Among the medical crutches prescribed to aid ambulatory-challenged persons with medical or physical infirmities, there’s none that has captured the imagination as the walking cane.

They go beyond serving medical needs for assisting mobility needs of handicapped persons. You see them more than just a mere disability aid but have become a lasting fashion accessory across all social strata.

Walking canes for men have figured as a status symbol that the stylish gentry can’t forego with their caped tuxedos when attending white tie affairs and galas. And there are even walking canes for women that have a decidedly slimmer and more feminine design like using more of the colors associated with the fairer sex, like lavender and magenta.

Made from various wood or metal, these canes also come with ancillary functions as a concealed self-defense tool with the cane rod serving to sheath a bladed weapon or fencing foil within.

But there are also canes with less sinister concealment and have functional features like a flash light or remote controls for garage doors. Innovative designs are not rare with these fashion accessories.

You also have telescopic canes that can be stored in attaché cases or gabs and deployed when needed. They may not be as firm and sturdy as solid canes for purely medical ambulatory cases, but they do the job as fashion canes.

Over the years, vaudeville entertainers have been using them together with their top hats on stage dances and night club acts. Movies abound with characters using canes. You have the likes of Fred Astaire and Clark Gable singing and dancing with these canes on screen.

Medically, canes have come a long way from mere straight sticks with a rubber or foam-padded hand grip at one end, curved or angled away from the stick. A French mechanical engineer by the name of Emile Schlick, patented a walking stick design back in 1917 providing an obliquely angled supported at the upper end where the forearm rests.

A similar looking cane was likewise patented in the US by Philipp Cederstom earlier in 1915. And in 1945, you have A.R. Lofstrand, Jr. filing a patent for cane that has an adjustable length. Since the, most forearm crutches have been called Lofstrands canes, elbow crutches or Walk Easies which happens to be a brand name for the maker of these crutches.