If you had asked the founder of OESH if she ever planned to walk away from her job at a medical school, she never would have imagined she’d end up where she is now. She had a well-paying full-time position and was the first woman to chair her department. After graduating from Harvard Medical School, it was discovered that all women’s footwear increased impact on the joints. It didn’t seem fair to Casey Kerrigan that the footwear industry was making footwear that was harmful to women’s feet and joints. Back then she had no ties to the footwear industry, but she started to continue work into the science of movement and went to become the first female tenured chair professor at the University of Virginia. At first, she tried talking to people in the footwear industry, but they were not interested in charging their products. Even after Kerrigan shared her research and tried to convince them to reduce impact. She realized the only way to have healthy shoes made was to make them herself.
Although the project was started by the family as a whole, they were taking a big risk. The changes they needed to make to the shoes would not be easy to produce. First, they tried and injection-molding machine, and before that, they were winding carbon fiber springs around steel mandrels. Eventually, she learned that 3D printing could fast track sole development and they could use 3D printing for some of the production. They had to build a series of 3D printers with special extruders that could 3D print the materials they wanted. Looking back the decision was worth it for Casey. She was able to create 3D printed shoes that continue to amaze us at 3DShoes.com. Through a lot of hard work, she was able to make her dream a reality.
Original Article: https://thriveglobal.com/stories/casey-kerrigan-career-chance-dream/
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