Faculty Sells Healthy Shoes and Gets Research Data in Return
The Faculty of Sports Studies of MU has opened a diagnostic and sales centre on its premises. Since December 2015, customers are being offered an opportunity to try on and order J Hanák R shoes which were developed and patented with the assistance of the scientists from FSpS. The centre is more than just a shop – its primary objective is the diagnostics of every individual customer.
Five steps with your right foot and five with the left one. Then it‘s up to the computer to evaluate with extreme precision how one puts pressure on his/her feet. That‘s what the diagnostics in the Laboratory of Biomotorics on the University Campus looks like. Anyone who comes to the new FSpS shop to pick his/her new shoes can undergo the testing. MU employees are tested for free; others have to pay a 100 CZK fee.
"We see the testing as an added value. When someone plans on buying shoes he/she never wore before, this testing is the best way to go," explains Assoc. Prof. Martin Zvonař, the head of the Department of Kinesiology. This way, customers learn about the state of their feet and how it can be improved, while the scientists from FSpS obtain valuable data.
The positive effects of wearing the health shoes take effect as soon as after 3 months. Many customers return to get diagnosed repeatedly. "They‘re interested in what‘s happening to their feet. We‘re then able to tell them, what functional changes occurred in their foot soles," adds Mr. Zvonař.
So far the shop is only open 4 hours a week; however, the faculty is considering whether to extend the opening hours. "The fact that we sell some shoes is a pleasant bonus. For me, as a researcher, the essential part is the data we get," stresses Mr. Zvonař.
Meanwhile, the faculty specialists carry on with other scientific projects focusing on footwear and the way we walk. In January 2016, the Faculty obtained one million CZK from the VZP Health Insurance Company for the research of shoes for the pregnant. This special footwear should prevent the plantar arches of mothers-to-be from falling or alleviate their back pain and foot cramps. If the special footwear for the pregnant proves to be beneficial, the results will have a great application potential. In such case the health insurance company would also consider supporting it. "We could at least give our clients some financial contribution within one of our support programmes," said the manager of VZP Mr. Zdeněk Kabátek.
Diagnostic and Sales Centre of FSpS
Faculty of Sport Studies of MU
University Campus Bohunice, Kamenice 5, Brno 625 00, Building A 34, room 133
Contact: Mgr. Marta Gimunová
E-mail: 358071@mail.muni.cz
Tel.: 728 367 050
