subject: A Framingham company [print this page] A Framingham company A Framingham company
Total Body Solutions, a Framingham company that sells high-tech, health-conscious footwear, stresses that its products are not shoes and that it is not a shoe store. "If they don't help your body," the firm states, "we don't put them on your feet." Instead of focusing solely (pardon the pun) on fashion with its footwear, Total Body Solutions places a priority on health. Its main product comes with a technical description: biomechanical locomotion footwear. This type of footwear "features a multi-layer sole which forces the knee to flex, thereby aligning ankle, knee and hip positioning and eliminating heel and metatarsal pressure," the company says. "Moreover, heel spurs, plantar fasciitis and especially lower back pain are reduced and, in most cases, eliminated."
While the store's location at 630 Worcester Road and the footwear emphasis are new, its owners, Carolyn and Ken Fischer, have been in the retail health business for 10 years. Total Body Solutions was originally at 1292 Worcester Road where it sold products for back problems and joint pain. The Fischers had owned four similar shops in their native Chicago and two in Arizona. The redirection to footwear resulted after the Fischers were contacted by MBT Footwear, the company which first manufactured True Plantar Flexion Locomotion Footwear. Total Body Solutions and CPI Distributing became the first retailers of this new technology in the United States.
Ken Fischer, who manages the Framingham store, is no stranger to the need for body solutions as a lengthy career in athletics produced its share of injuries. He played football, baseball, basketball and track in high school, baseball and football at college and baseball at the professional level with the Chicago Cubs organization. During this time time, he underwent six knee operations, which eventually required two knee replacements. Carolyn, meanwhile, had two hip replacements.
"The need to seek professional assistance to function became a necessity," says Ken Fischer. "I worked with some of the best therapists and trainers in the country, including Leroy Perry and Igor Burdenko." As one might assume, the Fischers not only sell health products - they use them. The Framingham couple also know they are not alone in needing help in dealing with foot pain and related ailments. Hence, the creation of Total Body Solutions. Prior to starting Total Body Solutions, Ken Fischer owned distributorships, produced television infomercials and worked as a manufacturer's representative in businesses that all were related to sports, recreation and sports medicine in a career that spanned 40 years.
