Alpine Bearing customer story: Skip’s wearable tech helps people walk with less effort and more comfort

MO/GO™ movewear fights gravity to give users’ knees a boost

We all wish we could transcend our limitations sometimes, whether that means climbing a bigger mountain or wishing an old knee injury could handle taking the stairs. Alpine Bearing customer Skip has developed a new type of technology called movewear to make this wish come true. 

Skip’s first movewear product, MO/GO, a pair of pants with a robotic knee assist, provides up to a 40 percent power boost on the way up stairs and hills. On the way down, it gently supports the knees. MO/GO users can go farther with less effort and strain. Each actuator in the device uses six precision bearings from Alpine Bearing. Talk about power walking! 

A tech startup born at Google X 

Skip co-founder Kathryn Zealand’s mom dreamed of hiking the Scottish Highlands. Unfortunately, she had mobility issues, so the beautiful hills and mountains were too steep for her to enjoy. Zealand wished she could make the highlands accessible to her mom. 

Luckily, Zealand worked at X, Google’s incubator for innovative technologies. X supports experimental ‘moonshot’ projects that might spin off into startups. Zealand and product expert Anna Roumiantseva teamed up to use machine learning, AI, and sensors to augment human movement and design a new consumer product category around it. In total, twelve people joined the team, including roboticist Andy Metzger. Together, they narrowed the movewear concept into their first product, the MO/GO. 

In January 2023, the founders and team launched the startup Skip to pursue venture funding and bring the world’s first movewear product to market. 

“Movewear is wearable tech that helps people move better,” Metzger said. “Whether someone is trying to recover mobility as they age or dealing with an old injury, we want to make it more comfortable and enjoyable to stay active.” 

Bringing joy back to movement, one joint at a time 

The Skip team chose to create movewear for the knee first for a number of reasons. They heard repeatedly that the most intense movement need – the thing most people found hardest in their day-to-day – was inclines and stairs, which are very knee-focused activities. Knees are also simpler to design for because they move in fewer directions than joints like hips or shoulders. And, the knee is a hardworking joint, prone to injuries and chronic pain. 

Metzger described MO/GO as “an e-bike for hiking”. It doesn’t replace the function of the knee. Instead, it adds power so users can go farther than they could unassisted. 

MO/GO is currently a recreational device, but Skip is collecting data for FDA approval. With FDA approval, doctors will be able to prescribe MO/GO and insurance will eventually cover its cost. MO/GO has the potential to treat many different kinds of knee pain, ranging from osteoarthritis to meniscus damage and beyond. It might even help patients put off or avoid knee replacement surgery. For now, Skip customers can purchase MO/GO themselves online to make hiking and walking easier on their joints, like they would a pair of hiking poles or an ebike. 

Sourcing bearings throughout the startup journey 

Skip and Alpine Bearing have worked together since the early days. Metzger first met Alpine VP of Product Strategy JC Calvagna while working for a startup designing humanoid robots. Since then, Calvagna has sourced bearings for all of Metzger’s projects. 

“It’s impossible for someone like me to know everything about the huge world of bearings,” Metzger said. “I’ll come up with some ideas, but JC always asks the right questions to dial in the exact solution I need. It makes a huge difference.” 

Skip has used a variety of bearings from Alpine as its team iterated on the MO/GO prototype, from needle roller and airframe control to thin section and deep groove. Alpine added shields and filled bearings with specific lubricant to provide customized bearings to fit Skip’s movewear application. 

Skip manufactured a small fleet of beta MO/GO assemblies leading up to the public beta launch at the Arc’teryx Academy in Squamish, BC in August and has been offering rental experiences at national parks in the western US ever since. Hundreds of testers have enjoyed the ease of hiking with the MO/GO and have quickly become fans. 

Metzger said, “The stories people have been sharing with us after trying MO/GO have been incredibly heartwarming. I never thought I’d get that kind of sentiment from robotics.” 

Skip is integrating feedback into its designs and updating its manufacturing processes to scale to thousands of units. The company can’t cut corners on bearings if it wants its products to last a long time, but it also needs to solve for affordability. 

“As we are looking to scale up, a lot of our work with Alpine has been finding substitutes that are significantly cheaper or easier to get at scale and can be worked into our new designs without compromising the integrity,” Metzger said. “It’s a good challenge!” 

What’s next for Skip Innovations

While Skip scales up the knee MO/GO, they’re taking on even more challenges.  The startup is working on medical R&D for a hip exoskeleton to help people with Parkinsons improve their gait. Other joints are on the table too. Ankles and elbows will be particularly difficult with their dexterity and many degrees of freedom, but Metzger said the challenge is worth it because of the pain it could relieve and the fun it could enable. Unlike the workplace-oriented types of exoskeleton on the market today, Skip’s movewear is all about joy! 

“We hope people will look to MO/GO as something to bring with them to enjoy their day,” Metzger said. “A lot of the best views are at the top of a steep hike. When you visit Yosemite with your grandkids, Skip can help you keep up with them and see those views together. Our vision is a world where nobody is left behind at the trailhead.” 

The Alpine Bearing team is looking forward to working with Skip as it progresses to mass production. If you want to follow Skip’s progress or see when a MO/GO event is coming to your area, follow skip_with_joy on Instagram. And if you’re looking for bearings for your prototype or expert advice on choosing bearings for a large-scale manufacturing BoM, contact one of Alpine’s sales engineers.