Z-CoiL Footwear Franchise Overview

About Z-CoiL Footwear

The Z-CoiL Pain Relief Footwear retail franchise is notable both for its unique line of products and for its unusual business model. Unlike any other footwear on the market, Z-CoiL shoes are engineered specifically to relieve foot, leg, and back pain. Those who lease a Z-CoiL franchise find the business of helping people in pain not only to be financially promising, but also personally rewarding. The Z-CoiL franchise also offers entrepreneurs considerable freedom and flexibility in the way they choose to run their business.

Franchise History

In the early 1980s Alvaro Z. Gallegos was running an average of seven miles a day. He suffered all the typical injuries associated with running – heel spurs, plantar fasciitis, knee trouble, hip pain, and back pain. And although he owned a shoe store at the time and had access to all types of running shoes, he was unable to find a shoe that eased his pain.
One of Al’s Early Experimental Shoes

Realizing that the source of his pain was impact, Al reasoned that putting a “shock-absorber” in the heel of his shoe would reduce the force of impact. And as an added benefit, a spring would provide some form of energy return, to help him run faster and farther.

Al experimented with a variety of springs before finding one that worked best: a three-inch-wide conical steel coil. He then had a local butcher cut open the soles of his shoes and he glued in the springs. He was amazed at the result. “I went out for a run,” he says, “and it was glorious.” Not only did the shoes feel good, but they also seemed to protect him from his usual running injuries. Over the next few years, as friends and family began asking Al to add coils to their shoes to ease their aching feet, he began to think seriously of mass-producing his springy shoes.

But shoe manufacturers were not interested. Some just laughed at his idea. Time after time Al was turned away and told that his shoe would be impossible to make.