The Foot and the Sword

The Problem:

“They can put a man on the moon, but they can’t make a decent foot?” In the 1970s, prosthetic feet had terrible functionality. Still made from wood, they were only a small step up from a peg leg.

The Insight:

Function, not looks. What if we made it function like a foot, vs. trying to make it look like a foot?

The Idea:

The Flex-Foot. Van Phillips invented the “cheetah” prosthetic, designed to mirror, if not improve upon, the performance of a human foot. It was inspired by a diving board, a cheetah’s foot, and an ancient Chinese sword. The final design, the Flex-Foot, changed everything about prosthetics, how we think of them, and what an amputee can do with them.

Source: A More Beautiful Question