January Luncheon Meeting (Goleta) 01/24/18

Beautiful Machines: Designing Testing Tools for Better Shoes

Heeluxe is a Santa Barbara-based company that works with footwear brands to make better shoes. In the past 8 years, they have created new machines and on-body sensors to quickly and accurately test shoes. These systems are utilized by major brands like Nike and Adidas as well as small start ups. This talk will focus on how Heeluxe created simple and effective testing systems to enable a team of 5 scientists to complete 104 unique studies in 2017.

Dr. Geoffrey Alan Gray has always been passionate about the human foot and ankle. After earning his Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Simmons College in 2003, he worked at the Elite Performance and Rehabilitation Center in Goleta where he quickly developed a following for taking care of top professional athlete's feet. He started Heeluxe, a research facility that tests footwear for shoe brands, so that he could help everyone in the world have access to better footwear. Heelux now works with over 40 footwear brands all over the world and the business grew 43% in 2017.