2008, when he left a birthday party in west Omaha and lost control of his car on a poorly-lighted gravel road. “That’s all I remember, really,” he says. “I went off the road into a ravine and was thrown into the back seat.”
He awoke in the Creighton University Medical Center with a spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed from the chest down. Specifically, he is a T2-T4 complete paraplegic, which refers to the thoracic vertebrae in the mid-back. The corresponding thoracic nerves affect muscles, the upper chest and mid-back, and abdominal muscles. While the person’s arm and hand functions are usually normal, these injuries impact and affect the trunk and legs and are known as paraplegia.
At the time of the accident, he was repairing heavy equipment for resale. “Every day was really hard,” he recalls. “I gave up a lot of business because I couldn’t do the work.”
He moved to Lincoln for rehabilitation and stayed, living in an accessible apartment in the Haymarket area when it was just becoming popular.
Rather than sit in his apartment, Leuck purchased a hot dog cart and worked the sidewalks in Haymarket for two years. “I sold it because it was just too much for me,” he says.
On June 6, 2015, a day he remembers fondly, he met his future wife, Jesse Garner, a quadriplegic. “It was on a street corner in Lincoln,” he says. “She was looking kind of lost, and I asked why. She said she had to pay a handicapped parking ticket but couldn’t find the place.”
Today, the couple work as partners to market and sell the CushPocket.
The CushPocket offers two compartments: an outer pocket that closes with a magnetic flap, and a larger main compartment featuring a zipper closure with an O-ring loop. The CushPocket is attached to a flexible board that slides underneath the seat cushion, and can be attached to the seat pan of most manual or power wheelchairs with Velcro strips that are included. When detached from the chair, the board is designed with a hand-sized slot to double as a carrying handle.
Leuck introduced his first CushPocket in 2019 and has since released a larger version manufactured from high-quality fabric.
Along the way, Leuck has relied upon the advice and encouragement of the Nebraska Business Development Center (NBDC) and Craig Boesch, Lincoln center director for America’s SBDC – Nebraska, a program of the NBDC.
“When Jason started with the NBDC, he had doubts and questions,” Boesch says. “He had worked through all of it, yet, like any good entrepreneur, he was grappling with the risks. I think he simply needed a sounding board to affirm he was on the right track, and he is. He’s an amazing person.”
Boesch also introduced Leuck to the Weibling Entrepreneurship Clinic at the University of Nebraska College of Law, where he received pro bono help filing a design patent application.
Leuck has shown a true commitment to quality, Boesch says, researching overseas manufacturers and seeking ways to make improvements. “Jason is very particular about what he sources in the materials, to ensure that everything he sells has the highest quality and value,” Boesch says.
Leuck is currently in the research and development phase of a new product for wheelchair users and can’t reveal many details. With this new idea as with the CushPocket, he says he is grateful for the continuing support of Boesch and the NBDC.
“Craig has been a great mentor to me,” Leuck says. “He keeps me motivated, always asking, ‘Where are you at in this?’ and, ‘What do you need?’ I’m very happy he’s there for me and my business.”