WE DIDN'T
CHANGE
YOUR FOOT.
THE FLOOR
DID.
Flat industrial surfaces are geometrically incompatible with the human foot. This has been mathematically derivable since 1941. Nobody questioned the floor as a variable. The consequences show up on your P&L every quarter.
MATHEMATICALLY
IMPOSSIBLE
TO WALK
NEUTRALLY
ON FLAT GROUND.
The subtalar joint axis runs at 42° from horizontal and 16° from the sagittal plane. A flat surface presents 0° in both planes. This is not a comfort issue. It is a geometric incompatibility — structural, constant, and present for every person on every step of every shift.
Your foot was not broken by flat ground. It was designed for something else entirely — two million years of variable terrain that the industrial revolution replaced with concrete. Nobody asked the foot. Nobody questioned the floor.
Landing Gear does not change anything about the foot. It restores the environmental conditions the foot evolved to operate in. When the environment is correct, the foot performs correctly — automatically, completely, without augmentation. The industrial revolution changed the floor. Landing Gear changes it back.
The question for an employer is not whether this efficiency loss exists. The geometry guarantees it does. The only question is whether the loss exceeds $35 per employee per year.
EVERY HOUR OF LABOR STARTS FROM THE GROUND UP.
Lift force. Push force. Carry force. Change of direction. All of it originates from ground reaction force transmitted through the same chain. Break that chain at its base — the subtalar joint — and every link above it is working harder than it should to compensate. Thousands of times a shift.
Off-axis loading at the base leaks energy before it reaches every link above
Landing in slight supination on the correct geometry is like pulling back a bow. The oblique axis is the bow. The elastic return at push-off is the release. On flat ground the bow is never drawn — every step is a release with nothing behind it. That is not a fatigue problem. That is geometry. The force enters but the conversion mechanism never engages. The worker on the correct geometry is not stronger. They are running the system the way it was built.
WOULD YOU RUN A MACHINE OUTSIDE ITS DESIGN SPEC EVERY SHIFT?
Every piece of industrial equipment has an operating specification. Running outside that specification increases wear, reduces output per cycle, and raises maintenance cost. Every engineer knows this. Every operations manager tracks it.
Your workforce operates on the same physical principles. Payroll is typically one-third of total operating cost. Yet the operating specification of the human foot has never been considered when designing the surface it stands on — because nobody ever questioned whether the floor was a variable.
The industrial floor was built for machines. It was not built for people. The people adapted — at significant and measurable cost to their bodies and to your P&L.
LANDING GEAR RESTORES THE ENVIRONMENT. THE FOOT DOES THE REST.
Landing Gear does not correct the foot. It restores the geometric conditions the subtalar joint evolved to operate in. When the environment is correct, the joint cycles correctly — automatically. The body's own mechanics take over.
"First-class performance can only be delivered by your own body. Nothing can replace or match the effectiveness of the body's own natural shock absorption and propulsion system. No memory foam, gel insert, air cushion, or footwear material of any kind can replicate the dynamic and adaptive nature of the aligned human body."
EVERY OTHER PRODUCT IS A PHOTOGRAPH. THIS IS THE MOVIE.
Every insole ever made was designed from a static impression of the foot at rest. A shape. A photograph. It can redistribute pressure. What it cannot do is change the first frame of the gait cycle — the angle at which the heel contacts the ground and the subtalar joint receives its signal to begin moving.
Every other insole — a static shape
Molded from the foot at rest. Manages pressure. Provides symptomatic relief. Does not restore the environmental conditions the STJ requires to cycle correctly. The foot arrives at every step still disadvantaged.
Landing Gear — a geometric environment
Engineered to the 42°/16° STJ axis. Restores the asymmetric surface the joint evolved to operate on at every phase of the gait cycle. The foot does what it has always known how to do. Nothing more is asked of it.
The Fever Analogy. Every product that attempts to optimize on top of flat ground is a fever reducer. It lowers the fever. The person performs better. But they are still fighting the infection — every resource the body has is not fully available.
A body without the fever is not fighting anything. Everything is available. Flat ground is the infection. Every ergonomic intervention is a fever reducer. Landing Gear removes the infection.
Your workforce has been using fever reducers for years — mats, exosuits, ergonomic training, orthotics. They help. They do not solve. The floor was never examined as the variable.
WHERE EVERY SOLUTION SITS. AND WHERE LANDING GEAR SITS.
The NIOSH Hierarchy of Controls ranks interventions by effectiveness. Elimination — removing the hazard at source — is the only tier that resolves the problem. Every other tier manages it.
ONLY YOUR BODY DELIVERS IT.
Nothing can replace or match the effectiveness of the body's own natural shock absorption and propulsion system. No memory foam, gel insert, air cushion, exosuit, or footwear material of any kind can replicate the dynamic and adaptive nature of the aligned human body. These products approximate. The body executes. They are static. The body responds in real time to every surface, every angle, every load. Give the body the geometric environment it requires — and it does the rest.
