Shoe Company Retains Florida Chiropractor

Today, athletes and coaches in most every sport know or are are learning about the benefits of chiropractic care.

Another area where chiropractic is making a presence, is in the advisory capacity for manufacturers of certain products. The ACA endorses Excelsior Spring's natural calcium mineral water, and the ICA endorses King Coil mattresses, to name two.

And when a manufacturer seeks the assistance/opinion on the particulars of his product vis-a-vis the musculoskeletal benefits, who better to ask than a doctor of chiropractic?

One of America's most popular sports is golf. In this sport, perhaps more than others, the participants are very particular about their equipment.

One particular golf shoe, while seemingly a less important concern for those who stroll the green links than the kind of club they're swinging, is causing a few heads to turn.

John T. Kinnard, D.C., P.A., a Tampa, Florida chiropractor has been retained by Weight-Rite golf shoe, manufactured by Golf-Rite Products, Inc. as an advisor on the musculoskeletal benefits derived from wearing the shoe. The shoe has been controversial in the sport of golf due to the fact that after it was worn by PGA tour professional John Huston at the 1990 Augusta Masters' Tournament, the United States Golf Association (USGA) banned the shoe. The shoe supposedly improves a golfer's swing to such a degree that it gives an unfair advantage over other golfers.

Dr. Kinnard's involvement with the Weight-Rite shoe started, not surprisingly, with a friendly game of golf. He was the fourth player in a game which included a golf products' marketing director, and Bob Brown, president of Golf-Rite Products. According to Dr. Kinnard, his interest was piqued when Mr. Brown began talking about the shoe and expressing disappointment that it had been banned due to its positive influence on the golfer's swing (it has a patented sole that angles the foot on an incline to lock the wearer into a no-sway backswing).

Instead of the usual 19th hole celebration, the players went to Dr. Kinnard's office to be examined and adjusted.

Dr. Kinnard tested Mr. Brown and found muscle weakness in the right psoas, left tensor fascia lata, the bilateral quadriceps, and the left deltoid. Mr. Brown was not able to turn his right foot in as far as the left one and he was experiencing some TMJ problems. But after walking in the Weight-Rite shoes, Dr. Kinnard tested him again, and the muscles all tested strong, even the TMJ. The compensatory weaknesses returned when Mr. Brown took off the shoes.

According to Dr. Kinnard, the shoe provides a stabilizing force to the supporting muscles of the spine, pelvis, legs, and knees allowing golfers with weak muscles to move more effectively. They are also able to turn their feet more inward than they could without the shoe, improving their swing.

The Weight-Rite shoe has Dr. Kinnard on retainer and now uses a treatise authored by him called "The Kinnard Report." The report is chiropractic analysis of how the shoe improves a golfer's game by stabilizing the supporting muscles of the lumbrosacral spine. The company uses the report in various marketing and public relations capacities to provide information on the shoe's chiropractic benefits.

A graduate of Palmer College of Chiropractic, Dr. Kinnard has been in practice for 22 years.

Barbara Migliaccio
Second Assistant Editor