CIONIC's Neural Sleeve Makes TIME Magazine's Best Inventions of 2023

In 2018, a man named Jeremiah Robison found himself confronted with a frustrating situation. His daughter Sofia, who has a diagnosis of cerebral palsy, needed better mobility assistance options that went beyond the limitations of wheelchairs, walkers, and crutches. After realizing there were no better options available, Robison set out to build his own creation that could help people with mobility issues move better and safely—and thus—CIONIC was born.

CIONIC is a neurotechnology start-up on a mission to build mobility devices that empower people to transcend physical limitations and improve their quality of life. The company has headquarters in San Francisco and a factory location in Scotts Valley, CA. The first product the company produced is a piece of bionic clothing infused with Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) called the CIONIC Neural Sleeve, which recently made TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2023.

What is the Neural Sleeve?

CIONIC’s Neural Sleeve. Image credit: CIONIC

CIONIC’s Neural Sleeve, which began shipping in January following FDA approval last year, analyzes real-time data from sensors in the fabric and then sends electrical signals to elicit targeted muscle contractions in the legs. The Neural Sleeve aims to help those with mobility concerns like foot drop, ankle inversion, and gait improve their impairments. Foot drop is defined as difficulty in flexing the ankle to lift the foot due to disruptions to the peroneal nerve. This then causes an individual to drag their foot when walking leading to increased instability and risk of falling. Many individuals who have this issue also have ankle inversion that can cause ankle injury because the foot lands on the outside rather than on the inside. CIONIC’s team of clinicians, scientists, engineers, and designers looked into ways to combat these issues and developed a device that monitors and addresses these key concerns: the Neural Sleeve. The Neural Sleeve.

Making Huge Moves

After numerous clinical tests with their Neural Sleeve, 94% of participants showed a positive increase in dorsiflexion at heel strike and 88% of participants showed a positive improvement to ankle inversion during swing.

The garment was cleared by the FDA last year and began shipping in January 2023. Despite this short timeframe, the company has raised around $25m in its series A round, and most importantly, the garment is already making a huge difference in people’s lives.

We are on the precipice of a global mobility crisis. 14% of adults in the US have impaired mobility, projected to be 20% by 2050 globally. Impaired mobility impacts physical safety, mental health, and direct/indirect costs that increase as mobility declines. There needs to be more innovation, faster. In research, we saw a 94% improvement in mobility in the lab, as well as a 60% reported reduction in severe pain and a 75% reduction in anxiety and depression in a longer-term study. CIONIC customers are already living more freely and independently, and our technology is powered by our proprietary neuromodulation platform which means we can provide more solutions addressing the full spectrum of human mobility in the future.- Jeremiah Robison, Founder and CEO