The idea for EZEC® came to Andy in 2013. While out on a training run for an ultra-marathon, Andy tripped and lost consciousness. After coming to, slightly worse for wear, he found his way home. While retelling the story to running friends days later, he was met with gasps and pleas to get an ID bracelet. After surveying the options, he knew that he could come up with something better, and the seed for EZEC® was planted.
As Andy was preparing to launch a line of smart EZEC® jewelry, he was involved in a car accident that resulted in a serious neck and traumatic brain injury. Unable to think clearly in the immediate aftermath, he could not articulate that he needed medical assistance and was allowed to drive home, narrowly avoiding another disaster on the way. After 20 procedures on his neck and hundreds of hours of physical and cognitive therapy over several years, he slowly regained his mental focus and clarity. With renewed urgency, he began to work on EZEC once again, recognizing that the simple step of alerting his emergency contacts would have removed him from peril and gotten him much needed medical attention in the immediate aftermath of his injury. These experiences drive his desire to create a new standard of medical ID for the 21st century.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
While Andy was born in New Jersey into a family very well represented in business, art, science and the medical fields, he grew up in Marietta, OH, on the Ohio River in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. His interest after high school was sports medicine with an eye towards orthopedics. During his college studies, he found a love for the art and craft of jewelry and, instead, decided to pursue it as a career.
Initially hired as a diamond setter for a mid-sized manufacturer, over the past 35 years, Andy has worked in most facets of the jewelry industry. Since the turn of the century, he has called Denver, Colorado home. In 2002 he opened a small custom jewelry studio in the posh Cherry Creek shopping district and developed a small loyal retail following, A DeMarco Designs has also been extensively contracted by notable and award-winning jewelry and luxury firms.
Andy holds a GIA Diamonds Graduate Diploma and Basic, Advanced, and 3Shaper CAD certificates from 3Design. A DeMarco Designs has been a member of MJSA since 2007.