Dale and Matt Perkins don't let anything slow them down.
"My father and I are both amputees. I don't think we really consider ourselves amputees, or it doesn't really cross our minds that often," Matt said.
Both born with congenital deformities, Dale founded Coyote Prosthetics & Orthotics in 1994 as a patient care facility in Twin Falls, working directly with amputees to solve their prosthetic or orthotic issues. Five years later, Coyote Design was formed as a sister company when Matt, in his competitive skiing and triathlon days, started making prosthetic parts for himself.
"It's really based on products that either I myself needed, or my father needed, or our patients needed, and gaps that we were finding in the industry," Matt explained.
Now, at their office in Boise, Coyote Design is well known for its custom sockets and Air-Lock, a water resistant, air tight prosthetic locking mechanism that brings ease and convenience to amputees.
The locks are sold to 13 different countries and are all "Made in Idaho."
"Almost everything we make is manufactured within about 20 miles of our office, and that's for a reason. We could certainly produce a lot of our products somewhere else, but we'd be less involved in the community," Matt said.
Through it all, the Perkins and Coyote Design want amputees to be able to live their lives without limits.
"We sort of get away from 'helping,' as a phrase. We're trying to problem solve and figure out what people need, to do the things they want to do. Whether it's something extremely high end like summiting Mt. Everest or racing a triathlon, or something as basic as getting back to gardening or riding a bike. The biggest thing for us is just not allowing limitation to be put on people, just like they haven't been allowed to be put on us," Matt said.
Coyote Design also works with amputee support groups in both the Treasure Valley and the Magic Valley. Coyote Prosthetics & Orthotics has patient care facilities in Twin Falls, Boise, and is expanding soon to Caldwell this summer.
