It all started off in a garage, where Hugo Sorg together with his friend Erich Purkott built sports wheelchairs for the basketball players of the Heidelberg wheelchair sports group. That was an absolute novelty at that time and caused a lot of attention. The new sports wheelchairs had to be exceptionally stable and had to cope with the extreme demands of sports competitions. As a result of their experience with these new sports wheelchairs, Sorg and Purkott established lightweight materials in their standard production process and built wheelchairs that set new standards in maneuverability and flexibility. Another novelty of the time established by the two partners was the possibility to select between different colours instead of the usual chrome coating. In 1977 Sorg and Purkott founded the company SOPUR (now part of Sunrise Medical) in Malsch. After ten successful years they decided to go separate ways.