The decisions that make a support wearable

A flexible stay laminated between two fabric layers, running along the inside edge of the foot. Stiff enough across its width to guide the big toe into a straighter line, flexible enough along its length that the joint still bends when you walk. That combination is what makes a splint wearable inside a shoe rather than only in bed.

A gel pad seated directly under the medial arch. Gel deforms and recovers under repeated load, which is exactly what a flattening arch stops doing on its own — so the pad takes on the shock absorption the foot has lost, at the point in the step where it is lost.

Knitted tighter through the zone that needs support and looser at the openings. An evenly tight sleeve digs in at the edges and cuts circulation; a graduated one holds the joint and lets the border sit flat on the skin.

Compression is only useful while the fabric still pulls back. We specify high-recovery elastane so the sleeve returns to shape after each wear and holds its fit through repeated washing, rather than going slack after a fortnight.

Rather than shipping four sizes and getting the fit wrong three times, each product is built to shape itself to the wearer — stretch knits, adjustable loops and pads that settle into position. One size that adapts beats four that guess.

The wrist and thumb sleeve is knitted left- and right-handed rather than as one shape that fits neither thumb well, and the arch support ships as a matched pair so both feet get the same lift.