Using a 3D printer and sustainable materials, Dr. Casey Kerrigan is revolutionizing the shoe industry.
Photo courtesy of Casey Kerrigan
Dr. Casey Kerrigan quit her job as the University of Virginia’s chair of biomechanics and set out to revolutionize footwear in 2010. Six years later, her Charlottesville-based company, OESH, launched what she says is the world’s first line of 100-percent healthy women’s shoes.
Developed through funding provided by the National Science Foundation and U.S. National Institutes of Health, OESH grew from Kerrigan’s 20-plus-year obsession with the negative effects of mass-marketed footwear. As a researcher with the Harvard Medical School, she was the first to link traditional women’s shoes to increased risks of osteoarthritis—women are twice as likely to have the condition as men. The culprit? Wearing two-inch heels boosts knee torsion by more than 23 percent compared to walking barefoot. Stilettos are much worse. Even Stride Rites and running shoes bring negative effects. Over time, the increased strain wears down cartilage in the knee and can lead to debilitating osteoarthritis.
The findings landed Kerrigan a faculty position at UVA in 2002, where she soon became the university’s first female department chair. Meanwhile, major U.S. shoe brands sought her out as a consultant. “It didn’t take long to realize the companies were insincere; they were using me as a kind of PR stunt,” she says. The industry’s refusal to change led to a moral imperative. “It became clear that if I didn’t do something about this, no one would,” says Kerrigan.
OESH’s products are 3D printed on demand from low-impact sustainable materials. The approach makes the shoes the most environmentally friendly on the market and enables Kerrigan to invite customers to her factory for an assessment of their biomechanics. “We’re the only company in the world doing this,” she says. “Though it saddens me to say it, this is the only footwear you can buy that is designed exclusively on principles of peer-reviewed medical science.”
Although the company currently offers footwear for women only, Kerrigan hopes to expand to include options for men in the near future.
This article originally appeared in our April 2019 issue.
