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Founder Spines

Menno Streefland

My name is Menno Streefland. I was born on June 2, 1995, in Nijmegen. After my studies in Business Administration, Management, Economics, and Law, I worked as a business developer. I am an avid winter sports enthusiast. I would like to take you along in the story, the story of both me and Spines.

The accident

In the second weekend of January 2023, I went skiing with a few friendly colleagues on the Austrian slopes of the Zillertal Arena. During a sunny Saturday morning, I took a hard fall while descending. I hit an ice patch, which caused me to lose my balance and fly off the side of the slope. I fell about 10 meters and landed on a hard surface. Once in the snow, I realized that I couldn't move my lower body anymore. I tried to get up, but I couldn't. In a panic, I called my friendly colleagues, parents, and girlfriend, asking if a helicopter could please come…

After a flight of less than 18 minutes with the helicopter, I arrived at the hospital in Innsbruck. There, I was operated on immediately. It turned out that I had a shattered vertebra , which was replaced during the operation by a spinal fusion (a kind of bridge).

The doctor told my family that there was no chance  of recovery: my lower body would remain paralyzed for the rest of my life. But when I woke up the next morning from my anesthesia, I miraculously felt some sensation in my legs! The spinal cord injury turned out to be incomplete, , which meant that recovery was indeed possible! But the question then, and still now, is how far will my recovery go?

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The rehabilitation

In total, I spent two weeks in the hospital in Innsbruck. After that, I was transferred to the Radboud UMC in Nijmegen. There, I stayed for another two weeks until a bed became available for me at De Hoogstraat, a rehabilitation clinic in Utrecht.

Eventually, I followed an intensive and inpatient rehabilitation process until the end of May, which is about three and a half months, including physical therapy, occupational therapy, swimming lessons, social work, driving lessons, cooking classes… They even taught me how to dress myself independently.

At the end of May 2023, I was allowed to move back home in Utrecht, after which I started daily physiotherapy to continue working on my recovery.
Six weeks after the accident, there was movement in my left big toe. The beginning was there, and that gave me a huge boost of motivation. To this day, I train intensively – and I'm making progress. Want to follow my recovery process? You can do that through my Instagram account @mennostreefland.

The idea "Spines"

I can, and may, train day in and day out for my recovery. I realize that this is an enormous privilege. In the Netherlands, healthcare is so well organized and that contributes to the recovery. In the meantime, I have regained several functions in my lower body. I'm still far from where I hope and want to be, but we are well on our way. Thanks in part to your help and donations.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of people for whom that is not the case. And of course, I would also prefer to recover 100% again. To make this possible, but also to prevent more people from having to go through what happened to me, I started Spines . With Spines we develop and sell back protectors for winter sports, equestrian sports, motorsports, and mountain biking. In the meantime, I have gathered a small team around me and we are working together on our mission: to protect more people while they are sports and at the same time contribute to research on recovery from spinal cord injuries. Wearing a helmet is already very normal among the Dutch, but a back protector is not yet.

We hope to change that by not only developing good protection but also raising more awareness. A part of every sold back protector goes to spinal cord injury research. Because unfortunately, there is still no medicine or solution to this day.

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The trip to China

The first trip to China, for the purchase of the first season, took place in the summer of 2024. After a successful first season with 12,000 sold back protectors and a donation amount of €180.000 , we went back in March 2025 with the lessons from the first winter in our pocket! Despite the fact that the back protector was already well received, there were still some adjustments: a more luxurious Velcro, more detailed booklets about the product, extra information about the donations.

The growth also brought its share of lessons. For instance, we learned early on how important it is to consider the Chinese New Year in production and inventory management. Where we previously thought that summer was early enough, the annual trip to arrange the purchases quickly changed to spring, because if we arrange the purchases in time, we have products in stock earlier and customers need to rely less often on a pre-order.In addition to our well-known black back protector, the Spines Original, we are now also introducing models in different colors and prints. With this, we want to show that safety doesn't have to be boring. We are proud to say that after the winter season, we have been able to donate 25/26 €900,000 to research on spinal cord injury recovery!

People sometimes doubt the quality of production in China. I want to say that this is not about the country, but about the materials used. Spines produces with high-quality fabric, the right zippers, and rubbers for optimal finishing. A product that feels luxurious is luxurious because the right materials have been used; a craftsman also needs the right screws.

Our factory in China is run by a couple in their fifties. In the summer of 2025, they came to the Netherlands to visit us, and we hope to welcome them again next year.Not because it's important for the product, but because it's special that we are trying to get everyone, everywhere up the mountain more safely together.

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Safer sports

In the meantime, I'm working with a small team to get as many people safely up the mountain as possible. After two fantastic seasons (thanks to you), we are super motivated to get even more people safely up the mountain next season and, thanks to these purchases, to be able to donate a nice amount again. Together with Dominique, Ellis, Charlotte, and Wouter, I work on this every day. But not just with them. Our ambassadors in the Netherlands and beyond also help us protect everyone, everywhere. Here’s to a world where back protectorare the norm, and yes: they can be pretty cool too!

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