03/31/2012    

YOU CAN'T MAKE THESE THINGS UP

RE: America’s Tallest Man Gets New Shoes Thanks to $32K in Donations

After a desperate plea for help, America’s tallest man has cobbled together $32,000 in donations to buy a pricey pair of shoes that he hopes will change his life. Igor Vovkovinskiy is 7-foot-8 and hasn’t had a new pair of kicks in six years, he wrote on a personalized gofundme.com website that he launched March 6 to help solve his podiatric problems. 

Igor Vovkovinskiy with his new size 26 custom-made shoes.                                             (Photo Ken Klotzbach)

His feet have become “terribly” deformed, he said, because ill-fitting shoes have led him to undergo 16 surgeries over the last five years. The resulting bumps and scars require that his new shoes be made using 3-D modeling to arrive at a custom fit — and that doesn’t come cheap. Reebok estimated that new shoes crafted, based on 3-D laser scans of each foot, would cost about $15,000, and require him to make a trip to Massachusetts.

Source: Nanvy Dillon, New York Daily News [3/28/12]