Arch Fitters, Portland

The certified pedorthists at Arch Fitters use state-of-the-art technology to provide healthcare professionals, retail facilities, and individual patients with a variety of pain-relieving orthotics. They craft each custom-made pair by employing products such as advanced pressure-mapping software, malleable foam, and digital foot scans. Their raster-vector 3-D software captures 900 control points on the foot, measuring the effects of body weight and providing the outline for the frame of the orthotic. Senior orthotic designers then use SolidWorks software to edit the orthotic to each patient's specifications, adding custom options such as metatarsal pads to relieve pressure on the ball of the foot, heel wedges that improve spinal alignment, and rear oil-slick sprayers to elude the Fratellis. Finally, computerized machines carve out the wooden molds and cut the orthotics themselves from polypropylene plastic, carbon-fiber graphite, or ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA).