Meredith Warner, an LSU alumna and LSU Louisiana Business and Technology Center tenant, is giving new meaning to “practical footwear” with her patent-pending flip-flops that reduce heel pain.
Warner, an orthopedic surgeon at Warner Orthopedics and Wellness, earned her MBA at LSU and has been working on Healing Sole shoes for five years — tweaking and perfecting them until her first batch rolled off the assembly line in October.
“We just got our first shipment in,” Warner said. “But the project started a while ago. You had to go through the design phase, and then we had to go through the phase where we were dealing with the patent and writing all that up. Then we had to find the manufacturing partner.”
Warner said her first steps into the business world were “pretty intense,” and involved checking prototypes, arranging shipping and working with a manufacturer. But she is happy with the results.
The flip-flops combine four separate features designed to alleviate heel pain, most commonly brought on by Plantar Fasciitis, a degenerative condition in the sole of the foot.
About one in 10 people suffer from Plantar Fasciitis. Healing Sole’s raised toe lift, neoprene straps, compressible heels and rocker bottom soles all serve to improve the foot’s ability to recover.
There are approximately 40 patients participating in a clinical trial, which will allow Warner to market the shoes as “clinically proven,” she said, but the shoes are already available for sale online at thehealingsole.com.
Clinical trial results should come in at the end of this month. Until then, Warner said she is focusing on the positive feedback she receives from patients.
“It seems to be pretty effective so far,” Warner said. “I’ve gotten really good feedback — better than I expected actually — from the patients, which makes me pretty happy.”
Warner said she hopes the company will help customers “treat themselves” in a field that she sees moving more toward consumer-driven health care.
Patients will have more say in the decisions in their medical management in the future, Warner said, and she hopes her shoes will help people along that path.
“It’s designed for that purpose. It’s designed to let the body naturally heal itself,” Warner said. “It takes pressure off the appropriate points so your body can naturally recover from whatever you do during the day.”
Warner said she hopes to offer different styles of shoes with the same benefits to her patients.
“This is just the first version,” Warner said. “Hopefully I’ll be able to make some type of toe shoe, but I wanted to start with flip-flops so people with foot problems can wear flip-flops and not worry about it.”

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The Healing Sole