These Pants Are Actually Supportive Braces For Your Knees

This is the story of three friends—an engineer, a kinesiologist and an Olympic gymnast—coming together to change the game in orthopaedic braces.

Orthopaedic braces isn’t the sexiest term, but the solution to what is currently on offer, could just be.

Zack Eberwein, Cam Massullo and Scott Morgan pooled their skills and collective passion to create their own start up, Embrace Orthopaedics. Together, they have created athletic tights that are actually supportive knee braces, a revolutionary idea that the three conjured up after being completely fed up with the options in the market.

“In 1967 the first knee brace was made, and it had two hinges and straps to hold those hinges to the side of your leg. That’s exactly the same as what you can buy today. It just doesn’t make any sense,” CEO Zack Eberwein said.

It means that for over 50 years, bracing technology hasn’t changed. And for three guys who themselves have knee and joint issues, it was a problem that needed another solution.

“I’ve been told I need to wear a brace when I do activity. I don’t because I just don’t like it, and it’s just not comfortable,” Cam said.

“People do activity because they enjoy it, and if you’re strapping something on your body that stops you from enjoying that experience, what’s the point?” Scott added.

Scott should know, he’s competed for Canada in both the 2016 Rio Olympics, and the Commonwealth Games in both 2014 and 2018, and has had both shoulder and knee injuries.

“I think we all share the value of being able to directly help someone, especially someone that’s been in a situation that we’ve been in. I never want another athlete or an individual to experience something that they truly love, with pain. I went through 2.5 years of the worst training and pain of my life.”

The pants work by using a flexible support network built directly into the garment. It mimics the musculature and ligaments that are already used by the body to support itself and pull them into alignment.

“It allows us to actually provide more support while increasing comfort and mobility for the user, as well as integrating it directly into the clothing they already wear,” Zack said.

Starting the company has been a whirlwind for the team, who admits there’s been a lot of learning curves.

“I’m really proud of what we do as a team, because we’ve actually built something from nothing, and it’s from the ground up…. To say that we’re proud of what we’ve done I think would be an understatement,” Cam said.

To quote Embrace Orthopaedics’ CEO: “If you’re doing what you love, take risks. It’s okay to be uncomfortable but just work bloody hard… I think that’s the biggest thing.”

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