Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Badger Braces
Ed Robertson stands at the office of Badger Braces, in the former Colton Market.
A physical therapist, his product came from years of treating ankle injuries.
A block off Highway 195, the old Colton Market sits quiet, a square building with brown shaker shingles and a faded red Coca-Cola sign.
Inside is the incubator of a whole other business, one year in: Badger Braces, a new kind of ankle brace for athletics.
“I'm still in the startup phase,” said Colton's Ed Robertson, a longtime physical therapist for Pullman Regional Hospital.
His braces – named for the mascot of his old high school in Bonners Ferry, Wash. – are designated as right or left with sizes like a shoe, in contrast to the plain small, medium, large of the industry.
A foot-orthotic is built into Robertson's brace; a molded, contoured, hard plastic shell with unique specific straps to protect the left or right ankle.
“In my mind, it matters. Our ankles are not universal,” he said.
The straps are designed to replicate taping, still the gold standard in ankle protection, first described in literature in 1895.
“I just took a fresh look at this,” Robertson said. “The answer is really simple. I'm not that smart of a guy.”
The idea came more than 10 years ago when Robertson taught biomechanics and kinesiology at WSU. He went to Big 5 Sporting Goods, bought a couple braces, cut them open, put a foot-orthotic into it and re-sewed the straps the way he wanted.
“Then I put it under my desk for about five years,” he said.
He stepped down two years ago from full-time physical therapy and got to work on his product for the single-most common sports injury.
“Ankle sprains are like death and taxes,” he said.
Player-Coach
A former basketball coach at Colton High School, where Robertson's four kids all graduated from, he was an assistant coach for the boys' team in the late '90s to 2000's and head coach of the girls from 1999-2001.
“The best thing I could do for a team is stop coaching,” he said with a laugh, referring to Colton's later success.
As Robertson put Badger Braces in motion, he focused first on securing a patent; an expensive, four-year process with an attorney.
Turning to manufacturing, delays continued. He eventually got a break with a referral from a friend who grew up in Grangeville – to a place called Idaho Sewing for Sports, which makes padding for chairlift seats, among other items.
In Spokane, Robertson found a company called Multi-Fab, which manufactures various molded, laminated parts. It now makes Badger's orthotic, out of nylon polyethylene.
“I was so afraid I was going to have to go overseas,” Robertson said. “To be able to say 'Made in USA', that was really important to me.”
The search continued to find other manufacturers for the 17 individual pieces that make up one of the $72 pair of braces.
For shoelaces, after three months of looking, Robertson found a lone American manufacturer left – Kiwi had moved to Honduras but some of its workers kept part of the operation going as a new company. So Badger's laces come from Portsmouth, Ohio.
Robertson has sold braces in nine states and Canada.
“It's been an emotional roller coaster the past few years,” he said. “I'm in pretty deep. But at the end of the day, I feel like if it makes a difference, it'll make a dollar.”
Investment
To get Badger's first braces made, the minimum order came to 2,000 pairs. Robertson borrowed from a bank.
“It keeps me awake at night,” he said. “My retirement is sitting here in boxes of braces.”
After a 12-year process, in March of last year Robertson sent off his first samples.
“It's almost akin to watching your son drive away to college,” he said.
The first sale was to a customer in a dorm room in Minnesota – the son of a friend of his.
Three weeks ago, Badger Braces went live on Amazon and sales were largely unaffected.
“A search would have to specifically be for Badger to turn up anywhere near the first page,” Robertson said.
He has no plans for selling to retail stores now, citing the challenge of inventory – for the space a store would have to dedicate to a product which normally comes in three sizes total, both sexes, either foot.
For now, Robertson assembles the braces at the former Colton Market and walks orders across the street to Debbie Niehenke at the post office for shipment.
“Debbie can guess what size the brace is by the weight,” Robertson said.
He is at the shop nights and weekends, now working part-time at Summit Therapy in Pullman.
His bookkeeper is Kim Schultheis, also part-time, who walks across the street from S&S Cabinet.
“I like the creative part,” Robertson said. “The rest of it they can keep.”
His son, Nick, who works as a server at Black Cypress in Pullman, helped with the logo.
Selling
Last week, Robertson made a promotional drive through Montana, stopping at seven colleges – targeting to spring football season.
“Ankle injuries are an enigma to athletic trainers,” he said. “They're always open to hearing something new. Once they see the product, soon I've got a crowd around me.”
On Colton's 1B girls state championship basketball team in March – their eighth consecutive – four players wore Badger Braces. Colton trainer Kai Seshiki was hired by Robertson at Summit Therapy.
This week, Robertson will be at the Washington State Podiatric Medical Association (WSPMA) convention and will visit colleges in Washington and Oregon.
He watches the budget on these trips.
“Friends and relatives and Motel 6,” Robertson said.
One draw for colleges is to cut down on (ankle) tape budgets – for which an average football team goes through four cases of tape for a game.
“About a mile of it,” Robertson said. “They know they need something better than they have, but they just don't know what it is.”
Is he surprised no one has already created this product?
“I'm shocked. It's not complex,” he said.
Robertson's wife came up with the idea of the washable pouch Badger Braces come in. Included inside is a resistance band with instructions for exercises to strengthen an ankle.
Robertson attended a Palouse Knowledge Corridor “Be the Entrepreneur” Boot Camp last year.
“Two years ago, I couldn't even spell entrepreneur,” he said. “Now I am one.”
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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