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Anyone who has ever played basketball knows that ankle sprains are the most hated, agonizing -- and inevitable -- thing that happens on a basketball court.

As a matter of fact, 25,000 ankle sprains throw players into the emergency room daily. Twisted ankles are the #1 orthopedic injury in the world. The NBA loses $15 million a year while their superstars sit with their foot in an ice bucket and in rehab. And, after a really bad injury, a player never comes back as strong.

Ektio™ Shoes are the first physician-designed athletic shoes that provide rock solid ankle support without inhibiting mobility. The irritation of playing in tape and braces will become a thing of the past (and so is the worry of jumping and landing on someone else's foot).

Since the dawn of Converse All Star high tops in 1917, athletic shoe companies have pondered shoe height. High? Low? Mid? What prevents the ankle from inverting? None of them has seriously attacked or solved the problem.

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It turns out that everyone was looking in the wrong place. This excruciating turning of the ankle happens when the sole of a shoe goes in one direction and the foot in another.

Buy in the UK and Europe from Swish basketball

After sitting out many of his own school games and watching his son go through the same heartbreak, Dr. Barry Katz got on it. He developed a wildly innovative sole with lateral bumpers that act like flat oars on a tipping boat. Additionally, the inner and outer straps marry the foot to the shoe so perfectly that player confidence soars. They are light and agile.

We’re on mission to make ankle sprains a vague memory. And, while we’re at it, we’ll just say it now -- it won’t be long before every shoe is built with this technology.

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We’re not the only ones who think this is groundbreaking. Former NY Knick, John Starks, missed 40 games during his career due to ankle sprains. The first time he saw this shoe, he said, “man, I wish I had this shoe when I was playing.” He liked it so much he is busy getting Ektios™ on as many NBA player’s feet as possible.

While every other shoe company is spending gazillions of dollars telling players why the embroidered lion on the tongue of the shoe makes it worth throwing down $160 bucks, we think, “who cares?”

Real b’ball players want to charge hard. And for the first time, they don’t have to think about ankle support. How much is that worth? When it comes to forgoing the ice bucket forever, does a superstar name on your shoe really matter?

We think not.

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Ektio is the brainchild of basketball-player-turned-orthopedic-radiologist Dr. Barry Katz. When Katz returned to school to earn his MBA at the renowned entrepreneurial program at Babson College, he and fellow classmate, now CFO, Ted Crane, decided to turn it into a bonafide business. After obtaining patents and prototypes, Katz met former NY Knick John Starks and showed him the shoe. One of the first things out of Stark’s mouth was, “man, I wish I had this shoe when I was playing” and he became part of the Ektio team. Others involved in the evolution of Ektio include orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Thomas Nordstrom and podiatric surgeon Dr. Steven Dribben. Pro-athlete shoe designer Omar Bailey, who has designed footwear for companies such as New Balance and Adidas, created the look. David Cox, who has done work for Nike and was the head of Asian development for K-Swiss oversees the manufacturing. Jon Katz, a 24 year old with an accounting degree and a great amount of energy and passion, is heading up the sales and marketing efforts for Ektio.

Buy in the UK and Europe from Swish basketball

Ankle injuries are the most common orthopedic injuries in the world. In basketball, over 90% of serious players have suffered at least one ankle sprain in their lives, often from landing on another player’s foot after a jump. Ankle injuries lead to weeks on the bench and increase the likelihood of further, possibly career-ending, injuries. Financially, the cost can be just as serious; the NBA lost over $455,000 per team in 2009 to ankle injuries—almost $15 million throughout the NBA last year. Yet this is nothing compared to the impact on the U.S. healthcare system overall, which spends $4.2 billion per year on ankle injuries.

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The company’s name comes from the Greek words “ektor” and “alexio,” meaning “defend” and “protect.” And that’s exactly what the Ektio™ shoes do.

Clinical studies

Dr. Katz and his team of medical experts have created a performance shoe that provides an unprecedented level of safety and integrity, preventing ankle inversion while allowing full range of motion in other directions. Together, these features ensure that the foot and shoe move as a single unit, and that the shoe—and the foot—are unlikely to invert to the degree necessary to sprain the ankle.

Ektio shoes were rigorously tested at Drexel University by brace and ankle motion expert Dr. Sorin Seigler, and then at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. Results showed significantly less ankle inversion compared to a standard basketball shoe.

Study performed by Dr. Sorin Seigler, Ph.D. 2/20/10, Drexel University:

The results indicate that the new shoe allows significantly less inversion as compared to a standard basketball shoe. The new shoe was found to have significantly less effect on all other ankle motions, indicating no interference with function in these other directions. Also in preliminary studies with a lace-on brace, it was found that the new shoe provided equivalent support in inversion as the lace-on brace. However, the interference of the Ektio™ shoe with motion in other directions, particularly in internal rotation, was much smaller than that of the lace-on brace.

Study performed by Dr. Howard Hillstrom, 8/2010, Hospital for Special Surgery, NYC

A second study showed that despite the anchoring of the ankle to the shoe, useful ankle motions in activities necessary for basketball (running, jumping and cutting) were not inhibited compared to a standard basketball shoe with and without tape and compared to barefoot athletes.

Prototypes shown to trainers from the New York Knicks, the New Jersey Nets, Philadelphia 76er's, college coaches, and to high school and college players themselves, were received by most with remarkable enthusiasm. Players who try these shoes want them now. Trainers who put them on their players, want them immediately. Former Knicks star and All Star guard John Starks was particularly impressed by Ektios. After getting through 40 ankle sprains in his own career, he's become part of the Ektio team, getting the shoes on NBA players feet. Centenary College was the first to outfit their ball team in Ektios for their 2010 season.

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