Our Story

I’ll tell you a story…

When I was very young I was passionately interested in nature. At 14 years of age I studied botany with the curator of botany at the local museum. I still know quite a number of Latin names for common weeds and woody plants. I always thought I would be a naturalist, but I had another strange passion which was for shoes. I always wanted to know how they got the leather stretched around those round toes of shoes.

After a stint in university studying ancient Greek philosophy, Indian mythology, Russian literature and French, I left it all to apprentice with a Greek shoemaker. I didn’t get paid a cent for 6 months, but I became competent. At 19 with a kindled passion for shoe making I set up my own shop and became well known for repairing Fry boots, which were all the rage at the time. I sold that business after 2 years and took the money and traveled to India and to France. While in France, I was contacted by a DVA hospital in Nova Scotia offering me a position in the shoe making department. I took the job which began my career as an orthopedic specialist.

At that time, around 1983, hospitals were virtually the only places that made custom insoles and shoes. Most of the clientele were war veterans, the elderly, and people with serious congenital deformities. There were only a handful of young people in the trade at that time in Canada, and I came to know every one across the country. We were a motley crew back then to say the least. That same crew eventually formed an association which today is recognized across Canada by insurance companies.

In 1986 I, along with my partner, moved to Saint John New Brunswick and opened the first private full service Pedorthic (orthopedic) facility. We treated thousands of foot problems working alongside Physiotherapists and some of the most prominent orthopedic surgeons in Canada. I can only find one picture of a custom shoe I made for a foot injury client. We didn’t have smart phones back then.

About 8 years ago, after retiring from the business, I became really fascinated with natural rubber and wool. It might be hard to believe for some people reading this, but soft plastics were just starting to be used when I began my training. The first materials we used were all natural. Those being wool felt, leather, cork and natural rubber sponge.

Thinking back, wool was an awesome material and has many properties that plastics cannot duplicate or compete with. Beyond the technical superiority of wool, it is also completely biodegradable. Wow, I thought, wouldn’t it be amazing to figure out how to make a full length orthotic out of wool.

My first experiments were very encouraging, and I produced the first Ortho Natural insoles in 2018. As primitive as they were at that time, they still received overwhelmingly positive feedback. Since 2018, we have gone through a long curve of research and development, sold a couple thousand pairs and have some very loyal fans.

Today, Ortho Natural insoles have reached their final destination as a line of insoles designed to help alleviate discomfort. From the simplest single layer insoles to multi-laminates, all of them are made from three primary biodegradable ingredients: Wool, Linen and Natural Tree Rubber. They are truly unique in the world. They are sure to help many people, and help the environment along the way. And that concludes the current chapter.

Let us know how you like them!

Paul Kasdan