Phoenix-based RESA Wearables, Inc. and China’s Shenzhen eSun Industrial Co., Ltd. plan to disrupt the foot care and custom footwear industries. Through a joint venture called Shenzhen Resun Healthcare Technology Co., Ltd., the partners are introducing retail kiosks first in China. The kiosks produce custom, medical grade orthotics within an hour. According to RESA Wearables Founder and CEO Glen Hinshaw, “The Chinese market has a rich history of being interested in body alignment and wearable technology products.”
We wrote about custom orthotics produced with new health tech developed by students at Philadelphia University. We also covered SOLS custom 3D printed insoles created from emailed photographs of a customer’s feet. Resun combines RESA’s scanning, design, and 3D printing technology with eSun’s eD printing raw material to take the process directly to customers in public, retail locations.
According to RESA, three steps require customer involvement for just five minutes. The first step is to stand on a gel imaging platform in the kiosk where the soft, supportive surface captures 360-degree foot images. Next, the customer provides information about the types of shoes she or wears, sports or athletic involvement, and relevant medical information. At that point, the customer can continue shopping. After an hour the custom-printed orthotics will be ready. Pricing is not available, but the company claims the cost will be competitive. The greatest value-adds for the kiosks are the convenience, speed, and removing what the partners call an otherwise “inefficiently complicated, expensive, and time-consuming process.”
