Dr. Charles Baycroft Inventor of Formthotics
He developed and created Formthotics, the worlds first customisable semi-rigid orthotics in 1979. Dr. Charles Baycroft, born and obtained his medical degree in Canada but chose to live and practice in New Zealand, first as a GP but later concentrated on sports medicine and in fact founded the first sports medicine clinic in that sports loving country, found that the casted orthotics then the only ones available, did not suit his purpose in treating high expectation athletes, because the casted rigid orthotics were uncomfortable to use, needed time to break in", took too long to make, and most discouragingly, they cost too much. To surmount these problems, with helpful inputs from podiatrist associates, athletes and others like world renowned distance running coach, Arthur Lydiard, as well as his own considerable practical experience and knowledge which included training in musculoskeletal medicine, he developed and created Formthotics, the worlds first customisable semi-rigid orthotics in 1979. Since then many have imitated Formthotics but only Formthotics are truly re-moldable as Formthotics are manufactured from individually milled blocks of PE foam, as opposed to the majority of the imitations which are made by the cheaper process of compression-molding EVA blanks that results in a dead product and not really re-mouldable, as EVA will try to go back to the old shape unless high temperature and pressure are used. FUNCTIONAL DIRECT MOLDING is the innovative procedure that is used in the Formthotic fitting process. It is a truly repeatable and accurate moulding procedure as the users own feet are used directly in the moulding process as opposed to the indirect method used in the traditional casting process where a positive cast, made from a negative one of the foot initially, is used. It is also functional molding in that the molding is done with the user standing directly on the heated insoles with the feet adjusted in the functionally efficient neutral position, the accepted ideal position at the midstance of gait of the fully supporting leg. There are other methods in the market that are claimed to be computer-aided and that the orthotics are customized and produced after a computer-aided analysis of the feet. Most times, however, only a computer generated or scanned image of the sole of the foot is shown with seemingly impressive details like low or high arches and pressure spots, but the question is how do you reproduce and transfer these details with any degree of accuracy from a 2-D image to the 3-D finished orthotic. Even in a true Cad-Cam system, imaging the foot in the functionally efficient neutral position with any degree of accuracy is neither easy nor consistently reproducible. Buy FORMTHOTICS click here