Two weeks ago Ali and I spent a weekend with my good friend Dr. Alan Yoder in Golden Colorado. We visited Thornton, Colorado Springs and Idaho Springs as well. In Idaho springs there is an orthotic maker by the name of Shawn Eno. He is a certified pedorthist and I first made his acquaintance in 2009 at an MPI Gait seminar in Lombard, IL. We had many of the MPI instructors lecturing as well as Peter Breeze of New Balance (then with NIKE). Shawn was the last lecturer and blew us away in terms of content and his understanding of biomechanics and corrections he could make with custom orthotics. At the time Shawn was working with the Gait Guys but now has his own practice called Xtreme Footwerks. It’s located in a historical building in downtown Idaho Springs, CO. I spoke with Shawn at the 2011 MPI Gait Seminar about possibly working with him in making our patients orthotics. When I started working with Dr. Peterson in April, he was very receptive to the idea of us having a true custom orthotic for our patients instead of the Quadrastep system they had been using for a year or so. I dove right in and bought 25 casting boxes and a pedograph and we casted our first patient in June. Since then, I’ve performed something like 40 exams and we have built a ton of orthotics together. The exam Shawn has us perform is beyond impressive. We look at gait, torsional deformities (like twists in the leg bones), foot dynamics, knee/hip orientation etc. The exam takes me about a half hour and then we ship the casts to Shawn where he builds one of the best orthotics out there. He builds an EVA foam orthotic as well as an acrylic (springy) orthotic. He can make any number of modifications to any orthotic we build, making them a true custom solution. Our patients have been overwhelmingly impressed with the orthotics. In my clinic, I see primarily runners and other endurance athletes and they are surprised by how comfortable these orthotics are. I have yet to see an orthotic made by a podiatrist that is actually comfortable enough for a an endurance athlete. Shawn has a great nitch with his orthotics because they are extremely comfortable and corrective at the same time. My wife has been wearing his orthotics for two years and was unable to run without them due to femoral and tibial deformities she has. She’s a huge fan, and I’m a huge fan as well! Without his orthotics I would be unable to do any sort of running or endurance training. The purpose of our trip was for me to refine my examination and learn a few things from Shawn. I also wanted to tour the facility and see what all goes into his orthotic manufacturing so I could share that with our patients back home. I also wanted him to build me a new set of orthotics as I’m planning on training for a 5K this year and want to be able to run it FAST! We spent about three hours with Shawn at Xtreme Footwerks and were blown away by his assessment and manufacturing process. After seeing what he does, I think we should be charging a lot more for these orthotics. I’m glad we’re able to provide them for an affordable cost to our patients, but I think they would be blown away by the care and attention given to every pair of orthotics. Overall it was an incredible experience and Alan and I both learned a ton. We filmed the entire exam and some of the manufacturing process and I may post some of that later on if I find some time. This has been a crazy week as I’m preparing for the Route 66 Marathon expo on Friday and Saturday. I’m also shooting the Route 66 Marathon and 5K’s this weekend so I’ll be posting some of those photos hopefully next week. My practice has been growing by leaps and bounds since September and we feel very blessed that so many people have trusted us in getting them back on the road! -Barnezy-
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