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Stop ankle sprains & prevent absenteeism with the EXO-L Ankle brace

The newest innovation to prevent ankle injuries, based on the human body, developed in collaboration with the Delft University of Technology and the Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam.

Ankle sprains are a frequent injury at work in both indoor- as outdoor activities. According to arbo-online.nl 50% of the ankle sprains occur at work. In the Netherlands only this leads to 300.000 reported ankle sprains per year. These are only the ones reported to a medical expert, which means that the actual amount of sprains per year is estimated to be much higher.    Because of this an ankle sprains is (in bigger companies) part of the top 3 reasons of absenteeism and leads to high costs for employers. Furthermore an ankle sprain has a huge impact on the work- and private-life of the employee.

The EXO-L is a safety belt for your ankles which is connected to a comfortable low work shoe. 
The EXO-L only blocks your ankle when you are about to sprain your ankles, which brings optimal protection without compromising the needed freedom of movement during work. This how employees can fully focus on their work. The EXO-L is custom made, hyper modern and made with 3D-scan and 3D-print technologies. EXO-L is an effective aid to reduce absence and it promotes safety within your organization.

A huge risk

Ankle sprains easily happen. There are a lot of reasons and obstacles which lead to injury of the ankle. Examples of those are:

  • Uneven surfaces like sand and rocks

  • Height differences like kerbs, stairs and slopes

  • Physical exhaustion

  • Poor sight during evening/night shifts


The same  EXO-L's can be used during both work as well as sport-activities
Because of the unique working principle of the EXO-L, you will still have all the freedom of movement needed.. Only when you are in danger of spraining your ankles, the cord of the EXO-L will block the movement and will give effective protection to prevent injuries.  Since the EXO-L will only block when needed, a high level of comfort could be reached. Every low-cut shoe could be used for the EXO-L. The special attachment feature could be connected to both low safety shoes as well as sport shoes. In this way users are also protected during sport activities after work hours. An employee which stays fit and healthy after work will also be stronger and more active during work!

Custom made

The EXO-L Anklebrace is custom made for a perfect fit with the help of 3D-scanning technology. An innovative 3D-print technology is used to produce the EXO-L. Both technologies make sure the EXO-L has a perfect fit to the user's ankle. Users can decide themselves how their EXO-Ls should look by choosing a colour and engraving or company logo.
 

Results user research

There is not a lot of scientific research on preventing sprains at work. There is a lot of research carried out in the field of sports. Also at EXO-L they collected a lot of data about the use of the EXO-L during sports-activities. Thousands of athletes are using the EXO-L already for a couple of years. The collected data from this group shows that the EXO-L works better than other alternatives. From scientific research it can be concluded that 2.9 people sprain their ankle in 1000 hours of sports, without extra protection. With different types of braces this number is decreased to 1.8 ankle sprains per 1000 hours of sports. With the EXO-L this number is even decreased more to 0.2 ankle sprains per 1000 hours of sports. This means that the EXO-L gives 15 times more protection. In extreme cases, in which an user sprained his/her ankles with the EXO-L, worse injuries and big damage have been prevented.

Research does not show a clear result about high safety shoes. Some reseaches show a small positive effect, while other researches show no or even a small negative effect in ankle sprain prevention by wearing hig cut shoes. Therefore it can be believed that high cut shoes give less protection to the ankles in comparisson to braces.

The EXO-L Anklebrace is already used by companies like BAM, Strukton Rail and VolkerWessels.

The product characteristics of the EXO-L:

  • Protects against 95% of all ankle sprains
    (compared to braces and high cut shoes which protect against a maximum of 50% of the ankle sprains)

  • This prevents absenteeism (at a lot of companies ankle sprains are in top 3 of absenteeism reasons

  • Preserving maximum freedom of movement

  • Can be used with all different brands of safety shoes according to preference of the employee

  • Maximum comfort because of 3D-scan and 3D-print technology

  • Motivates sport and other activities after work hours