Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS)—consistently ranked number one in orthopedics globally by Newsweek and nationally by U.S. News & World Report—today announced a strategic partnership with sports innovation company Sports Engineering, Inc. (SEI) to develop technology for athletic footwear that would seek to reduce the risk of injury. This first-of-its-kind alliance combines the unparalleled expertise of HSS’s orthopedic clinicians, many of whom treat top professional and elite athletes around the world, with SEI’s expertise in the design and product development space as it relates to sports performance wear.

Millions of ankle and knee injuries occur each year, many as a result of the abrupt movements that are common among athletes. Today, conventional athletic shoes are primarily designed to support vertical movement with cushioning. Most athletic shoes on the market lack the ability to absorb shock from horizontal or rotational forces created by the shoe’s impact against the playing surface during movements such as cutting or pivoting, which can increase risk of injury. To help reduce and ultimately eliminate the potential for injury caused by these types of movements as well as repetitive stress, SEI has developed two technologies, the Smart Spring^TM and Split Sole^TM, that HSS is currently researching and validating to ensure an optimized product for consumer use.

“As a leader in musculoskeletal health, HSS has been driving innovation in foot, ankle and knee safety to reduce the risk of lower extremity injuries,” said Mark C. Drakos, MD, an orthopedic surgeon specializing in disorders of the foot and ankle and assistant team orthopedist for the New York Knicks. “Our collaboration with SEI is a major opportunity to expand our reach in pioneering new sports safety standards in athletic footwear to improve the well-being of everyday active people who want to perform their best.”

To date, HSS has begun to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the Smart Spring^TM and Split Sole^TM technologies and how well they address the various injury types they are designed to prevent, such as ACL tears, medial tibial stress syndrome (shin splints) and other knee, muscle and ligament strains and sprains. Beyond these initial concepts, HSS and SEI intend to explore other technologies to help minimize injury risk. 

“Our longstanding relationship with HSS has laid the groundwork to position change driven by science within the athletic footwear industry,” said Dan Richard, SEI president. “We will collaborate with HSS on a rigorous safety validation process to test and evaluate our patented technology that will be applied in footwear, equipment and accessories.” 

“The HSS Innovation Institute played a central role in establishing the strategic relationship, bringing together the complimentary skills and competencies of HSS and SEI that have the potential to drive innovation in sports safety,” said Doug Leach, vice president for device innovation at HSS. The HSS Innovation Institute is singularly focused on advancing the field of musculoskeletal care by managing and commercializing the HSS portfolio of novel concepts, inventions, and partnerships.

HSS will be using human subject testing combined with high-accuracy robotic simulation to perform physical assessments of the technology. By utilizing the state-of-the-art Motion Analysis Lab at HSS, clinicians will use 3D motion to capture data tied to joint motion and contact loads when subjects are performing tasks like change-of-direction maneuvers, dynamic run-stop-jump and cutting motions.

This partnership between HSS and SEI has the potential to impact safety across a number of court and field sports for athletes at all levels, including but not limited to basketball, football, soccer and more, while also enhancing safety for those simply looking for better athletic shoes.  

About SEI

SEI is a performance technology company that has expertise in identifying, developing, and commercializing disruptive inventions primarily in the field of sports. Using its portfolio of load management technologies, SEI focuses on developing and licensing innovative footwear (including footwear applying its proprietary SplitSole^TM technology), non-footwear athletic performance products, and protective sports equipment, in each case, intended to help prevent musculoskeletal injuries. https://sports.engineering.