| What matters | Landing Gear | Comfort Insole / Orthotic | Exosuit / Back-assist | Anti-fatigue Mat | Ergo Training |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Addresses geometric root cause | ✓ Restores 42°/16° STJ environment | — Shape-based, symmetric | — Gait unaddressed | — Reduces impact only | — Behavioural, not geometric |
| NIOSH Hierarchy tier | ✓ Elimination — top tier | ~ Engineering control | — PPE tier | ~ Engineering control | — Administrative control |
| Restores body's own mechanics | ✓ Body performs as designed | — Manages symptoms | — Augments, doesn't restore | — Reduces load only | — Reduces exposure only |
| Activates calf venous pump (second heart) | ✓ Correct STJ cycling restores pump | — No gait change | — Not applicable | — No gait change | — No gait change |
| Reduces fall risk / improves balance | ✓ Proprioceptive loop restored | ~ Marginal, pressure-based | ~ Lifting tasks only | ~ Surface only | ~ Fades over time |
| Self-calibrating — proportional restoration | ✓ Higher deviation = larger restoration | — Fixed shape applied equally | — Fixed assist level | — Same surface for all | — Uniform program |
| Reduces end-of-shift fatigue | ✓ Compensation energy freed | ~ Cushioning reduces impact | ~ Lifting only | ~ Standing relief only | ~ Inconsistent |
| Requires behavior change or compliance | ✓ None — works from first step | ✓ None | — Must be donned/doffed | — Must stand on it | — Ongoing compliance |
| Works everywhere — not station-dependent | ✓ In every shoe, everywhere | ✓ In shoe only | — Device-dependent | — Fixed location only | ~ If retained |
| Independent laboratory validation | ✓ 3D motion capture, n=31, 2019 | — Comfort studies only | ~ Lifting load only | ~ Pressure only | — Behavioural outcomes only |
| Annual cost per employee | ✓ $35 | ~ $30–$500+ | — $3,000–$15,000 per unit | ~ $50–$300 per station | — $200–$1,000+ per person |
"Every other product on this table is a fever reducer. They lower the fever. The person performs better than they did with the fever. But they are still fighting the infection — the geometric incompatibility between flat ground and the human foot's operating specification. Landing Gear removes the infection. The body takes over from there."
NOT AN AVERAGE CORRECTION. A PROPORTIONAL RESTORATION.
The data does not show a fixed correction applied equally to all feet. It shows something more significant: the restoration is proportional to each individual's deviation from neutral. The workers accumulating the greatest biomechanical debt — your highest injury and fatigue risk — receive the largest automatic restoration. Without identification. Without screening. The geometry finds them.
| Subject | Baseline pronation | With M-100 | Restoration | % restored | Risk profile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 04 | 20.1° | 3.4° | −16.7° | 83% | Extreme |
| 13 | 22.3° | 4.5° | −17.8° | 80% | Extreme |
| 20 | 15.4° | 3.2° | −12.2° | 79% | High |
| 25 | 12.4° | 2.9° | −9.5° | 77% | High |
| 35 | 8.4° | 1.1° | −7.3° | 87% | Moderate |
| 22 | 2.8° | 1.8° | −1.0° | 36% | Near neutral ✓ |
Subject 22 was already near neutral — modest restoration. Subject 4 was 20.1° from neutral — 83% restoration, automatically. The intervention self-selects toward your highest-risk employees. You do not need to identify them. The geometry of Landing Gear finds them because their deviation from neutral is precisely what the geometry responds to.
THE MATH DOESN'T NEED
TO BE PRECISE. IT NEEDS
TO CLEAR A THRESHOLD.
"No matter how you look at it, everything is about money." The question is not whether the efficiency loss exists — the geometry guarantees it does. The question is whether the loss exceeds $35 per employee per year.
A CFO who treats payroll as a cost to minimize is doing value recovery. A CFO who optimizes the output of that payroll is doing value creation. You already know your payroll cost per hour. What you do not measure is what fraction of that hour you actually receive. If a worker is biomechanically compromised from step one — burning energy compensating for a geometric mismatch — you are paying for 100% of the hour and receiving something measurably less. The question is not what Landing Gear costs. The question is what percentage of your payroll you are currently wasting.
THE CALCULATION ACCURACY DOES NOT NEED TO BE PERFECT. IT NEEDS TO BE GOOD ENOUGH.
The intervention cost is so low relative to payroll that a rough estimate of efficiency loss almost certainly clears the threshold. Any CFO who can locate workers' comp expense, absenteeism, and a production rate has everything needed to run the analysis and justify the program.
HOW TO MEASURE IT ON YOUR OWN P&L
You do not need to trust Protalus. You need to trust your own numbers — which you already have.
Pull your baseline
Extract 90 days of data across three existing metrics. No new systems. No new measurement. Your data is sufficient.
Deploy Landing Gear
Protalus Works handles distribution entirely. Employees scan a QR code, enter address and shoe size, and leave. Landing Gear ships to their door. Zero inventory. Zero overhead.
Run 90 days
No behavior change required. No training. No compliance monitoring. Landing Gear restores the geometric environment from the first step. The body does the rest.
Measure the delta
Pull the same three metrics. Compare to baseline. Calculate ROI against the $35/employee/year program cost.
CENTRALIZED CONTROL.
DECENTRALIZED
DISTRIBUTION.
-
Employee self-service via QR code
Employee scans, enters shoe size and address, and leaves. No manager involvement at fulfillment. No sizing sessions. No stock room.
-
Employer controls eligibility and cadence
Upload your employee list. Set fulfillment frequency. The system enforces it automatically — reorders blocked until anniversary.
-
Full cockpit visibility
Real-time dashboard shows adoption by site, order history, active employees, and credit balance.
-
Multi-site, role-based access
Corporate admin sees everything. Site managers see their location. Scales from 50 to 50,000 employees with the same infrastructure.
-
$35 per employee per year — all in
No setup fees. No inventory. No logistics overhead. Break-even is 0.006% of payroll efficiency.
1% payroll efficiency recovery: $275,000
Multiple above threshold: 16.1×
Break-even efficiency recovery: 0.006% of payroll