04/08/2026    Lesley Wolff DPM, MS

When Did Buying Arch Supports Become a Medical Visit? (Jack Reingold, DPM)

After completing my second year at the Ohio
College of Podiatric medicine, I was disillusioned
by their outdated concepts of podiatric
orthopedics. We took it upon ourselves along with
my close friend Dr. Richard Jaffee to personally
invite Merton Root to come and speak to the third
and fourth year students in order to enlighten us
on the latest concepts of biomechanics related to
the foot and ankle.

I personally took Dr.Root up to the infamous
Western Reserve Biomechanics Laboratory and
introduced him to the director. The following year
we twice invited Dr. Tom Sgarlato to come and
lecture to our third and fourth year classes. We
were "hooked " on podiatric biomechanics and
insisted that the orthopedic department include
"Root Biomechanics " in to the curriculum. Along
with a fellow classmate we were able to publish a
early paper in JPMA on Triplane Motion
Abnormalities.

Following graduation I was accepted to the famous
Northlake surgical residency program in Chicago
and had the incredible opportunity to train under
the tutelage of Dr. Lowell Weil senior, Donald
Hugar ( president of ACFS) Steve Smith, Chuck
Gudas and even scrubbed in with the visiting Dr.
Dalton McGlamry. I was procured to join the 2nd
year residency at The California Podiatry Hospital
at CCPM where upon completion of the program was
asked to become chairman of the biomechanics
department by both Tom Sgarlato and Lenard Levy. I
was only 28 years old and due to the constant
conflict between the surgery and biomechanics
departments and my young age, I declined and went
into practice in San Francisco.

Several years into my private practice while out
having lunch at a nearby shopping area, a new shoe
store had a grand opening it was the first store
of its kind in the U.S., it was the "Roots Shoe
Store" promoting the healthful "negative heel
shoe" in all different styles and beautiful
Canadian leathers. The elaborate signs in their
windows described the beneficial effects of their
negative heel design (evidently a knock off of the
Earth shoe of Anna Kelso)

I couldn't resist, I went inside and asked for the
manager and advised him that their theory was
incorrect relative to modern biomechanics . He
subsequently set up meetings with the owners who
flew in from Canada and had me advise them of the
incongruity of their theories.

I briefly became a paid consultant and gave
several lectures on the the action of the subtalar
joint and gait to their managers and staff. Months
later, they flew me up to their magnificent 50
thousand square foot Montreal manufacturing plant
where I met with their designers to help them
design a running shoe since it was the beginning
of the running boom. They finally sent me their
prototype running shoe which I discovered that
they made it all in fabulous rich Canadian
leather!

I didn't think it would be great for running and
told them to call it a tennis shoe..I never heard
back from them and glad they didn't ask me to
design any arch supports

Lesley Wolff DPM, MS, San Francisco, CA

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