Press Conference Revealing New Clinical Studies on Ankle Inversion, Basketball and Methods of Prevention Tuesday, November 23, 2010, 11:30 AM at Hospital of Special Surgery, NYC

NEW YORK, Nov. 15, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- A press conference will be held on Tuesday, November 23, 2010, 11:30 a.m. at Hospital of Special Surgery, Leon Root MD Motion Analysis Laboratory 510 East 73rd St., New York, to discuss two clinical studies done on ankle inversion that reveals a real solution to the issue of ankle sprains that has never before been addressed. Sorin Seigler, Ph.D., Director, Biomechanics Lab Drexel University and Howard Hillstrom, Ph.D., Director of the Leon Root, M.D. Motion Analysis Laboratory at Hospital for Special Surgery will discuss their findings.  The studies evaluated ankle motions, particularly inversion, and their relationship to standard athletic shoes and the Ektio model. This revolutionary product anchors the ankle to the shoe. The Ektio shoe is the first athletic shoe designed to reduce the incidence of ankle sprains, the most common orthopedic injury in the world. Ektio shoes will launch to the public at www.Ektio.com on November 15, 2010. Creator of Ektio shoes, Dr. Barry Katz, will be in attendance, as well as former NY Knick John Starks.

For 46 years in a row, NBA statistician Harvey Pollack's NBA Statistical Yearbook reports ankle sprains as the #2 or #1 injury every year. 3 million ankle sprains occur yearly in the U.S. 1 million visit ER's each year.

The study done at the Leon Root, M.D. Motion Analysis Laboratory at Hospital for Special Surgery indicated that despite the anchoring of the ankle to the shoe, running, jumping and cutting motions used in basketball were not inhibited compared to a standard basketball shoe with and without tape and compared to barefoot athletes.

The clinical studies at Drexel compared the probability of inversion when utilizing a standard high-top basketball shoe versus a newly designed athletic shoe, such as the Ektio, which has built-in features that help "marry" the shoe to the foot.   The new support technology significantly reduced ankle inversion compared to standard basketball shoes, but did not inhibit motion in the five useful directions needed to play basketball. Comparison to braces were also quite favorable.

"As a radiologist, I see more ankle inversions than any other," said Ektio inventor, Dr. Barry Katz. "$4.2 billion is spent annually on ankle injury treatments nationwide and the NBA loses $15 million a year due to this specific problem. These studies support my theory that ankle inversion may not be a function of how low or high the shoe is, but how the sole of a shoe interacts with the environment and with the foot."

Former NY Knick John Starks, who missed 40 games in his career due to ankle injuries, said, "I wish I had this information and technology when I was playing; maybe I could have dunked on Jordan twice!"

Ektio (www.ektio.com) is a physician-designed, clinically-tested athletic shoe specifically created to provide rock solid ankle support. The brand was named after the two Greek words 'Ektor' and 'Alexio,' which mean to 'defend' and 'protect.' Though Ektio's functional properties are totally unique to any footwear on the market today, the hip, urban stylings of the Wraptor and Post Up models rival any celebrity named athletic shoe available today. Announcements about the major U.S. retailers who will be carrying Ektio will be made in the coming week.

SOURCE Ektio