For able-bodied people who don’t use wheelchairs, there are things we don’t think about in terms of accessibility. For instance, if you were unable to use your arms or your legs, how would you operate a cellphone? How would you open a door?
Aaron Warren, 27, deftly navigates the world with the help of a 350-pound wheelchair, technology, caregivers, his sharp mind and a sunny outlook.
“My disability is only a part of me,” Warren says. He was born with a genetic neuromuscular condition called spinal muscular atrophy, or SMA. “When I was a toddler, I wasn’t reaching physical milestones,” he says. “I was flimsy and floppy, so my parents sought a diagnosis.” SMA is similar to the commonly known ALS, wherein the body’s muscles become weaker over time, although with SMA that process is slower.
“Doctors said I wouldn’t survive past the age of three,” he says. “So far I’ve surpassed that prediction by 24 years. Every birthday means a lot to me. It’s one of my favorite days of the year. There’s a stigma around disabilities and I try to dismantle them."
Warren grew up in Fayetteville, Tennessee and after graduating high school moved with his mother to Murfreesboro. He lived with a girlfriend for five years and when that relationship ended, he got his own apartment, equipped with a button installed near the floor that he can hit with his footrest to open the door. Three caregivers and a nurse rotate staying with him around the clock. “I take 30 minutes each day to be by myself, but other than that, I’m never alone,” he says. “When I think about that it kind of blows my mind.”
The end of his relationship served as a catalyst for growth. He went back to school and is currently finishing a business degree at Nashville State, where he served as vice president of the student body. He works as a freelance accessibility tester to determine if websites are accessible for those who use voice control, like he does, to browse the internet.
This past November he launched the company, Zipped Brands, with a mission to provide fashionable footwear for those who can’t wear typical shoes. “I’ve always been a fashion and a sneaker guy,” he says, “but I couldn’t wear the shoes my friends wore. I tried, but I don’t have strength in my toes and they bend backwards trying to get them on. Wearing shoes was so painful.”
Last fall Warren came up with the idea to install zippers around a pair of Nikes so he could get them on his feet. He took the idea to a friend, Oliver Garner, a cobbler who owns The Shoe Man with Angel’s Custom Creations in Smyrna. “The first pair we tried wasn’t what I wanted, so I asked Oliver to try again and with the second pair and I was in love," Warren says. "We partnered up, have a patent pending on the design and now we’re business owners. It’s all moving so fast it’s unbelievable.”
The company modifies shoes made from leather, faux leather or suede. They do sneakers, Doc Martens, cowboy boots, combat boots, dress shoes, and soon they’ll offer modification for canvas brands such as Converse and Vans. Customers order shoes from the Zipped Brands website or request a shoe they prefer. Soon, they’ll be able to send in shoes they already own. For now, the
company orders the shoes, installs the zippers and ships the finished product. “Our first international sale came from Germany and after that, things snowballed,” Warren says. “We have customers from as far away as Australia. People resonate with what we’re doing and I love it."
When he shared a post about his company in the Franklin, Tennessee Facebook group, his post generated close to 16,000 likes, 1,400 comments and almost 30,000 shares. “The admin reached out to tell me it was the most-viewed post in the group’s history.” He has since appeared on local news and talk shows and gained followers interested in accessible footwear on his popular social media accounts.
“I’m not in this for big profits but the business needs to sustain itself," he says. "One of our goals is to partner with brands to make the shoes more affordable. It’s all legal because we’re providing a service. We’re not selling products. We’re establishing a new market for the brands.”
The shoes fill a void for not only the 10,000 Americans living with SMA, but also for people with disabilities such as multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, neuropathy, stroke patients, and those who wear ankle-foot orthosis (AFO) braces. “We have eight AFO customers right now,” he says. “I’m a one-man show, with the exception of the contracted labor. I do all of the business outreach, marketing, accounting and social media.”
When he’s not working, which is rare, Warren creates TikTok videos using an iPhone with a voice app called Remote Mouse. He takes a daily walk, or “stroll,” around his tidy apartment complex, and he enjoys going out to eat, to the mall, and recently he tried ice skating. “That didn’t go so well,” he says. “The ice was so smooth and I was worried I’d go spinning around the rink.”
His family all live close enough to get together and a light of his life is his two-year-old niece, Lila Jean. “She’s a spitfire,” he says. “She has red hair like me.”
Aaron’s favorite hobby is what he calls “conversating,” talking to people and getting to know them. His nurse, Sherry, says that sometimes people will address her, or whoever is with Aaron, when they ask him a question. “People equate physical disabilities with mental disabilities, but obviously Aaron is a grown man and can speak for himself.”
His engaging conversating and upbeat outlook are infectious. He attributes his positivity to his mother, Donna. “She’s loving and compassionate and taught me that I can do everything I want to do. She treated me like my able-bodied brother and sister and didn’t hold me back. People expect me to say my life is boring,” he says, “but this is my normal. It’s all I know. My disability isn’t a bad thing. It’s only hard when the world isn’t designed for disabled people.” He doesn’t let that get him down.
“Now is the best time to live with a disability and I’ll preach that all day long," he says. "Thirty years ago we could hardly leave the house. Today, we’re able to do more, thrive more, and we need to keep going. While some view the world as becoming more difficult, I see things getting better in terms of accessibility and inclusion. I really believe that.”
He hopes it won’t be long before he can travel by flight. He’d like to attend an annual SMA Conference at a Disney park, but traveling is stressful for those who rely on wheelchairs and have to stow them in cargo. “This chair is part of me, it’s my legs, it’s how I function," he says. "If a disabled person’s chair is damaged, that’s a huge problem.” There’s talk in the disabled community of airlines working to include wheelchair seating, and Warren is hopeful it will come to fruition. He could go to Disney, immerse in other cultures and follow his dream of public speaking. His goal is to deliver a TED talk.
When asked if he has considered bringing Zipped Brands to the TV show Shark Tank, he and Sherry both laugh. “I’ll bet at least 200 people have told me to go on Shark Tank," he says. “I have no idea how to even do that. If anyone knows how to audition, I’m willing to try!”
To learn more about Zipped Brands and order shoes, visit ZippedBrands.com. Warren can be found on TikTok as “aaronwarrennn,” on Instagram as Aaronwarrenn and on Facebook under Zipped Brands.