Sapphire started with a problem.

If you use crutches to get around and you listen to music while you’re at it, how do you do something simple like turning up the volume? A lot of people think it’s no big deal, but someone who uses crutches every day knows how stuff that sounds easy can get complicated really fast.

You could stop, sit down (if you can even find a place to sit!), pull out your phone, change the volume and get up again.

You could balance with one crutch, let go of the other and hope it doesn’t fall while you’re fishing around in your pocket or bag for your phone.

Even headphones with a built-in remote won’t save because you still have to let go of the crutch handle to push the buttons.

And finally, after all that, you have to hope you’re not going to need to do it all over again for the next song.

What. A. Pain.

We thought There should be a better way.

So we made one.

The idea is simple, put a Bluetooth remote control in the crutch handle so you can control your music without having to let go.

The idea is simple, the result is pure awesome.

With Sapphire, you can control the music on your Bluetooth-enabled smartphone with just one finger, and you never have to let go of your crutches..

No sitting. No fumbling. You don’t even have to stop walking.

You can even use it to turn on Siri™ or Google Now™ and answer calls*.

It’s compatible with iOS, Android and Windows 10. It uses Bluetooth, an open standard, and doesn’t require a special app. The battery charges using the same Micro-USB connector used on many modern smartphones.

The electronics and the software are open-source. That means you can change the software to do what you want, and you can use the hardware to do the things you want it to do.

*: device compatibility varies.