Ankle Roll Guard is a new, patent protected orthopedic product. The Ankle Roll Guard Armor1 provides an individual protection from “rolling” or spraining their ankle via a lightweight buttress on the lateral aspect of their shoe. This design prevents the ankle from rolling or inverting past 30 degrees, postures where injury is reported to occur, without placing mechanical restriction on the joint. This key innovation allows the user a natural, unrestricted ankle range of motion without compromising the product’s injury protection. Existing prophylactic products, however, provide ankle stability via mechanical restriction to the joint. While these prophylactic products are somewhat effective at preventing injury, the mechanical restriction impairs joint motion, often leading to the development of long-term ankle ailments. The Ankle Roll Guard, however, provides a critical solution to this issue. The product’s design allows the user protection from injury without the mechanical restriction of existing prophylactic products. Yet, because the Ankle Roll Guard is completely new, data regarding the product’s effectiveness is limited to anecdotal evidence provided by users. To target new consumers and stimulate company growth, Ankle Roll Guard needs independent scientific testing to validate the product’s effectiveness. With that in mind, researchers in Boise State University’s Center for Orthopaedic and Biomechanics sought to quantify and improve the Ankle Roll Guard’s effectiveness. Specifically, this effort quantified the effectiveness of the Ankle Roll Guard to prevent ankle inversion and compare its effectiveness with existing prophylactic products, including external brace, athletic tape and unbraced, control ankle, during a sudden inversion event and a battery of functional tasks. The experimental outcomes provided herein by Boise State researchers demonstrate the Ankle Roll Guard may prevent excessive ankle inversion, but not as effectively as “more” restrictive ankle prophylactics (in particular, Brace and Tape). Yet the Ankle Roll Guard’s design may provide mechanical stability necessary to prevent ankle sprain, without the deleterious impact on the user’s knee joint and functional performance routinely seen when wearing the more restrictive ankle prophylactics
