Welcome to Starter Pack, a gear-obsessed sequence that provides WIRED readers a peek into how notable personalities stay, store, and tinker.
When he was 27, snow cross racer Mike Schultz (who obtained the nickname “Monster Mike” due to his famend fearlessness) drifted off beam in a race, flew off his snowmobile, and obliterated his knee. It required a number of surgical procedures and a number of days in a coma to save lots of his life. In the end, his medical crew needed to amputate his leg.
Quite than quit his love of motion sports activities, Schultz engineered his personal prosthetic knee and based his personal high-performance prosthetic firm, BioDapt. His prostheses use a patented proprietary linkage system and mountain bike shocks to dial in such exact efficiency, enabling him to return to compete on the highest ranges of the game. Since 2008, he has gained a number of Winter Paralympics and World Championships for adaptive snowboard cross and banked slalom.
Extra importantly, nevertheless, excessive athletes, amputees, and veterans all use his prosthetics. That features a lot of his rivals, whose gear he generally finally ends up repairing proper earlier than an occasion. “You never get the temptation to, you know, ‘fix’ a competitor’s Moto Knee?” I requested him over Zoom when WIRED caught up with him for a couple of minutes at coaching camp for the 2026 Paralympic Video games. (I additionally made a bit of wrenching gesture.)
“I just tell them, ‘Yeah, I’m sorry, there’s actually a recall on this one. I’ll get it back to you in April,’” Schultz says. “Make sure you put the ‘just kidding’ part in when you write that!” Right here’s what Schultz is bringing to Cortina.
His Prothesis
Abnormal prostheses are superb for strolling round and going to the grocery retailer. However for snowboard cross—a sport the place you fly over jumps and take hairpin turns at excessive speeds—you want a rugged, sturdy device that may stand up to low temperatures, endure bodily abuse, and take in exact ranges of stress shortly. Schultz’s Moto Knee 2 and Versa Foot 2 are each tuned exactly for the occasion. “The alignment is crucial, otherwise you’re not going to be able to roll over to your toe edge or heel edge to make a turn,” Schultz says. “Changes in an angle by half or a quarter turn on a set screw are noticeable. Having those alignment options on my snowboard leg is crucial for that ultimate performance.”
The Helmet
Giro
Owen Spherical MIPS Helmet
After his board, the primary piece of security gear that Schultz at all times has is his helmet. He would not know the model; I checked out it within the Zoom when he held it up. It’s a Giro-brand snow-sports-specific spherical helmet with Mips (an acronym for Multi-directional Influence Safety System) that reduces rotational impression and mind trauma within the occasion of a crash.
A Good Multi-Instrument
“As an amputee athlete, my toolkit is extremely important,” Schultz says. He at all times carries each a whole device equipment with a whole spare equipment for each prostheses, together with spare nuts and bolts in case he has to rebuild all the factor from scratch in 5 minutes. “It’s all ready to go in case I have an issue, like a crash or a break or something,” he says. Along with Allen wrenches, a crescent wrench, and pliers, he additionally retains his Gerber multi-tool in his equipment. This one is mild, pocketable, and has instruments that you should regulate snowboard bindings, like screwdrivers.
The Board
Schultz has labored with Donek Snowboards for his total racing profession; he’ll in all probability deliver six Donek B-1s to Cortina. His prostheses work so effectively that proper now, he is driving an ordinary racing board constructed to his dimensions. “Earlier on, we tried doing custom work with torsional resistance to accommodate, you know, me as an amputee and having less control with my ankle pedaling or my ankle pressure,” Schultz says. “But right now, I’m running all the standard flex patterns.”
His Lucky Bear
Schultz never goes anywhere without his Lucky Bear. His daughter, Lauren, was 4 or 5 (she’s 12 now) and she snuck Lucky Bear into his bag behind his back for his first snowboard cross competition. “I was like, man, he’s this big!” Schultz says, gesturing. “I don’t have room for Lucky Bear! I gotta bring spare legs and stuff!” It seems that Lauren was proper, and Schultz has been a world champion in a number of adaptive sports activities—snow bike, snow cross, snowboard cross, and motocross—ever since.
“The coolest part about Lucky Bear is now Lauren is competing in gymnastics, so she has her own mini Lucky Bear that goes into her backpack every time she competes,” Schultz says. And of course, they match. He has a big one, and she has a small one.
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