German educated George Alzner was one of the first to recognise that, for most people, custom-made orthotics were not working satisfactorily. During the 1950’s he migrated to Canada and developed two new concepts for orthotics, both of which are key to why the Step Flex orthotics are so effective. These are discussed elsewhere on this site.
In 1974 the Alzner concept went into commercial production, under Step Forward and other brands, sold mostly in USA & Canada with great success. In 2004 Mark & Vida Vogt, based in Melbourne AU, became the national distributor of Step Forward for Australia. After rapid acceptance by Autralians, they expanded their distribution to New Zealand and then to many European countries.
During the business hiatus caused by covid restrictions, they partnered with their German distributor to establish production of Alzner-design orthotics in Germany. This opportunity allowed some minor improvements to the design, and much better control of quality and logistics. The material used to make the orthotics is absolutely the same as before, giving perfect performance in function and longevity. The change allowed and required a change of brand, from Step Forward to Step Flex.