What is Plantar Fasciitis?

You have a ligament called the long plantar ligament that starts at your calcaneus (heel bone), spans the arch of your foot, and attaches at the base of your toes. Its job is to act as a shock absorber as your walk, jog, run, and jump your way through life. If that ligament gets inflamed, it causes pain in the ligament's fascia – hence the name: plantar fasciitis.
Plantar fasciitis pain typically:

• starts right in front of the heel bone;
• feels worse when you start using your feet after being off them for a while (in the morning or after a long car ride); and
• feels worse after periods of exercise.

Sometimes the cause of the inflammation is known (sudden bursts of hard activity, higher impact activities, poor arch support, weight gain, etc.). Other times your feet just start to hurt and no one ever knows the reason why.

Heel Spurs and Heel Spur Syndrome Heel Spur Syndrome is where the plantar fascia ligament becomes stretched or bruised, inflamed, and painful, generally in the heel area. A heel spur is calcified tissue at the junction of the plantar ligament and the heel bone. Both of these conditions are the result of the plantar fascia ligament becoming stretched or bruised and beginning to pull away from the bone in the heel area.
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How does Z-CoiL address Plantar Fasciitis & Heel Spurs?
The whole reason Z-CoiL exists is because founder and inventor, Alvaro Gallegos, was an avid runner who wanted badly to keep running, but was suffering from several of the types of pain that come from using your feet hard: heel spurs, plantar fasciitis, knee pain, hip pain, and back pain. Considering he owned a shoe store, it should have been easy for him to get relief, but no - nothing on the market worked. When he figured out how to fix his own foot problems, he marketed his ideas and Z-CoiL was born.
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The Two-Fold Solution
Plantar Fasciitis requires two things to be in place before it can heal. Those two things are:

• support, and
• cushioning.

It seems deceptively simple, yet, our feet are incredibly complex made up of 26 bones, 33 joints, 107 ligaments, and 19 tendons and muscles each.​ Supporting and cushioning our feet while permitting the required range of movement for our daily activities is not simple.
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What Does Science Say?
Scientific studies show that firm orthotics significantly reduce foot pain for many sufferers of plantar fasciitis.* Both men and women feel better when their inflamed feet are given reliable support. That is why every pair of Z-CoiL shoes is built with that support built right in. The rigid Z-Orthotic acts as a splint; pressure is not localized at the heel but is spread over a wider area of the foot and excess movement in the foot is stabilized. This prevents the plantar ligament from over-stretching or tearing, addressing the cause of the problems. And as for the cushioning our feet need in order to not get inflamed in the first place, every pair of Z-CoiL shoes comes with patented spring heels to reduce the impact on our heels by up to 50%. The coil dramatically reduces pressure during the impact of heel strike.
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Nikki Miller, owner of Springy Feet, says 'In my own case, the engineering of the Z-CoiL spring heel with the built in orthotic was what allowed my feet to make an active recovery: a custom orthotic alone was not sufficient.'


*For example see https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11949663

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