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Walking the Course Will NOT Be an Issue
After a Visit to the "Arch" Bishop ...by Marc Atchison

A lot of people have walked miles in Ken Brubacher's shoes – and soon it will be many more around the world. Including plenty of golfers that are about to join them, thanks to modern technology.

Brubacher, who started making shoes in his Mennonite youth in rural Elmira, Ontario, is a master craftsman and a forward thinker who has skillfully introduced the old world science of the shoemaker to 21st century computer technology.

The result has people walking on air.

Brubacher's bright Collingwood, Ontario shop The Foot Foundation looks like any other shoe salon – lots of trendy styles neatly displayed – with one exception. A sleek-looking machine the size of an oversized shoebox, with the name Otabo/orthopedia written on the gleaming casing, sits off to one side. A man who entered the shop earlier looking for a "comfortable pair of golf shoes," is removing his socks and the bombastic Brubacher invites him to place his feet in a large opening.

"Are you comfortable?" Brubacher asks the man as he places a towel over the customer's feet, as a snowstorm swirls outside the shop, "We must keep your little toes warm." Brubacher, who has been making shoes for over 50 years – "started when I was 4," he tells the customer – turns and looks at 3-D data being displayed on the machine's monitor.

"What this machine tells me in a few seconds would have taken days, and a lot of hard work, to figure out before," says the self-taught Brubacher, who admits he's among the last of a dying breed of skilled shoemakers.

The Otabo/orthopedia is the brain child of Brubacher and some high-skilled computer technicians from around the world. After eight years of research and lots of testing, the Otabo/orthopedia appears to be the perfect fit for the shoe industry.

"Making custom shoes by hand is labor intensive – casting the foot the old way in wax and plaster to get the right dimensions was very messy," says Brubacher.
"And even after all that, the process was never perfect."

However, that all changed when Brubacher and his team invented the Otabo/orthopedia. Now the computer takes the guess-work out of the craft – calculating shoe size to within a tenth of a millimeter.

Golfers wish they could get their putts that close.

"We all forget that the feet are the foundation of our bodies – they take the greatest load and pounding, and shoes are the shock absorbers for the feet," says Brubacher.

That's especially true when it comes to golf shoes. "Golf is a game that requires stability and exact shoe size is important for stability," says the shoemaker, who explains to the golfer with his feet buried in the hi-tech gizmo what information the computer has recorded.

"The 3-D laser scanner is used to get an accurate image of the foot and the data is then transferred to a CAD program which analyzes the data. It's from that information that I can make the shoes," says Brubacher.

The laser-based optical scanner captures over 2,000,000 data points on the foot to create digital models. What the shoemaker learns from the computer readout is then used to create a digital pattern guide for the last – the form on which shoes are made. The last is digitally designed and sized and then cut on a high-speed computer-controlled lathe.

"True 3-D digital pattern making allows for flexibility in design and custom sizing," says Brubacher, whose device has received international attention, even earning a spot on the highly respected PBS Nightly Business Report.

Otabo Shoes

Ken with a pair of happy feet!

Not just golf shoes...

"Golf is a game that can only be truly enjoyed by walking, but manufactured shoes don't always give players the stability or comfort needed to walk the five miles usually associated with a round," says the master shoemaker.

As Brubacher and the golfer discuss what style of upper shoe would best suit the dapper duffer, the phone rings and suddenly the shoemaker turns on his computer screen and the vision of a frantic shoe store manager appears.

"Ken, I need your help. I have a customer in need of a special fitting and I need you to tell me how to read the data I've just received from the computer," says the man in a store hundreds of miles away and which had the new technology installed recently.

"The beauty about our shoe computer is that I can talk to shopkeepers all over the world – they just need to contact me through their video conferencing devices and supply me with the readouts from the Otabo/orthopedia. Within seconds we can be on the way to solving someone's foot problems," says Brubacher.

And he has solved many foot problems over the decades.

"This man is the reason I'm able to walk today," says a female customer who, with the help of Brubacher's computer and his skills as a shoemaker, overcame the painful side effects of arthritis and is still be able to travel in a pair of comfortable custom-made shoes.

As Brubacher thanks the woman for the compliment, the door to his shop opens and a giant of a man named Dave Carr walks through the door, dusting off snow from his overcoat as he enters.
Carr, a retired disc jockey from Owen Sound, Ontario, suffers from a painful foot problem caused by diabetes – leaving him with ulcerations and very painful feet. Brubacher was able to design a pair of shoes that allows for heavily padded custom orthotic inserts which are lightweight but still provide a stable support base and a better life for Carr.

That's pretty much what a golfer gets when he or she wears a pair of Brubacher's shoes – a more stable support base which is crucial during a swing.

Brubacher doesn't say his shoes will improve a golfer's game – may not even lower their scores. But he does guarantee a much smoother walk between holes, which leads to healthier players.

"Once you wear a pair of Ken's shoes, you'll never wear another pair," says Carr, who has been coming to Brubacher's Collingwood shop "for years."

With the stability and comfort Brubacher's golf shoes offers players, who needs golf carts?

On a wall in Brubacher's shop hangs a quote from none other than Leonardo da Vinci, a pretty fine artist in his own right, which reads: "The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art."

If so, then Ken Brubacher is very much an artist as Da Vinci.

For more information on the "Arch" Bishop and customized golf and/or everyday footwear products visit www.brutech.com or give Ken a call at 888-669-3030.