What is Plantar Fasciitis?
At its most basic level, Plantar Fasciitis is inflammation of the thick band of tissue, or fascia, that runs along the bottom of your foot from the heel bone to your toes. Stress on this area can cause small tears to the fascia, which then becomes inflamed as daily activity continues to stress the arch of the foot. Damage to the fascia causes pain which is most frequently and excruciatingly felt in the morning with your first few steps of the day, and can also be felt during activity. Whenever you stand, walk, or run, your feet absorb the stress of...
5 Questions With Alleviate’s Award-Winning Designer
Not only is the Loft brace functional, it is also recognized internationally as a great design. In March 2022, the Alleviate Loft brace won a Red Dot Design Award in the medical products category. Considered one of the most prestigious awards in the design industry, the Red Dot honors the talents of design professional.
With this most recent win, Sean McDowell, Alleviate Co-Founder, Product Designer, and shoe industry veteran, has now won four Red Dot Design Awards in his career. The previous three were awarded for Sean’s work at Nike, including the Victory Track Spike that debuted at the 2008 Olympic games. Sean joined the team at Alleviate to design products that help Plantar Fasciitis patients reclaim what moves them.
The Science behind The Alleviate System for Plantar Fasciitis
The Arch Massager: Inventing a solution for at-home plantar fasciitis care
Luke Ferdinands, PT and Alleviate Founder I've been a physical therapist to elite athletes and chronic pain sufferers for almost 20 years, and I've always used the latest research to guide my treatment protocols. For patients with chronic foot pain, plantar fasciitis, and heel spurs, science shows that Instrument-Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization effectively reduces pain by facilitating the healing of painful scar tissue. With IASTM, a physical therapist uses a specialized instrument (usually steel) in place of their hands to deliver a more acute, more specific massage treatment to problematic soft tissue. Read more about the science behind IASTM here. I found that my plantar fasciitis patients’ ideal treatment...
The Science Behind Plantar Fasciitis Massage
by Rick McMullen, Alleviate Founder There are a lot of home foot massage products out there—most of which feel pretty darn good when you rub a sore foot on them—ranging in price from five to several hundred dollars. So, when we decided to add another one to the mix, we wanted to base our design on scientific principles that deliver superior results. Looking beyond the hurts-so-good effect of deep tissue massage, we set out to create a tool that eliminates the root cause of plantar fasciitis pain. When we first designed the Arch Massager, we wanted to combine the benefits...