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:: home : our approach : |
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An integral part of our work in making feet happy is to create a workable interface
between your feet and the ground in such a way as to alleviate pain and dysfunction. This is a similar concept to using prescription eyeglasses
to correct faulty vision.
Usually this interface is accomplished with custom orthotics placed in your shoes, at times we make alterations to off-the-shelf footwear, and
sometimes we make custom boots to fill your needs.
We are unique in our approach to our work in that we have created a mixture of old-time bootmaking craft skills with up-to-date biomechanical
methods to yield powerful results for our clients/patients. I don't know of anyone else on this continent combining these as I do in my shop/lab. |
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Your Visit to Merrell Footlab |
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In view of our vision of being a foot problem solver, and given the fact that there are
precious few bootmakers left in the U.S., we get clients from all over the country and beyond.
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For a very short time, early on, we accepted custom boot orders by mail. I learned very quickly that to successfully fit difficult feet and to solve bio-mechanical problems I must see the feet "in person." If I would not only measure the feet in person but also choose the correct last, make the necessary alterations to the last and then making a "fitters model" to test the fit on the feet. The satisfaction of our clients soared! As our reputation expanded and our experience grew we received increasingly challenging cases. |
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One day a beautiful idea came to mind. Why not ask our patients with challenging feet to stay around for three or four days, and make the footwear while they are here?
Questions that arise while making the footwear could be answered with the feet in front of me rather that the previous "best guess." And, the boots
would be tried on and walked with me watching so that fine tuning could be accomplished first hand. This is how we now operate. This single idea now
allows us to solve many very difficult cases.
The satisfaction of our clients has risen dramatically from when we were working under the traditional system of "measuring" a pair of feet and filing the information away for months until the scheduled time for the boots to be made.
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Yes, it requires scheduling and commitment from both me and my client, but the outcome is far above conventional methods.
Thus, we require our clients to come here so our work is hands on and no long distance guessing.
On a rare occasion, our clients come for a half-day evaluation/fitting. However, in most cases, our people stay in town for three or four days to allow us to do our work while they are here. |
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After we have our work on their feet, it is requested that our clients spend enough time in them to allow for fine
tuning as necessary. We are essentially a one-person facility. None of the typical of being passed from one technician to another.
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