Wait a minute here Kevin, she's a barefoot trainer, aligns herself with shoe companies as a consultant but advocating orthotics (let me guess, she has a financial interest in SOLS?)?
Does this appear a bit professionally bipolar to anyone else?
Kevin - I first came across that website a few days ago. Had
to have a laugh at the name: "evidence based fitness academy" ... I spent a lot of time searching the site for the evidence. All I could find were a lot of statements contradicted by the evidence ... go figure.
I'm astounded by Kegan Schouwenburg's level of ignorance on orthotic therapy within Podiatry... obviously influenced by her visit to a Podiatrist 20 or so years ago (who apparently issued her "clunky orthotics")... she now rests her logic/reasoning on this experience & subsequent antiquated world view on this topic which now conveniently suits her business agenda quite nicely... seemingly without doing a quick internet search to find that various digital foot capturing techniques & various 3D printing techniques have been used within Podiatry for years. Yes, not all Podiatrists use these techniques for various reasons i.e. cost, familiarity with the technology. However, many capture an adequate negative model/image (based on experience & skill)... assess the patient's footwear & prescribe an orthotic accordingly... & yes, less "clunky" than what some may be familiar with... to then fit into a more narrow, shallower dress shoe Kegan. BTW... some dress/fashionable shoes will not tolerate any extra forefoot material, thus orthotics of varying lengths, shapes, thickness etc... have been around a long time to accommodate for such varying footwear styles... yes, even longer than 20 years. So there may quite possibly have been an expectation/communication issue between an 8 - 9 year old girl & her Podiatrist (20 or so years ago) - which is hardly a surprising possibility :eek: - &/or... maybe a convenient story/account to use for your insole marketing hype (just a thought).
Well that above media report on Sols is a shocker on many accounts i.e....
From my experience, orthotics have been anything but a "senior citizen accessory" (i.e. how old was the Sols founder when she got her "clunky orthotics" - 8 or 9 years old per chance?)
BTW... maybe it's just me - but I don't find Sols "sexy"... in fact, I don't find any orthotic "sexy" or "unsexy" for that matter (I'm just not that way inclined)!
I couldn't be bothered with the other hype within the article; it sort of reminded me of the following heroic snake... after the fish complained to the media that he wasn't drowning after all...
Press Release: Joyfully Walk Into The Holiday Season With SOLS
Lifestyle Brand Launches SOLS 3D Orthotics Street Art Campaign Across NYC Streets
New York, NY (PRWEB) November 25, 2015
I do not think that there would be a single foot orthotic industry veteran who would be surprised at that.
They totally failed to understand the foot orthotics market; their method of capturing the foot model and designing the foot orthotic from a prescription was flawed from the beginning; and they were obviously getting some bad advice from their so-called 'medical advisory board'.
Looks like what I predicted a few yrs ago might have come to fruition - hardly surprising given the approach they took. It was entirely predictable.
Looking at their website, they no longer appear to be offering foot orthotics.
The website is now focusing on footwear design and development - the business going in a different direction.
I wonder how much of their $20 million the venture capitalists got back?
They probably pretty pissed at this one as the failure was entirely predictable and was predicted by many industry veterans whose warnings went unheeded.