Okemos - Campus athletes, MSU alumnus Dr. Graham Kelly wants you to wear tighter socks.
Not a smaller-sized sock, but a pair of the Lansing physician’s new G Fit Oxysox. His new sock is designed to increase blood circulation in the feet, which he says allows an individual to run faster and jump higher.
The idea has been used by physicians for some time in treating patients with poor circulation and patients after injuries. But Kelly’s socks, which sell for $20 a pair, have become quite popular among the general public as well as in the athletic world.
The Detroit Lions, Detroit Pistons, Detroit Red Wings and Kansas City Chiefs all have bought the socks and the NHL has looked into making the sock the official sock of the league, G Fit spokesman Bill Kennis said.
And Kennis said he’s still pursuing others, including Michael Jordan.
“You know Michael’s out now,” he said. “So that was why we were going after him.”
The sock has begun to sell well in the general public. Playmakers Athletic Footwear & Apparel, in Meridian Mall in Okemos, has begun selling the sock, and despite its specialized nature, it has sold among amateur athletes.
“What they’ve found at Playmakers is that the average walker derives benefit and wants this,” Kennis said. “I guess the less in shape you are the more benefit you gain from it.”
The sock works by putting pressure, in the form of tightness, on the end of the foot, gradually loosening up farther up the length of the sock.
That pressure is designed to help blood as it fights gravity out of the leg.
“When people put it on they do perceive tightness,” Kelly said. “And that’s intended to be there. That tightness translates into increased blood velocity out of the leg.”
Kelly developed the idea while working with patients with vein disease. The sock traditionally had been used with those patients.
But Kelly decided others might benefit as well.
“In the process of watching people (wear compression socks to help treat vein disease) and improve so much we began to think that healthy people might benefit,” he said.
The tightness has pushed away some users, but not many, the Playmakers staff said.
Employees tested the sock themselves before the store began selling them. Employee Jared Aldrich said only one fellow employee said he didn’t like the fit.
But Aldrich said he had no such problem.
“I wore them working like eight to 10 hours working at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, we’re doing quite a bit of construction over there,” said Aldrich, a parks and recreation junior. “The legs felt a little more refreshed, that’s about the only thing I noticed.”
And the staff has recommended them to customers.
“Especially if they have more problems with their feet or definitely have problems with their legs or they’re on their feet a lot,” Aldrich said.
