TiLite Brand Guidelines: Titanium Wheelchairs From Pasco, Part of Permobil Since 2014

From bicycle frames to wheelchair frames.

TiLite began as a titanium workshop that made things other than wheelchairs. A 2021 post on Permobil’s blog, part of a series on wheelchair frame design, says that in 1998 David Lippes incorporated a company named Ti Sport Tech, or TST, which made road and mountain bicycle frames and other sports gear in titanium. Under Lippes, it says, TST began to make rigid wheelchair frames; the business became TiSport, and over time the name evolved to TiLite. English Wikipedia gives the incorporation year as 1988 while citing that same Permobil post, which says 1998, and Permobil’s 2014 announcement of the purchase also says TiLite was “founded in 1998.”

Permobil’s current TiLite page tells the story in the brand’s own voice: in the 1990s, “after decades of making custom bike frames and golf shafts from titanium,” the team asked whether its knowledge of materials and customisation could be applied to wheelchairs, and “whether a frame built for one specific person” would perform better. The answer became a process the company calls TiFit, made-to-measure manual mobility.

The company grew up in Pasco, Washington. Permobil’s May 2014 release and Mobility Management’s report the same day both place TiLite’s headquarters there, and English Wikipedia describes it as a division of TiSport, LLC, based in Pasco. By 2014, the release said, TiLite sold its chairs in 41 markets.

The bicycle origin shows in the chairs. Permobil’s 2021 post explains that TiLite’s dual-tube frame takes its geometry from the triangles of a bicycle frame, calling the triangle “one of the strongest, most rigid shapes in the world,” and English Wikipedia makes the same link to bicycle design.

Titanium, aluminium and, from 2023, carbon fibre.

TiLite makes ultra-lightweight manual wheelchairs, in rigid and folding designs. Permobil’s 2014 release described the company as designing and manufacturing chairs “in titanium or aluminum that can be customized to each user’s exact specification,” and English Wikipedia notes that the company uses parametric modelling, computer-aided design and finite element analysis in deciding on designs and materials, citing a 2011 feature in Design News.

The current range on Permobil’s site runs to about a dozen models. It includes the ZR, which New Mobility described in 2023 as a titanium-framed chair, and its ZRA counterpart; the TR and TRA; and the Aero family, among them the Aero Z, the Aero T and the Aero X, which Permobil’s 2021 post presents as a folding chair. The 2GX, the Pilot and the Twist complete the list alongside the newest model.

That model is the TiLite CR1, the brand’s first carbon-fibre chair. New Mobility, the magazine of the United Spinal Association, reported its launch on 16 October 2023, describing a customisable frame with narrow caster arms and side guards that form part of the structure and hold the folding backrest in place. The chair was created by Doug Garven, TiLite’s principal product manager, who told the magazine it had “an aerodynamic tube shape inspired by F1 cars” and flat tubes at the knees meant to make the chair “disappear” when seen from the front. At launch it was available in the United States and Canada.

The brand’s pitch rests on the chair being built for one person. Permobil’s 2021 post says TST turned to titanium “for performance,” and its brand page says TiLite chairs are “engineered to be strong, light, and fully customized to match the shape and needs of each end user” — the line the brand uses to sum itself up.

Design and documentation.

Wheelchair and seating makers sell to several audiences at once: the people who ride their chairs, the therapists and seating specialists who measure and prescribe them, and the dealers and funders who supply them. Their catalogues and websites tend to show all three sides together — people using chairs at home, at work, outdoors and in sport, next to plain product views and pages of measurements and options.

The product picture is often a clean side profile on a white or pale ground, which lets the frame line, wheel camber and seat angle read clearly. Close-ups follow the materials: welded aluminium and titanium tubes, carbon-fibre weave, castors, push rims and folding mechanisms. Some makers name their models after the frame material or the sport, and offer made-to-measure versions built to a rider’s own dimensions.

Sport is a large part of the visual language. Court chairs for wheelchair basketball, tennis and rugby, with steeply cambered wheels and rear anti-tip castors, appear alongside racing chairs and handbikes. An International Paralympic Committee feature from April 2013 noted that, beyond size rules, basketball-chair designers face few restrictions, and that recent advances had come mostly in materials and welding. Makers often show their chairs with Paralympic athletes and club teams, and some sponsor sports associations.

The trade meets at fairs. REHACARE in Düsseldorf describes itself as a trade fair for rehabilitation, prevention, inclusion and care, with its next edition set for September 2027; in the United States, Medtrade serves the home medical equipment trade. This guide sets out what can be checked about each brand — who founded it, who owns it and where it says its chairs are made — and marks clearly what rests only on the company’s own word.

A strong brand kept intact inside Permobil.

On 28 May 2014 the Swedish power-wheelchair maker Permobil, based in Timrå, announced that it had acquired TiLite. Permobil’s chief executive, Jon Sintorn, said TiLite “contributes perfectly” to a strategy of building a healthcare company for people with complex rehabilitation needs; David Lippes, then TiLite’s chief executive, said the two companies shared “a focus on innovation and customization for the user.”

The two had worked together before. Mobility Management reported that in September 2013 TiLite had named Permobil as its representative in Canada, followed in October by Florida and Puerto Rico, and that in 2007, at the International Seating Symposium, Permobil, TiLite and The ROHO Group had launched Users First, a group advocating for wheelchair users’ rights. With the purchase, Permobil also took on TiLite’s Out-Front products, including the Natural-Fit handrim and the SmartWheel measuring tool.

Permobil said it would keep the name. Its marketing manager, Barry Steelman, told Mobility Management that Permobil sales representatives would take over TiLite sales from 1 July 2014, but that “we’re not going to change the TiLite brand whatsoever,” calling it a brand with “a lot of equity.” More than a decade later TiLite remains a named brand inside Permobil, alongside its power chairs and seating, and each model on Permobil’s website carries the TiLite name in front of its own.

For a design guide, TiLite shows how a product brand can carry its maker’s engineering story — titanium, bicycle geometry and a frame built for one person — into a larger group without losing its name. Compare Permobil, the Swedish group that owns it, and Motion Composites, another maker of lightweight manual chairs. For this guide we use titanium grey, brushed silver and an anodised green with a condensed sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep TiLite’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.