A sturdy house needs a strong foundation. The same is true of our health. This is why Baliston is committed to improving wellness by supporting the body’s foundation: your feet.
For those with foot and ankle problems, insoles are likely nothing new. Typically made from foams or plastics, insoles are special, often customized shoe inserts that provide additional support for the feet and ankles. With evidence of insoles dating back 2000 years ago, modern-day insoles are light, flexible, and strong, improving your body’s foundation by buttressing weaknesses, cushioning impact, and correcting misalignments like overpronation and oversupination.
Despite their benefits, the majority of shoes don’t include an effective insole. Many of today’s shoe models are now sold with a standard catch-all insole that may improve only some users’ structural integrity. However, because of their uniformity, catch-all insoles have limited benefits and are unlikely to address every wearer’s needs.
To level up the quality, Baliston combines advanced biomechanical data with the curated knowledge of healthcare professionals that specialize in insole application, offering carefully designed support for areas of the foot that many modern-day insoles frequently ignore. In addition to providing arch support, Baliston products also support the big toe, heel and forefoot. Support for all three of these parts is critical, and Baliston addresses all of them.
Baliston’s insoles provide wearers with something entirely new: a structural support of the foot’s first ray, more commonly known as the big toe, adapted to the wearer’s specific walking profile. According to Baliston’s Director of Clinical Application and Movement Science, Dr. Chris Proulx, the big toe is essential to the health of both your forefoot and heel, and enhancing the big toe’s walking motion is key for overall foot and lower body wellness.
By adding this supportive structure for your big toe, this type of Baliston insole unlocks the Windlass Mechanism in your foot, a natural movement of the medial longitudinal arch, which is the curve from the big toe to the heel on the inside of the foot. The Windlass Mechanism is essential for shock absorption and efficient distribution of force through the rest of the foot. Health professionals have observed that improper function of the medial longitudinal arch can affect ailments like plantar fasciitis and bunions.
Unfortunately, even for a healthy foot, much of the Windlass Mechanism’s beneficial effects are lost when wearing shoes. Even though shoes provide our feet with structure and cushioning, our bodies didn’t evolve with shoes. We evolved to walk and run barefoot, and to use our foot’s natural tensions to spring forward and absorb shock. Even with all the progressive footwear innovation today, shoes can inhibit some of the natural movements of our feet, causing us to lose out on natural benefits like the Windlass Mechanism.
Unlike other insoles, the Baliston insoles don’t dismiss these natural mechanisms– they strengthen them. By providing structural support to the big toe that is specifically designed to supplement the Windlass Mechanism, users get both the best parts of a smart shoe and unlock the best features of their natural biomechanics. Addressing this component of foundational wellness can decrease pain and fatigue, increase performance, and lessen the chance of developing ailments like plantar fasciitis and bunions.
Many insoles are prescription-based, determined by static measurements or moldings of the foot. When patients require an adjustment to improve athletic performance from their feet or ankles or experience pain related to poor foot structure, they are prescribed on a case-by-case basis. However, the problem with this approach is that it is reactive, addressing issues only once they have become so pronounced as to require professional involvement.
Leaders of the industry like Baliston and Digitsole are spearheading new developments in shoe technology to identify and address issues before they impact movement and wellness. Using advanced biometrics captured directly from the wearer’s feet, their products can proactively combat foot pain, improve the foundational structure, and enhance the quality of your walking technique.
Baliston offers the first footwear product to measure the dynamic function of walking in an approach tailored to your unique walking profile, enabling the creation of insoles fitted specifically for how your foot works within a shoe. While supportive, comfort insoles are not typically sold along with a shoe, the sensor modules embedded in Baliston shoes capture biomechanical data that helps identify the right insoles for their members feet, which is delivered to them, for free, after sufficient biomechanical info is collected.
When you buy your first shoe at Baliston, you get an excellent baseline insole, providing your foot with the support most shoes on the market simply can’t offer. When your shoe’s cushioning has worn down to roughly 50 percent, usually about 2-3 months into the purchase for most users, you get a data-driven, fitted Baliston insole free of charge with our unique membership model.
Baliston understands that proper movement requires a strong foundation. Through innovative technology, medical expertise, and a personalized approach
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