With our feet having one quarter of all the bones in our bodies — fully 52 in total — they’re a veritable minefield of possible maladies. Indeed, feet are a sophisticated configuration, each one with 26 bones, 33 joints, 107 ligaments, 19 muscles and multiple tendons that keep the structure together while facilitating varied movements and mobility.
Unfortunately, the majority of Americans will experience foot health problems of varying degrees of severity at one time or another in their lives. Nearly one-fifth of the U.S. population has an average of 1.4 foot problems each year. That is a lot of foot frustration!
An American Podiatric Medical Association survey revealed that while the vast majority of Americans suffer from foot pain, few people address the issue. One need not be a statistician to extrapolate the bigger picture of poor foot health as an impediment to one’s own quality of life and health. Some problems may include workplace absenteeism, decreased industry productivity, driving difficulty and other collective societal and economic concerns.
Understanding that necessity is the mother of invention, one upside is that today’s consumer marketplace is brimming with problem-solving ingenuity. Highly effective tools are being introduced that can easily and inexpensively help alleviate the angst. One such vendor that has a few noteworthy solutions is The Toe Spacer, which offers foot recovery and mobility tools that, while small, inexpensive and seemingly simple, proffer tremendous benefits that can ease and enhance daily life for all wearers.
“Feet can tell us a lot about the way our body moves, and how our body is feeling, but often enough they don’t get the attention they deserve,”said company co-founder Meryl Baker. “The lack of attention, as well as ill-fitting and narrow shoes, can negatively impact foot health and performance that, longer term, can lead to other physical problems in upward joints like the knee, hip and lower back. So, our foot mobility tools are designed to help people recover; increase flexibility and relieve tension — especially after wearing footwear that, all too often, is big on fashion but short on comfort.”
Even a budget-friendly tool like the company’s flagship Toe Spacer can provide a multitude of benefits. It helps realign the foot to its natural shape, stretch intrinsic foot muscles, improve mobility and balance, enhance toe dexterity, increase foot mobility, relieve foot pain and tension, improve posture and alignment and even alleviate common foot is- sues such as plantar fasciitis, bunions, hammertoes, overlap- ping toes and neuromas.
The company also offers a Therapeutic Rock Mat, which stimulates over 200,000 foot nerve endings and applies pressure to specific parts of the sole of the foot to relieve ten- sion and pain, improve circulation and promote relaxation. The foam mat also helps you to train a natural proprioceptive capacity, an enhanced perception or awareness of the position and movement of the body.
The EI8HTBALL Trigger Point Massage Ball is another useful tool. This highly-effective trigger point massage tool is designed to target hard-to-reach areas without rolling out from under you or catching on your clothing or hair. The EI8HTBALL features a non-sticky coating with added grooves designed to get into those areas that need relief. While the ball is firm, the space between the double fused balls is gentle on the foot arch or spine.
“We believe in the power of strengthening your feet to build a stronger foundation that leads to a vastly more comfortable and injury-free future,” Meryl said. “Our product range is unique and specific to addressing the most common foot injuries while also improving overall foot health. And we pride ourselves on helping people achieve this frugally, without a price tag adding to the pain.”
The company’s entrepreneurial journey is equally compelling. Meryl and Michael are a husband and wife duo with an extensive background in the health and fitness industry and business marketing. They were given the opportunity to move to Hong Kong in 2018 and it was there that they start- ed thetoespacers.com. Both coming from western cultures — Michael is Australian and Meryl is Canadian — they were intrigued and fascinated by the popularity of reflexology and the importance of foot health in the Chinese culture.
“I was surprised to see how often people would get a reflexology foot massage and that there were dedicated rock and pebble areas all over Hong Kong that encouraged people to remove their shoes and activate the pressure points in their feet,”Meryl observed.
After researching and learning about the many benefits of reflexology, they came across a product in the traditional Hong Kong markets that helped improve foot health by encouraging them to spend more time barefoot. With further research and time spent using The Toe Spacer tools, they felt an incredible difference in any pain they were previously experiencing from training, as well as an overall improvement to their feet and wellness.
“We loved the way our feet felt in them and how much it benefitted our workouts and recovery,” she said. “We couldn’t wait to share them with everyone we knew and the more we spoke about feet to other people, the more we realized how much foot pain people live with daily.”
From there, The Toe Spacer journey began as Meryl and Michael shared their knowledge and research through social media to help others. They ultimately developed their own range of products that improve mobility, increase stability, counteract the effects of modern narrow shoes, relieve any foot tension and help with common foot injuries.
Today, they sell their mobility and recovery training tools to individuals and professional athletes across the globe. Collectively, they work alongside industry health experts, fitness trainers and coaches to share valuable information about reclaiming the mobility of one’s feet and building strength from the ground up.
Currently, they offer three therapeutic foot tools that are sold individually and economically from around $19 to $50 and, for even greater savings, they can be purchased as bundles.
Forbes Business Council Member Merilee Kern, MBA is an internationally-regarded brand analyst, strategist and futurist who reports on noteworthy industry change makers, movers, shakers and innovators across all categories, both B2C and B2B. This includes field experts and thought leaders, brands, products, services, destinations and events. Kern is founder, executive editor and producer of “The Luxe List” as well as host of the nationally-syndicated “Savvy Living” TV show.
***Some or all of the accommodations(s), experience(s), item(s) and/or service(s) detailed above may have been provided or arranged at no cost, but all opinions ex- pressed are entirely those of Merilee Kern and have not been influenced in any way.***
