HOW DOES IT WORK?

It all began when Eli Cohen became a statistic. He joined the 60% of Americans who suffer from foot and leg pain.

Being a 54 year old jogger and an inventor, he set about analyzing the way shoes absorb shock, and came upon a shocking revelation: virtually all shoes provided cushioning by compressing air, or some material such as rubber, foam, cork or leather. However, analysis confirmed that compression absorbs shock unevenly.

This can best be visualized by squeezing a sponge. Initially, one's fingers move through much of the sponge with little effort. Then, once resistance is encountered, that resistance accelerates to a point of refusal. In shoes, this refusal or "bottoming out", translates into shock, which travels right up the skeletal structure of the body. Clearly, the solution called for some means to absorb more of the impact earlier in the cushioning cycle.

This was accomplished by incorporating the mechanism of deflection through a vertical geometry of hourglass-shaped rubber ribs that deflect into each other, and simultaneously compress.. To visualize how deflection works, imagine bending or deflecting a rod. More energy is expended at the beginning of the deflection cycle than at the end. Then, less energy is needed to bring the ends of the rod together. Because the force of deflection works in an opposite manner to compression it was reasoned that if these two forces could be combined, a shoe could be produced with dramatically superior comfort. It worked!

COMPRESSION + DEFLECTION = ELICO

Thus, Elico has achieved the most profound comfort ever delivered in a shoe.